A Year in Review - Dylan Kathleen

(Here's a little preview of Dylan's 1 year pics...I took them myself!  More to come in another blog.)

It's time to summarize my baby girl's first year, just as I have done with both boys after they turned one.  I cannot believe one year of her life has passed.  I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital.  It seriously breaks my heart to see her grow up.  I honestly want her to stay this age forever!  I know that sounds pathetic but I just love her so much and I never want to let her go....ever! 

In getting her stats for this post, I had to look back at all the blogs I have done this past year and I got to take a little trip down memory lane.  I had so much fun looking at all the old photos and videos.  We've had such an amazing year.  Every day has been such a blessing and a its been a true privilege to be her mom.  She has brought me and our family immeasurable joy.  Christian and I always say how happy we are that we got our girl and what an amazing addition she has been to our little family. We could never imagine a life without our little princess.  So here is her first year of life in a nutshell...

Growth Chart...
Birth - 7.12 lbs / 19.5 inches
1 Month - 10.12 lbs (90%) / 21.75 inches (90%)
2 Months - 12.15 lbs (75%) / 23.75 inches (90%)
4 Months - 15.5 lbs (90%) / 25.5 inches (90%)
6 Months - 17 lbs (70%) / 27.25 inches (95%)
9 Months - 20 lbs (75%) / 29.25 inches (90%)
12 Months - 22.7 lbs (95%) / 30 inches (95%)

Now that Dylan is eating like a little piggy, she's staying solid in the 95th percentile.  The girl loves her food!  For a little comparison...at age one, Jack was 27.13 lbs and Gavin was 24.3 lbs.

Milestones...
1st Smile - 5 Weeks
Slept Through the Night - 10 Weeks
1st Laugh - 12 Weeks
Solids - 5 Months
Roller Over - 5 1/2 Months
1st Plane Ride - 6 months
1st Tooth - 7 Months
Sat Up - 7 Months
Finger Foods - 8 Months
1st Word - 8 Months
Crawled - 8 1/2 Months
Pulled Up - 9 Months
Stood on Own - 10 1/2 months
1st Steps - 11 months
Walked - 12 months, 1 week

First Words...
Dylan actually blows me away with how many words she already says.  She's up to 20!  The first 10 or so are in order, after that I did the best I could to remember...
1. Dada
2. Mama
3. Jack
4. Bye-Bye
5. Roll
6. Papa
7. Elmo
8. Book
9. Birdie
10. Up
11. Ducky
12. Uh-Oh
13. Ball
14. Bubbles
15. Hot
16. Belly Button
17. Gavin
18. Hi
19. Night-Night
20. Princess

At this age, Jack said 8 words and Gavin said 13.  So my little girl is kicking their intellectual butts! 

First Sentences...
Dylan said her first 2 sentences last week!  In all fairness, this shouldn't really go in this post because it's supposed to be her 12 month round up and she's already 13 months.  But I thought it's definitely worth mentioning that she said her first sentences at 13 months!
1. "Hi Dada" - she actually says Hi to everyone...Hi Mama, Hi Jack, Hi Gavin, Hi Papa.  It's adorable! She just hasn't said Mimi yet which kills my mom.
2. "Happy Birthday" - I thought I heard her say it on Jack's actual birthday 2 weeks ago but I couldn't believe it.  But then on Saturday after we sang happy birthday to Jack at his party, she kept saying Hap Birday, Hap Birday. She's quite the genius!

So there you have, Lady D's first year in review.  I hope you've enjoyed watching her grow as much as I have!  So excited to see what the next year has in store!

Jack is 5!

My first born baby turned five yesterday!  I can't believe I just wrote that.  Five is a huge milestone birthday.  To me it signifies the end of the little kid years and the beginning of the big kid years.  It's crazy that he's all grown up and ready to start elementary school.  I have enjoyed him so much since he was born and being his mom has always been an amazing blessing.  I mean, he really is the best kid.  He's so bright, kind, sweet, funny, talented, compassionate, inquisitive and loyal. 

