Lucy at one

Her 12 month appointment isn't until Friday, which was the closest date to her birthday that I could get an appointment with our favorite doctor.  It works out nicely, though, since Dave and I are both off for Good Friday (it makes perfect sense why a Catholic high school is closed but as for me...I'm not quite sure why we're closed but I'm certainly not questioning it!)
GranJan is my lovely assistant when it comes to Portrait Innovations shoots and I know I could not do it without her...she chases Lucy around once they're finished photographing her and occasionally voices her opinion on the selection as I am narrowing down which shots to buy.  This time Lucy repaid her with a giant poopy, and GranJan had a greater challenge - trying to clean her up while she was wearing the poofiest skirt ever made!

Lucy has SEVEN teeth!  She started out by getting her two bottom front.  It took some time before she got any more (over 4 months!) but suddenly she had her top four front teeth!  I've been desperately trying to capture a picture of them and instead have a bunch of creepy, blurry close-ups of her mouth...just a few days ago I noticed another little guy poking through on the bottom...to the left of her front teeth.
Here's my sweet girl:

Backyard fun

Playing on her birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Meyers:

Easter's coming!

We went to the city building today for an egg hunt and to see the Easter bunny!  I went last year, too, and let the Easter bunny hold me...this year, this is as close as I let him get:

Alli was afraid of the Easter bunny...I wasn't scared, I was just too busy to stop and chat with him...


Before the egg hunt started, I had fun playing with Uncle Craig and cousin Alli:

Uncle Craig helped me go down the slide!  That's one of my favorite things to do! 

Guess what!  Uncle Craig and Aunt Jessi are going to give me another cousin in September!  Cousin Alli is counting on a brother...guess we'll have to see!

Time to head over for the egg hunt!

Mommy was worried but there was no need.  It looked like a lot of eggs to her, but even more "hunters" and she was scared I'd get trampled but I held my own!  I leisurely walked over to the eggs I'd selected and stuck them in my giraffe basket - I knew exactly what to do!  I got about 6 eggs!

Once all of the eggs were found, mommy helped me inventory my loot...several suckers and a couple of other kinds of candy, which I shared with daddy.

Aunt Pam took me over to get a balloon animal - guess what I asked for!

We had a fun day!  Can't wait til the bunny visits me next week!

Birthday date with mommy!

Mommy likes to take A, B and C on a "birthday date" each year as their gift (she got a chance to play laser tag for the first time ever with B and got to teach C how to roller skate one year...and she and A love to paint pottery each year!) and she's decided to take me on birthday dates, too!  She even took off work for the day so we could go hang out.  The idea was to go on a weekday so it wouldn't be too crowded...but it was still pretty crowded (maybe it was Spring Break for a lot of schools?) - we still had a great time, though!

Here we are when we first got there - in the parking garage.  Mommy was pumped to learn that there is no charge for parking from 11am until 1pm on weekdays at the Levee!

We went straight to the Newport Aquarium...even though I am a big girl now, I am only 1 and got in for freeeeee!

We had to wait in a line to see the gator, Big Mike, and I snacked on Cheerios...I was going to offer him one but I finished eating them by the time we got near his head...

Hey, look at me!  I am bigger than an alligator hatchling!  I'm probably faster, too...I loved it when mommy let me out of the stroller!

It was pretty crowded, though, so I couldn't get out too much, which is why I stayed put in my stroller for the shark size comparison.

I liked looking at the fish but really loved watching the penguins!  They kept jumping into the water and swimming around and jumping back out...fun stuff!  Mommy even bought me a souvenir - a cup from the gift shop that says "Newport Aquarium" with penguins all over it!

Even though I enjoyed exploring the aquarium and watching the fishies (and the people!), my favorite part was probably walking around the plaza!  It was a bit cold when we left home but after the aquarium, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.  We even got to eat lunch outside!  Mommy tried a restaurant called Tom & Chee and I had bread and applesauce.

I kept telling mommy I could stay and walk around all day but she thought I was getting sleepy...I kept telling her she was wrong...but not long after we got in the car, I guess I proved she was right...

(That's me snoozing in my big girl car seat!  I've been switched over in mommy's car so far...soon I will be switched in daddy's car and the babysitters' cars!  I enjoy the extra space to spread my legs!)

Mommy mistakenly thought she could get me out of my seat and keep me asleep and get me to take a lengthy afternoon nap but I was all done!  We played at home for a bit but then went shopping - I needed new cups!

I love hanging out with mom...she needs to quit her job and hang out with me every day!

She partied til she was pooped

I had a wonderful first birthday!  I woke up to a small celebration with mom and dad plus a couple of gifts...

Mommy and daddy had set up a lot of stuff at daddy's school, aka party headquarters, on Friday night but soon it was time for a nap so we could all get there early enough to finish up making the room look just perfect.

As you could have guessed, the theme was giraffes (aren't my invitations adorable!?) and I wanted to stay on theme, so I wore my giraffe leg warmers:

Here I am breaking the news to Violet that she isn't coming to the party...


Before we knew it, it was time to go to daddy's school...

Doesn't my seat (borrowed from Grandma's house) look so cute all decorated for my birthday!?  My hat was cool but we're still finding pink feathers all over our house, a week later, and I didn't even keep the darn thing on my head very long!  I didn't put my pin on until late in the party, and it kinda bugged me, but everyone knew I was the birthday girl anyway!


GranJan outdid herself with my cakes...giraffes!  And tasty, too!

This little guy was just for me!!


I invited a lot of people to my party...hey, we have a big family!  And  have a lot of friends...I just had to celebrate with my best pals - CB, EJ & Lulu, Alli, Dominic, Reese!!
And so many people came to celebrate with me; it made me feel like the most special 1 year old in the world!!
All of my friends loved the gift mommy and daddy got for me...and I loved it, too!

A brand new car!!!!  I loved being pushed around in it, I loved pushing it around myself, and I loved sharing it with my friends!  I'm going to enjoy cruising down 27 in this bad boy!

After awhile of playing with my friends and getting some snacks, we watched a video mommy's friends Stacy and Nick made for me!  Daddy's a bit of a crier, so of course he teared up...but everyone really enjoyed it!  It definitely caught my attention...I just love seeing that "sweet little baby Lucy girl," as mommy would say.  A whole movie all about me?!  Lovin' it!

Soon, it was time for everyone to sing "Happy Birthday" to me!

Everyone was waiting for a major smash fest and though I took my time, I don't think I disappointed.  At first I was confused and didn't want much to do with it but mommy gave me my spoon and I started to get adventurous.  I loved the icing, especially!


Next it was present time and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and maybe a little sleepy, but I was also curious so I dug in with mommy...

I got some very exciting things - check out my new water table from Uncle Jason! - but I had some more exploring to do...did you know I am just the right height to stand under these tables?  And did you know these table cloths come in very handy for a friendly game of peek-a-boo?

I finally left mom hanging and asked her to open the rest of my gifts for me and just tell me about them later...luckily silly daddy kept taking pics even after I had made my escape so I can look at those if I want to!

My great Auntie saw me sleepily wandering and scooped me up to give me a comfy nap...

It wasn't too long before I was back in action, though...time to play my new piano with cousin Alli!

I had such an amazing birthday...thanks to all who celebrated with me and made me feel so special!

*Many of these pictures were taken by the lovely and talented Stacy Stinebuck!*