Molly, the Twins... and Everything After: Molly's First Birthday

I have been writing this post in my head for soooo long! I've been procrastinating because I wanted to do it justice and not be in a hurry when I finally got it into words. So, I'm taking advantage of morning nap today and I'm finally going to get it written!

I am a total nerd and made a chart of her height/weight/head circumference and percentiles....and just realized that I don't know how to paste from excel to blogger. Don't you love it? Crazy. I'll just do the best I can without my pretty table.

Birth - 8 lbs, 3.6 oz, 20.5 inches
2 months - 11 lbs, 2.5 oz - 53%, 23 inches - 71%, head - 15 inches - 29%
4 months - 14 lbs, 5.5 oz - 63%, 24.75 inches - 66%, head - 16 inches - 38%
6 months - 17 lbs, 9.1 oz - 83%, 26.5 inches - 81%, head - 16.75 inches - 56%
9 months - 20 lbs, 9.8 oz - 73%, 29.25 inches - 90%, head - 17 inches - 20%
12 months - 21 lbs, 10 oz - 59%, 30.25 inches - 84%, head - 17.5 inches - 31%

I assure you my table was prettier :)

I've read that babies should triple their birth weight in the first year...we about did that, which makes me happy. My girl is super healthy and I am so thankful.

Total weight gain - 13 lbs, 6.4 oz
Total length growth - 9.75 inches

It constantly amazes me that I was her sole provider of nutrition for 6 months and that I nursed her for a little over a year. She is such a great eater and once we adjusted to not nursing, she really likes her milk, too!

I am going to do my list of stats before I get to the good stuff and the P-A-R-T-Y!

diaper size - 4, although, we have made the switch to 5s at night - starting about a month ago. We still leak occasionally. Did I mention how much this girl loves water?!
clothes - size 12 months or 12 - 18, we are pretty true to size
shoes - size 3 - depending on the brand, we could move to a 4 soon for tennis shoes. Her pedi peds are still 3s and still fit great!
teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom!
sleeping - 12 hours at night (7:30-ish to 7:30-8:00 - ish), 2 naps per day - 10AM and 3PM. She's gotten to where she will rest for about 20 minutes before going to sleep, which is kind of nice because that usually means I get at least an hour and a half to get things done around the house (or on the blog!)
Nursing - no :( We stopped on February 22nd (375 days ain't too shabby though!!!)
eating - OH YES! Everything. MC made some sardine butter and Molly gobbled it up. Favorites include bananas, eggs, cheese, raisin bread, mexican rice, blue berries, the list goes on. She'll basically eat anything...she isn't a huge sweets fan - likely because I'm pretty crazy about her eating any sugar.
Crawling - no way, man. We are RUNNING! She walks everywhere! I swear, if we had carpet downstairs, she would have already worn tracks in it!!
Climbing - everything - a new trick is to climb into her chair, stand in it, look at you for your reaction and then sit down and crack up. She knows she shouldn't stand in her chair. Some battles I'm willing to lose....
Dancing - yes, please.
Dressing up - yes, please. We are very opinionated about our accessories (see my last post!). The girl is gonna give me a hard time with clothes one day - probably sooner rather than later!

Molly continues to make everyone around her smile and lights up the room when she walks in. She loves being outside, going for wagon rides, waving to the school buses (she's famous - they know her and lean out the windows to wave...yesterday, one of the drivers honked and waved - She LOVED it!!!), going to the park, playing with the dogs. She basically loves anything and everyone...that girl has never met a stranger!

Her birthday was no exception. It was sort of a 3 ring circus, and I kind of compare it to our wedding reception....so much planning and then it's over in a flash (I'm sure her party was less expensive than our wedding reception, though!). We had a great time! We had a lollipop theme and I made the invitations and decorated with lollipops and a custom table runner :) Of course, I had a little help from my Mom on the table runner...It was so fun to be creative and make her party so special. I'm sure she will remember it forever - ha! When planning what to do, I asked Rob if we should just have family or blow it out...he was so sweet. He said, "Let's blow it out. So many people were there for us when we were trying to have her...they should be able to celebrate her with us." How did I get such a good man?!

Molly LOVED her cake and, to no one's surprise, really had a great day - it didn't phase her a bit that our house was full of people and babies and noise. Here are some of the pictures from the day....