Caroline Isabella Spead turned ONE year old today. How it is possible we have a one year old?? This year flew by.

It was a fantastic day. She celebrated in style with us (her parents, who both were home that day), Kay, Kay, and Pa.

We started off the morning right: with a balloon drop into her crib! (Special thanks to Pa for blowing up each and every balloon the night before. A truly amazing feat!)

As soon as we heard some squeaks coming from her room, we brought in the bag of balloons, hit play on the Disney Splash Dance special version of “Happy Birthday,” and entered. We then shook all the balloons onto her.

Balloon drop success!

She LOVED the balloons in her crib.

This face just says, “O…M…G…look what I get on my birthday! In my crib!”

We celebrated her in style, by playing downstairs in her playroom, letting her take a solid nap, and then going to lunch at the Del Ray Cafe (where she was greeted with a ‘Bon Anniversaire, mademoiselle!’ by the French waiter) where she ate her weight in baby pouches and fresh baguettes. Afterwards, Caroline, Kay Kay and I ran errands for her birthday party on Saturday. She may have fallen asleep in the car (and snored) while I ran into both Costco and Target. Celebrating your birthday is hard work, I tell you!

One of our stops included Michael’s, where Kay Kay pointed out this hat to Sugar Bear:

Later that night, we served chicken pot pie in honor of our Pi Day baby. Afterwards, we stuck a candle in a banana (one of her very favorites) and sang happy birthday to our favorite little girl. She really wanted to grab the flame on the candle but thankfully, we were a tad bit quicker than her 😉

She has already received countless gifts in the mail from sweet friends and relatives. This is one VERY lucky little girl!

Here is a snapshot of Caroline at 12 months:

• We have a much more confident walker–although she still insists on holding at least one (preferably two) of our hands when she is using her baby legs. The biggest improvement has been in her confidence climbing steps–stairs in our house and the steps on the on the playground equipment at the park by our house. She still doesn’t like to stand independently and will still just sit down and start crawling when she is sick of ‘walking’ but it seems less and less frequent.
• Verbally, she is copying more and more sounds that we make–we hear a lot of “ah, yeah!” and “ba, ba, BA!” and even sometimes “ma ma” and “da da.” Often these sound are accompanied by drastic head bobs or shakes.
• She still loves, loves, loves, her Baloo bear, now re-named Pooh (since he will be a featured attraction at her Pooh Bear themed birthday party). She will throw herself on him and snuggle. It is the cutest thing.
• She has become quite adamant when she does or does not want something. This includes her pacifier, her water cup, the sweet potato Puffs we stupidly introduced her to, and anything on the changing table that is a contraband item.
• She still loves her bath like crazy. Even when it gets cold., she doesn’t seem to mind one bit. She doesn’t care when I dump cup after cup of water on her head as long as she can drink the bubbles and squeeze the bath toys. She has also started to like putting bath toys into the water cup, dumping them out, and doing it all over again.
• We are at the tail end of nursing. It’s been a great journey and Caroline has transitioned without problem to drinking whole milk. She’s a champ.

Happy 12 months, Sugar Bear!