Happy 1st Birthday, Lexi Dear

{technically it's tomorrow, but Sunday comes and goes so quickly}

Dear Alexis, your first birthday was fairly simple, I hope you don't mind. You spent it with just your two old geezers. But you could not find two people on this earth who love you more. You are our obsession. And hitting this one year milestone is really just a celebration for us. First, that we made it. Second, that we were gifted parenthood. Oh what a gift it truly has been. I remember that delivery room like it was yesterday. It was peaceful and I was ready to meet my little girl, but parents never really understand what that honestly means. 

You quickly showed us.

It was a taste of God's love. Mercy. An inner strength we didn't think we had and a crap load of weaknesses too. It involves a lot of laughs and tears. Many times we want to give up and more times do we say I don't want this to end. It is a handful of crazy with a slap of neurotic sleep. It's a loss of personal space and a gain of cherished heart beats and numb limbs. It's excitement over the smallest, seemingly insignificant changes. It's a lot of selflessness, worry & stress. A ton of gratitude. And much much joy.

You are a very happy baby. But you can go from a 1 to a 10 on the distress scale very quickly if you aren't getting your way. You have a very sociable personality. You love music - singing and dancing. You recently took your first steps, but you are still very hesitant to walk without assistance. You love to waller all over me, but I'm pretty sure Daddy is your favorite playmate. You instantly know there is a game involved and something to laugh about when he is around. You recently figured out how to shake your head yes and no, even though you have no idea what it means; it's the cutest thing - almost as cute as when you try to blow on your food. And yes, you're still an extremely good eater. You eat anything and at any temperature. You're a blessing to your mama. You even made the transition from nursing to milk in a cup easy. The only thing you ever really hated was formula. And the only thing I ever really hated was when you'd spit your food back out and play with it in your fingers. Half my time is spent cleaning. Especially when we let you spoon feed. At least you understand the concept; the food just rarely makes it to your mouth.

You take two naps a day. And sleep through the night consistently. You wear 18 month clothing. It seems that your weight and height haven't changed much since the 9 month apt, but we will find out next week. Your hair has grown like crazy and you have 5 teeth. You still babble mostly, but sometimes you'll distinguish duck, hey or night night. Every animal is "woof" and you really like dogs. You also like to talk on the phone. You're really ticklish and adventurous. I'd like to say you know what "no" means, but I think it's still a game. Until dad tells you otherwise. {Don't mess with the blinds, Lexi. Don't touch the bike chain, Lexi} We are so lucky to be your parents. I hope you'll be patient with us because sometimes we, and dad says me, can be crazy. But for the record, I'm pretty sure craziness is a side-effect of motherhood. And you're worth it.

At first, you used your fingers to pick off the sprinkles.

Then you tried the face first approach.

And I'm pretty sure that you sniffed up sprinkles and icing. So you then started using the candle like a spoon. That worked until we took it away due to a big waxy bite.

We then cut the cake to make it a little easier.

Happy Birthday my squishy.

Disclaimer: I haven't found the cake stand I like yet, so I improvised. And I do need to find some flooring material if I ever want to do a shoot like this for clients. But that's just it, I don't buy props for my own daughter…sorry Lexi. Many people go all out; this is about all we could handle. Mr Smith wasn't a fan of the messy idea.