Here is a clip of Finley saying some of her words. Don’t mind the fact that i come off looking like a stage mom getting trying to get her to “perform” while she runs away saying “nooo”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz1iGrM5WRk&hl=en&fs=1]
This weekend we celebrated Finley’s first birthday (a few days early). Thankfully, it was a beautiful, crisp fall day, and we were able to entertain both inside and out. We ate, she opened a ridiculous amount of gifts, and then we all congregated around her for the highlight of the night…cake time! Proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, she thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of her cake. Eventually, she grew tired of playing in the chocolaty goodness and fell into a sugar trance. We gave her a bath, put on her special birthday pajamas, and she gave a goodnight kiss to every single guest (probably not the most hygienic idea). Three hours later she awoke with a fury that I can only assume was from ingesting many MANY more calories than her little tummy is accustomed to. I think we’ll lay off the baked goods until next year. Aside from that, her first birthday went off without a hitch. Not a single meltdown or tear shed, and that’s saying a lot for a one year old, hopped up on sugar, with 40 people vying for her attention. We are so thankful for the outpouring of love, kisses, and gifts from our family and friends. Thanks for helping us honor our sweet baby Finley.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfLGBaPochM&hl=en&fs=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhw-LlhuBRk&hl=en&fs=1]
So, I’ve had a hard time discerning Finley’s first word. She’s been saying “mama” and “dada” for months. But it’s more of a general babble as opposed to her identifying us, so I don’t count either of those as words yet. About a month ago she started saying “night night”, but it was sort of prompted. At bedtime I say, “It’s night night time”, and then she will say, “night night” and wave bye bye to whoever is watching. So, I kinda count that as a first word. Her new word, that she says completely unprompted, is “uh oh”. She says it anytime a toy falls to the floor and makes a loud noise. She even sticks out her bottom lip while saying it! We don’t like to encourage her to drop or throw her toys, but I just had to catch it on video. You can kinda see the pout in the beginning of the video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7g49INrCoU&hl=en&fs=1]
Yesterday, I was feeling around in finley’s mouth and I was shocked to discover that she had a molar in. Wait. A. Minute. She was teething? We called papa immediately to tell him the news. This is so exciting because she got a tooth in and we didn’t have to deal with any fussiness, sleep issues, etc! If you aren’t a parent of a child who has gone through teething you might not understand why this is noteworthy. If you are, then you know that this is almost as exciting as winning the lottery. Well, not really. But close. Such a trooper, that daughter of ours!
Our big girl is standing up all on her own, and she is quite proud of it.
This weekend while Mimi was visiting we left Finley to play in her crib for a couple minutes. All the sudden we heard Mimi screaming from Finley’s room, “Come quick, she’s standing!” Sure enough, there she was, peaking over the rail with a proud grin. I’m a little miffed that I wasn’t there to see her first time, but she’s given me plenty of opportunity to see her new trick. Now every time we try to sit her down on her bottom she goes stiff as a board and wont bend to sit. She wants to stand all the time. Needless to say, we immediately lowered the crib.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bCfoP4Pwko]
…MR. TOP TOOTH! She’s such a big girl.
And perhaps even more exciting. Finley went to bed at 8:00 last night and we didn’t hear a peep out of her until 7:10. No, no, that’s not a typo. I woke up at 4:00 am and freaked out when I realized I’d been asleep for a solid 6 hours. I ran into her room and made sure she was breathing. Then I spent the next hour laying in bed awake thinking about how excited I was that she was sleeping so well. Go figure. Once the shock wore off I enjoyed a few more hours of sleep and woke up feeling like a new woman.
This morning Finley rolled over for the first time. She defied the popular trend and rolled from back to stomach first. I was so proud. I cheered and kissed her and ran around the house in search of my camera. 
I’m a big girl!
I have no clue what is about to happen…
Such a brave girl…
Shots? What shots?