Ben and Juliann: Our Birthday Girl

This sweet girl is ONE. Wow, I am speechless how quickly time flies.

It feels just like yesterday she was placed into my arms; all 6lb 15 oz of her.

One year Stats:

Height: 30in (79th percentile)

Weight: 17lb (14th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.25in (25th percentile)

It is amazing to look back on how much she has grown and accomplished in just one year. She is curious and very observant. Our TV remote has a string around it. Ben was just messing around with Bree and slid it over her neck to see how she would react. A little while later, Little Jo was holding the remote trying to slip it over Bree's head just like her Daddy had done.

She can say Mama, Dada, and Hi really well. She says hi to us and the puppies all day long. She will even say hi over the phone. It is really cute. She has also begun to string together words. When Ben comes home from work she will tell him "Hi Daddy" in her sweet little voice. It is adorable.

She has long conversations with us; only she knows what is actually being said though. It is funny because sometimes it sounds like she is actually responding with a phrase that makes sense with what we were saying to her.

She has not quite learned how to say the word no yet, but she is getting the head motion down. If she does not want a food item that I gave her for a meal she will point at it and shake her head back and forth; letting me know she does not want it. She also does it to the dogs if they lick her or come up to her when she is busy playing with toys. She is getting pretty good at communicating with us. It sure makes it easier to figure out what she wants.

She had taken a few steps here and there before her birthday, but did not seem to have much interest in actually walking. On March 25th, two days after her birthday, she just decided that it was time and took off running across the living room. Since then she has really started to get a sense of balance and is walking really well. Nothing can describe how cute it is to watch a girl so little walk.

In addition to the walking, she has quickly realized that she can also climb. She climbs up onto the bean bag and will take her toys and play on it. She also decided that she can climb up onto her swing. Once she gets up she bounces in it. If you try to buckle her in the swing, she just sits up and will rock in it back and forth. It is a pretty wild ride. I think that we probably need to pack away the swing until the next baby

This girl loves to play, whether its with toys or her parents. If we are laying on the ground she will come over and jump on us and try to wrestle. When she is not wrestling, she loves her toys. Thanks to her extended family, she was given tons of fun new toys for her birthday. One of her favorite birthday activities was unwrapping the presents. She could do it all by herself. We got her wood alphabet blocks and she can stack them five high already. Some of her favorite things to play with, however, are not toys...they are our TV remotes. Before she would just hold them. Now, she has realized that there are buttons and she can change what the television does by pushing those buttons. It definitely makes watching television a little more difficult around here.

She likes to be fairly independent. She wants to feed herself and has even started using utensils. She cannot get the food onto the fork or spoon herself, but if you put the food on for her she can get it into her mouth. However, after a few bites it just becomes a toy and any plates or bowls get thrown onto the floor.

After changing her diaper, she will pick the dirty diaper, walk over to the garbage can, and throw it away. Once we close the lid, she taps the top of the garbage twice to indicate a job well done.

A couple weeks before Little Jo's first birthday it really hit me that my baby girl was going to be turning one and I got kind of emotional (I still do thinking back on it). I had such a strong mind set on being a nurse that I hadn't really thought much about kids. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I was in no rush to get pregnant. Now there is nothing more that I want to be than her mother. That is my true calling in this life. I know that Jocee was meant to be in our family and I am thankful every second for being given the opportunity to be her mother.