He wakes up every day in a great mood and is always ready to make the most of his day.  I love that about him.  He just loves life and he loves to have fun.  He's never met a stranger and has a knack for telling great stories....and asking a LOT of questions. He does have a bit of a mouth on him and is constantly challenging our authority.  It's definitely a power struggle with him on a daily basis but I do think that his inquisitive mind and confidence will take him far in life. I'm still thinking he's either going to be an attorney or an architect.  But he now says he wants to be a police man.  Whatever makes him happy!

He is a fabulous brother to his little bro and sis.  They are so lucky to have him as their older brother.  He's very mature for his age and is always a rule follower so I know he will always watch over them, especially Dylan.  The two of them really have a special bond.  I'm just super excited to watch him grow more.  I know he's going to love school and really develop as a great young man.  I honestly could go on and on but I will stop now.

We let Jack decide what he wanted to do for his big day!  First he opened our presents the minute he woke up.  Then it was brunch at IHOP (cheap date), followed by a few hours at Jumpin Jammin, his fave place.  He was so excited to bring his dad there, he's been wanting to take him there for a year now.  After that we came home, played with all his new toys then had the dinner of his choice...chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries and apples.  Finally it was a cupcake for dessert and getting to sleep in our bed.  He said he had the best day ever!  But the celebration will continue into next weekend when all his friends and family come over for a pool party.  He's definitely a lucky kid.

Unfortunately our car broke down right before we got to IHOP so I was a little distracted during brunch and didn't take pictures of his pancakes with 4 different types of jelly.  But I did get a few gems from the rest of the day...

After breakfast the boys were so excited to go to Jumpin Jammin....well, at least the boys were.  Dylan looks less than thrilled...

She was, however, beyond excited to be facing forward in her car seat.  Now before anyone judges, remember my car broke down so we had to put all the car seats in Christian's car and this is the only way they would fit.  We HAD to make it to Jumpin Jammin or Jack would have been heart broken, so we just made it work...

 

Jack seriously loves this place!  It's just pure chaos...

Gav and Dylan had fun too!

Daddy loved as much as the kids!  He played with the boys for 2 hours and was sweating buckets when we left.  He's such a kid at heart...

 

 

 

All my sweaty boys...

 

Birthday cupcake for my 5 year old!  He'll be getting a much bigger cake for his party next week.....

And finally, at 8:21 pm, our 5th Annual Mommy and Jack picture.  Love my handsome little guy!

Princess Parties!

Our sweet little princess had not one, but two parties to celebrate her 1st Birthday!  We felt that a huge bash would have been expensive and overwhelming for our sweetie pie so we opted to keep it small and simple.  As her big day approached I started to feel guilty for not throwing her a big party but what we did actually turned out to be really great.  With two small gatherings everyone was able to really celebrate with the birthday girl and spend some time with her.  And Christian and I were definitely less stressed!

First up was a play date with all of her besties and a few more friends.  There were 13 kiddos in all and they had so much fun just playing, eating pizza and noshing on cupcakes.  The following weekend we had a small family party with just my immediate family, all 20 of us!  Dylan is so fortunate to have such a large and loving family to be with her for these milestones.  It was really sweet and simple and everyone had a great time being together.  Dylan loves hanging out with her cousins so she was in the best mood that day.  And we saved the smash cake for this one so Dylan was in hog heaven with all of that frosting!  She was literally double fisted, shoving it in her face.

Dylan had a blast at both of her parties which was all I really wanted.  She can be a bit introverted with crowds so I'm glad that we kept things intimate for her.  But she was so fun and happy for most of each party which was awesome.  I know she won't remember but I have tons of pictures and videos to show her when she gets older. Of course both parties were over-the-top princess-themed....fitting four our little Lady D!  It really was the perfect way to celebrate our girl's birthday.  Here are a ton of pictures of both parties, minus the captions...

Princess Party Play Date...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Family Princess Party...