12 Month Check Up

Took Moya for her one year check up. So far it was her most traumatic trip to the doctor. She didn't get enough sleep last night and I had to wake her for her appointment this morning. She was grumping through the entire thing. Then she finally starts to smile again and here comes the nurse with 3 shots for her! :( She cried all the way to the car! She's asleep now and recovering. Hopefully a better afternoon awaits her.

Other then the trauma she got a clean bill of health!

"Pizza!" ... and an untrustworthy mommy.

When Belle was little she saw Emeril walk onto his show and yell "Pizza!" and put his arms up. She liked it and instantly did it. It became a sorta inside joke whenever we wanted her to put her arms up we'd say "pizza!"

So Brad was teaching Moya to do the same. She picked it up easily. However mommy is a bit of a stinker and tickles her whenever she does it. So now she has learned not to do it if Mommy is around. Whenever you yell "Pizza!" now she'll start to do it but look around for me. :) I'm so mean.

Another Tooth! (number 12)

This one has been hovering under the gum for awhile now but finally broke free. Now she's got a full set of chewing teeth!

Moya's Cell Phone

Moya loves her cell phone! But she is very.... aggressive in her phone conversations. It's hilarious and cute to watch. She shoves it into her mouth/face and yells into it. It is both funny and slightly frightening to watch.

Birthday Letter (Year 1)

Dear Moya,

Today is your birthday. This year has gone so very very fast. But I have loved getting to know you and watching you grow. First let me apologize, I wanted so badly to do for your birthday what we did for your sister's first birthday. I had hoped to rent a beach house and have you surrounded by family. Unfortunately both daddy and I lost our jobs recently so money became an issue. :( But I hope you know that even if we couldn't do a huge shindig for you this year that we wanted to and we tried our best to make it special for you. And I promise to make it up to you. :)

However as far as you were concerned you seemed to be having a great day today! You really LOVE your decorations. You keep pointing at them and smiling and saying "Dat!" and then looking to us as if to share it with us.

We took you to a pizza place called Flying Saucer Pizza. You brought your own food but tried ours and of course loved everything. We then had to stop by target to buy you a new booster seat because the tray on your's broke (actually you broke it with your super strength). :)

Next we went home and did the cake tradition which was so fun to watch! You got into it and were a wonderful wonderful mess! I think you were just so amazed to have freedom to just go to town on your food. You got cake everywhere and were not happy when I made you get clean.

We opened some presents which you liked but liked the wrapping paper more. So far you got stacking cups for the bath which you loved, a pooh-bear from Gaga, and a Jack Skellington from your sister. You also got a fun towel and a key board. You have more presents yet to open. As I am writing this you are taking a nap.... to much excitement and cake. :)

As fast as this year has gone you have learned and grown so much. You may not be talking yet but I feel I know you well already. The first thing I think about when I think of my Moya is your amazing smile and laugh. You are a crazily happy baby. Your smile just envelops your entire face and your laugh is just heartwarming. You smile all the time and even have a little bouncy happy dance you do. You smile at just about anything but if we really want to get an easy smile out of you we just have Belle say hi to you. You LOVE your sister. I hope that you two only grow closer as you get older.

You also I should note love food. Your sister has never had much love for food so it was weird at first having a kid who loves it so much. You'll try anything and there is very little you don't like. It's nice to have a baby foody in the house. But it can be a challenge too. No one can really eat in front of you without you having a fit for what they have. Belle has been really sweet with sharing her cookies with you in the car and feeding you your little puffs you like. But if one of us is holding you and eating something we have to watch out or you will grab it! So far the only thing you don't like is juice and avocado you're so-so about. I have made all your baby food since you were 6 months old and you love to be in the kitchen while I cook it. After it is mushed up I would always give you little tastes tests. And on Christmas you got to try all the cookies I made! I joke that you must be Julia Child reincarnated. We'll see if your love for food continues.

This year you have learned to sit, to roll, you are starting to try and crawl... kinda do this inch worm crawl thing... and you can stand while holding on to someone for awhile. You are trying so hard to talk like I mentioned, and are starting to show preferences for toys and songs. But mostly you are just a joy to be around. You are so friendly to everyone. Taking you to the store is hilarious, you just smile and wave at everyone you see. It's like you are a politician running for office!

I hope you have had a good first year of life. I know I have just loved getting to know you. I love our times together this year playing, cooking, and our play times in the bath. Oh you love your baths now. You hated them as a new born but they are your favorite time of the day now. You grew out of your baby bathtub and now have a little seat you sit in in the tub. Sometimes I get in with you and we play with toys, blow bubbles, splash, and play peak-a-boo with your puppy dog finger puppet you got for Christmas. I love this time with you so very much. I love washing your hair and putting the soap bubbles on my nose and you pointing at it and wiping it off. I love seeing you play with your cups and the bath books which you love. It is just you and me time with no distractions.

This next year will be another big one for you. This year you will learn to walk and talk better. You'll probably grow more teeth, and your amazing hair will undoubtedly get longer. Oh I should talk about your hair and eyes for a moment. Your hair is a light brown like your Daddy's. You had a ton of it at birth, more then Belle did even, but instead of it just growing longer it kinda stopped but then you had all this new hair come in under it. So you have short hair but loads of it! It also has a bit of a curl to it which is so cute. It reminds me of the 1920s popular hair styles for women. Your eyes are really unique. I still can't decide what color to call them. Sometimes they look very green like your Daddy's, sometimes they look like a gray blue. Gaga calls them mood eyes. Typically they are kinda a hazel color. They remind me of the Pacific Ocean. Whatever color you want to call them they are lovely. :) All and all you look more like your Daddy but I see a little of me in there too. You also look some like your sister of course. But mostly you are just my beautiful Moya.

