Happy Birthday to You!

As per the tradition started by Denise...

Dear Anna (at one)

We cannot believe it has been an entire year since you were born! We love watching you each day as you learn and grow. Your personality is coming out so much! We love you more than you could possibly know or understand (well, maybe you will one day, with your own children!).

You Love to eat Strawberries. It is really hard to call it eating as you are the only person I have ever seen that can actually drink strawberries whole, it is a site to behold. You also love to eat anything on mommy's plate, even if you have the same food on your own high chair tray! You really love it when you get to eat a pear (I give the whole thing to go you and let you go at it!)

You are becoming very brave and outgoing. You will now go to anyone who interests you. You LOVE other children. You don't shout to get attention, instead you try to get peoples attention by smiling and laughing! I have never seen such a brilliant way to do it, and boy does it get results!

Daddy gave you the nickname of Boca which has stuck as so many of your other nicknames have come and gone. He used to worry that you didn't know Anna was your name because we called you Boca so much! But you do know your name and no matter what we call you, we love you sooo much!

We go to swimming lessons once a week, which you absolutely love! You love the songs and especially the water! The first time you went under the water you were a little less than 6 months old. To this day, you have never once cried going under the water. You can push yourself off the side of the pool from sitting and are prepared to hold your breathe and go under the water! What a clever girl you are! After swimming every week we take a moment to sit and have a digestive biscuit before we head home. It is a great tradition!

You also love to go to baby signing. They sing so many songs it is great time! You get to be tossed in the air which is one of your favorite things as well whenever they sing the “Hokey Cokey” or “the Grand Ole' Duke of York.” You learned your first sign when you were 8 months old. You started signing “want”. Then you learned the sign for nursing. You know how to sign finished now as well. You are just starting to sign sleep as well. What a quick learner you are!

Some of your favorite toys are your train that your aunt Emily gave you for Christmas last year. It has balls that go around and it plays music. It also drives around the room. Your favorite book is an animal book that Grandma Helen got you for Christmas as well.

You love to go outside and get very excited when we put on your pink crocks and put you on the ground and let you hold our fingers and walk! You love to go to the park and your favorite part is the the baby swings. You don't get scared to go high (the higher the better) we know when you want to go higher because as the swing slows down that is when you stop smiling, when you go really high is when we get a laugh! You start to cry in protest when we try to take you out.

One of favorite games to play are peepbo (peak-a-boo) behind your sun hat. You just started playing one day when we were in the car. I was sitting next to you and next thing I knew you had begun playing it. You would hide behind your had for quite a while before popping out too! You played for at least 15 minutes the first time. We had a great time! You also love to play chase Daddy. In fact, you love to do anything with daddy, he has the best games! Every day we sing “I'm so glad when daddy comes home” when he arrives home from work or when we pick him up from the bus stop. We always pick him up whenever we can and the bus driver loves to see us there as well! She says that it is such a great way to come home! We wait for daddy because we don't want to wait one extra minute before we get to see him. The first thing you do everyday when you see him smile, get very excited, reach for him, and take his lanyard and work ID right off of him!

You love your mum as well. You enjoy seeing what she is doing at all times. You love to help vacuum, wash the dishes, and clean the doors or baseboards. You also love to help with the laundry (which most of the time consists of taking the dirty clothes out of the washing machine or throwing the clean clothes on the floor). When you are playing you always come over for hugs and cuddles and when its time to go to bed, no one will do but “mama.” When you get sad she is the one you seek after as well! You sure make her feel important and loved!

You have some friends that you like to spend time with. You love going to see our neighbors Alice and Tony who always bring out a white bowl with a few treats in it for you (usually some biscuits!) We go and see them about once a week, or once a fortnight at the least. They are great fun to play with. You also love playing with Fiona, who was the only person who you would let watch you when you went through your separation anxiety from about 4 months to 9 months old. You still love it when she plays with you and babysits you. You also love playing with her Kids. Keiran can always make you laugh! Ewan is great fun as well.

Recently, it has come to our attention that you might be quite a “girly girl”. We bought you a sun hat for the summer and at first you always took it off your head. Now you keep it on (unless you need it to play peepbo) and love to look at it in the mirror. You also used to take your headbands off right away when I put them on. Then, I showed you how you looked with it on in the mirror and now instead of taking it off you just reach up and proudly touch it (although sometimes you do still take it off, you try to put it back on as well!). We recently also found it necessary to purchase some shoes for you. You have a pair of pink crocks and a pair of white church shoes. You love to play with them. You also like it when they go on your feet (although I suspect this is mostly due to the fact that it means we will be going outside rather than for a fashion statement.) The last clue you have as to your possible blooming love for accessories is that we just bought you a pair of sunglasses. You love to put them on. You always touch your nose once they are on, get a huge grin and start sniffing through your nose, it is very adorable. You love to look in the mirror with them on.

A few weeks ago you took your first steps! Yell on your way to toddler hood. You don't actually walk too often without a lot of encouragement. You prefer crawling for the time being. Walking is still a bit scary. But you are doing very well, you can walk about 10-15 steps in a row! Very impressive!

Your are gorgeous and people even stop mommy on the street to tell her. They warn us to watch out when grow up because you are going to be quite the looker! We think you are adorable and so do many other people!

When you were only a couple months old, we would take turns feeding you in the middle of the night. Mommy would nurse you to sleep then you would wake up around 1am and daddy would take you downstairs, give you a bottle and you both would sleep in a recliner. Often, both of you would fall asleep before you finished the bottle! It always makes daddy so happy when you would snuggle up with him. He loves it when you would fall asleep with him.

If you were ever sleeping in the bed and woke up before daddy, you would pat him on the head until he got up! You were just too excited to start the day and play with us!

We love you so much. You are such a wonderful blessing in our life. We are always very grateful to Heavenly Father for sending you to us.

Anna, we love you so much and always will. We want you to know we will love you no matter what and that you can always come to us for help. We are so excited to get to know you even more as you grow and develop and we really look forward to seeing your personality blossom over the next year.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy!

   Anna in the Hospital

   Anna on her blessing day

    Our American Girl

   Larger than life in Holland

   In the Tulips of Keukenhoff Gardens



 One of her most favorite activities!

I also wanted to remind everyone of this film, its one of our favorite memories...

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