Happy Birthday, Miss Nadia!!!

I can't believe my little girl turns one year old today!!! To be honest, there are still times when I'm holding her in my arms and it still seems surreal to me that she's my daughter. You'd think that being pregnant for nearly 8 months followed by 19 hours of labor would be convincing enough, but honestly sometimes I feel the need to pinch myself to see if this is really true or if I'm just dreaming. I think it's because I had longed for the day I'd be a mom for 20+ years and lost hope somewhere along the way that it would ever happen, which is why her name is so perfect as Nadia Renee means "hope reborn." Thank you, Lord for this precious gift of life!!!

She's grown SO much over the past 12 months. When I look at pics (like the ones I posted yesterday), it's hard to remember she was ever THAT small (5 1/2 lbs) when now she weighs enough that I get a little out of

breath just from carrying her up the stairs (what is it about pgcy that makes one feel so out of shape?). She couldn't even hold her own head up and now she can climb, walk, feed herself finger foods, sign the word "milk," say "mama" and "dada" etc! It was funny taking the teddy bear pics today. She tackled the teddy bear and landed on top of him a few times, and she even picked him up and carried him around at one point! The first teddy photo in this post was from August 5, 2008.

I know she's going to change a lot over the next year as well although she won't change in size as dramatically as she has this year. I am looking forward to her learning to say MANY more words. It is frustrating at times not to know what she wants. I am also looking forward to when she is potty trained. We'll also be working on teaching her to be more obedient and how to feed herself with a spoon. She's also going to become a big sister over the next year!


Her birthday party will be on Saturday. Four grandparents, one great grandma, two uncles, one aunt, and one cousin are coming over to our house to celebrate! I can't wait!!! :-) I'm making rigatoni and meatballs, garlic bread, and tossed salad. Millie (Paul's sister-in-law who makes cakes for a living) is making her wonderful mandarin orange cake (I picked that with my Dad in mind who loves mandarin oranges), and I'm stopping at a grocery store to redeem a coupon for a free chocolate bday cake that Nadia can feed herself a slice of (although Paul thinks that's barbaric, LOL). I got orange sherbert for the mandarin orange cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for the chocolate cake. Yum! Hopefully we'll get some good pics that day!!!