Belle is a year old!

It's been a while since I did an update but I figured the day after Belle's first birthday is good.  Belle is healthy and doing well.  Last week she weighed in at 25lbs 10 oz, and is 30 inches tall.  She's in the 98th percentile for weight and 81st percentile for height.  Our Pediatrician says she's pretty verbally advanced for her age.  Her vocabulary includes such words as mama, more (those two are sometimes the same), mine, uh-oh, dada, bye-bye, hi, hello, gamma (as in Grandma), and we're pretty sure she's said "Kara."  Belle has also started imitating words she hears, which is pretty awesome.  One of her favorite toys is a little cellphone that she holds up to hear ear and talks into.  She also likes to grab our phones and chat away.

She enjoys (trying to) walk and the most she's done is taken about twelve consecutive steps.  Very soon now she should be able to toddle around without too much fear of falling.  Belle laughs a lot and her emerging personality is so sweet.  Usually when she starts to get tired she does get a little grumpy but if you pay more attention to her she becomes giggly and cuddly, which is awesome.  She's started grabbing the rails and arching her back while we change her diaper on her changing table, which makes things more complicated.  It's hard to get mad at her though because as she contorts her body she laughs, which makes me laugh, which makes her laugh more.  She really is such a pleasant baby, even though she has her bossy side. 

We're trying to wean her off the bottle and that's going alright.  For the past several weeks she's been waking up around 3am-5am for a bottle and we're eliminating that feeding.  This week it's led to some less-than-restful sleep for Janelle and I but Belle's coming along nicely.

I hope you enjoy these pictures, and you can click on this link to see some of the latest batch uploaded to our flickr account.  Hope you're doing well!