Happy 1st Birthday Baby!

Amanda turned 1 on Thursday January 17, 2008. I can't believe my baby is 1 already! The first three months went by SOOOOOOO slow (probably because I was learning what to do), but after that we definitely cruised through the next 9 months no problem.

Thursday a gift from her aunts in Illinois arrived. I decided since it was her birthday I'd let her open it. She had fun finding what was inside :) She got a fridge magnet set which has been so much fun (more on that later)!

Saturday was her "official" party. As I was getting ready, I stubbed my toe on her baby swing (still sitting in the living room), and I'm pretty sure I broke my pinky toe. So when everyone arrived I was icing it :( Nevertheless, we had a good time. We did make-your-own pizzas in honor of Amanda's love of pizza. Everyone put the toppings they wanted on, and my little sister was in charge of the oven and cooking each one.

Then we did presents. First, from Aunt Ilene, a Build-a-Bear that she LOVED. It even sings a special happy birthday song to her, and she wants this bunny with her ALL.THE.TIME. now. It's weird how vehemently she has bonded to this bunny!

Amanda also got a lot of clothes, the most memorable was this shirt ("My Dad is the MAN"):

The biggest gift was the Discovery Dome from my parents. Her cousin Zach had this in Illinois and she LOVED it. So now she has it at home to play with! Notice how she's always looking off to her left? My nephew was sitting over there playing with her toys. She seemed more interested in him than in her gifts at times!

Then we did cupcakes. As I'm sure most 1 year-olds do, she LOVED her cupcake!! She took one taste of frosting, and then she was off! She devoured her cupcake more quickly than I've seen her eat anything else! Here's a few pictures of that:

Here's a picture of the cupcakes that were left after everyone had one:

That night I set up the magnets on the fridge, and Amanda had so much fun!

Other than that, it's been business as usual around here. Mike's working late a lot as they get to the end of the video game he's working on, so most nights it's me and Amanda. She got a book from Mimi called "first 100 words" with these big bright pictures of things like "Yellow Duck" and "Blue Shoes". She has taken an interest in this and loves to point at things and listen to me say them. She sometimes imitates the sound if it's easy enough. I think we're right on the verge of hearing her first words (other than the obligatory 'Uh-oh' that she currently uses every time she drops something). It's just a matter of time!