The past 3 months I have been lucky enough to be home with you. As I mentioned I lost my job, which that isn't a good thing but the up side is I got to speed more time with you. You and your sister are the entire world to me. I miss you so much when I'm not with you two so having this extra time with you, while stressful financially was a blessing still. I hope you always know that no matter what your mother loves you more then there are stars in the sky. That there is nothing I wouldn't do for you and that I will always be there for you. Your Daddy and I worship the ground you crawl on and everything we do we do for you and Belle. I love you with all my heart. I know I will make mistakes raising you. I'll yell at you when I shouldn't, I'll say the wrong things, I may even turn my back at the wrong time resulting in you getting a boo-boo. But I promise you that I will always do my best, will always say sorry when I mess up, will always have your best interests at heart, and will always kiss any ouchy you have.

I love you Moya Grace. Happy birthday my sweet and many MANY MANY MANY more happy returns.

Now I'm going to go give you a kiss.

Love,

Mommy

1st Birthday

I feel bad we couldn't do more for Moya's first birthday. But with both Daddy and I being unemployed we did the best we could. Still I think Moya had a good time. She LOVED her balloons and decorations. I brought home the balloons and she pointed at them and said said "Dat!" which we think means "that." She wanted to grab them and hit them, which we let her do a lot.

We all then went to Flying Saucer Pizza for lunch. Moya had her own food but we let her taste what we got. We then went home for cake and presents. She didn't know what to make of her cake. She picked at it and seemed to have more fun mushing it into the table! Her method of eating it was to smear it on the back of the paper plate and then lick the plate. Got the job done I guess. :)

She got a lot of good presents too, but was very upset whenever we'd try and take the used wrapping paper away.

All in all it was a nice birthday. Hopefully next year we can afford to take her down to California and be with family for her birthday.

I just can't believe my baby is 1!!!!! She is such a happy wonderful baby. I can't wait to see what this year brings for her. Love you MoMo!!!

More Teeth! (number 11)

More teeth! Another top one broke through. She also has another big one coming in on the bottom but it hasn't broken out yet.

'Uh-Oh!' and Trying to Talk

Moya is trying very hard to talk to us now. She does the, what I call, purposeful baby chatter. Where she is making word like noises with inflections that mimic ours. It's very cute. And she is very good at it. She also is starting to get some noises that sound pretty close to real words.

Her best 'sentence' is "uh-oh" which she actually says perfectly! She also knows WHEN to say it and enjoys throwing things on the floor at meal time in order to have an excuse to use her knew phrase.

Other words include:

"Dat!" which we think means "that". This is kinda her catch all word for anything she is pointing at. She will point and yell "Dat!" Tonight she was doing it at the streamers Belle and I had hang for her birthday tomorrow. She smiled and pointed and say "Dat!" almost as if to say "hey how cool is that?" She was obviously wanting to shaire her opinion of the decorations with us.

"buba buba" which translates to "bubbles". This she uses in the bath when I blow bubbles for her.

She also I swear said "Tad" this morning. We have this doll called Baby Tad. It is the frog from the Leap Frog series of cartoons and learning gear for kids. Anyway it plays music and sings when you press one of the buttons on it's belly. We have it on her changing table to distract her while she gets changed. This morning when she woke up she pointed towards the changing table and said "Tad".

Speaking of Tad, she also is starting to sing along with him! Each of the different buttons plays a different song. It will say "That's the yellow star" and then proceed to play 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' for example. Well Moya knows which button plays which song and for each she will start singing it's song once she hears which button is pushed. For 'Twinkle Twinkle' she makes this cute "Ha wa wa wa" sound whic matches the "... how I wonder what you are." part of the song. For 'Ba Ba Black Sheep' she starts going "Ba ba ba..." and for "Oh Where Oh Where Has my Little Dog Gone" she starts to growl. :)

I love this age. I love hearing her little voice and her trying to figure out this talking thing.

Where's Belle?

Moya and I had gone downstairs to ask Gaga something. I'm standing in the hallway down there talking to Gaga and Moya is almost lunging out of my arms leaning towards the family room and pointing and saying "Sissy? Sissy?" Finally it dawned on me that she was looking for Belle! She knew Belle wasn't upstairs so she thought she might be playing in the family room. I took her in and showed her she wasn't there. I told her Belle was at school. After she saw she wasn't there she stopped pointing and calling for her.

Belle got home after 3 and Moya was so happy and bouncing to see her.

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome 2010! Moya actually stayed up till midnight but was not happy about it. We didn't keep her up on purpose but with all the noise she just ended up being awake. She was SOOO ready for bed after the celebration however.

It being a decade change it made me think about when we switch over to 2020. Moya will be almost 11 and in 6th grade and Belle will be almost 17 and a Junior in High school! Keeping this in the back of my mind somehow makes me try to enjoy and slow down the day to day... I don't want to miss a second of any of these girls' lives.