What a difference 365 days makes!

Today is Abby's birthday! All day we've been playing the "what were we doing at this time last year?" game. I just can't believe it's been an entire year. It doesn't feel like it's been that long.

We had a party with her friends on the 19th, and then we did a family party on the 24th so Aunt Kelli & Uncle Kyle could be there--they left Christmas afternoon to go to Kelli's parents' place and won't be back till January. Even after all that present opening she still doesn't really get the concept--we'd end up unwrapping everything and trying to get her to take some interest in it when all she really wanted to do was play with the gift bags or scraps of wrapping paper. Figures, eh?

In the last few days she's really turned a corner with her eating and sleeping. Two days in a row she went to sleep in the house instead of needing to be driven around in the car. Three days in a row she's actually let me feed her, and she's eating 1.5-2 jars of food at every meal. (Although she just now ate FOUR jars for dinner!) And for the last couple weeks she's been sleeping for 1-1.5 hours at naptime, which is a welcome improvement from the half-hour to forty-five minute naps she's been taking for months. And the other night she slept for seven straight hours before waking to eat! A dream come true! 'Course she didn't do that the next two nights, but who knows, maybe she's slowly turning towards that. (Please, God, let her be turning towards that!)

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Enjoy!


Her first kilt, courtesy of our Scottish relatives (who had a grandson born on the same day as Abby last year!). She wore this on Christmas Eve.


She's been so good with the tree--she got the concept of being gentle with the ornaments, although she really liked taking them off, too. Then one day she started trying to put them back on. Adorable!


"So what's the deal with this unwrapping thing again?"


Abby's first cake! I'd tried to make some oatmeal apple muffins instead because I really didn't want her having the sugar of a cake, but they didn't turn out and I ended up having to run to the store the morning of the party to get a cake. Turns out she only stuck her fingers in her mouth once and wasn't at all pleased with the taste--thank you, God!