One Year Bubbush Pictures

While my sister, Keri, was visiting this weekend, I took Elly's One Year Pictures. It was a beautiful fall day. She is so adorable and getting cuter by the day.

She has 5 teeth now (3 on top and 2 on bottom) and working on more. She loves Pizza! She gets so excited when she sees it all cooked and ready on the counter; she kicks her little legs and chants: "pizza, pizza, pizza" reaching for it. She blows on her food now just like we do before we give it to her. Sometimes she won't even take a bite before we blow on it, even if it's not hot anymore. She eats plain oatmeal for breakfast, but of course, only with a little brown sugar in it. She likes peas a lot.

She likes to play with all the toys she's been given. She uses her little cart to push around, so she can walk by herself. She has a little giraffe she can stand in front of that plays music when you push the button on its head. She'll stand there for 10 minutes, just pushing the button and dancing to the music. She has different dance moves, too. One is like the hula where her little hips go around in a circle. One is a knee bounce, and one is a hip pop. Sometimes the hip pop gets a little head tilt along with it. She'll push the button and do one move until the music stops, then push it again and do a different one until it stops again and repeat with all her moves. She's an equal opportunity dancer. She dances in time with the rhythm, too. It's awesome.

She has several stuffed animals that have different places in her life and our house. 'Pink Bear' is just what it says, a little pink bear 4" tall that she sleeps with every night. She loves him. He never comes out of her crib. 'Doggie' and 'Pooh Bear' mostly stay in the car. And 'Hippo' is a large, hot pink, hippo who's always making a laughing face. He is her latest obsession. She carries all of these animals the same way: by the arm, and only by the arm. And it has to be the arm she would grab if the two of them were walking hand in hand down the street (no matter which hand she grabs it with). She also has the practice of kissing each of them on the face several times when she first sees them. Some of them get more kisses than others, even. Some of them (like Hippo right now) get lots of tight hugs as well.

Her favorite things however, are not toys. They are the vacuum and the dust buster. I'm serious. She loves it when we use them. She wants to stand right by them and even touch them if possible while they are being used. She'd really like to use them herself, but she's too tiny. She will be playing with toys, or sitting in her high chair when all of the sudden, she'll start calling and pointing toward the laundry room where they are kept. When we let her get down and have some practice walking holding our fingers, she always walks us directly to the vacuums. As a result, our floors have never been so clean.

She is talking up a storm and learns new words every day. Seriously. Her favorites at the moment are pizza (of course), hippo, book, and mommy (who doesn't love that?) She is a wonderful sleeper and eater and she's just all around a really great baby. She is super sweet and so smart; it's unreal. I know everyone says that, but I'm kind of worried that she's going to be smarter than me in a matter of a few short years, really. She's amazing and we love her love her love her.