Rachel is ONE!

It still feels surreal, even 2 weeks later, but our Rachel love is a whole year old! I can still remember her pregnancy and birth as if it were yesterday and I'm in denial that she's more of a toddler than a baby. She adds so much joy to our family and we all love having her around. Rachel has more nicknames than anyone in the family and she seems to be earning new ones all the time. So far she goes by Lou, Rach, Ray Ray, Rachey, Rachey Lou, Lou Lou, Lou Lou Lemon, Lemon, and Rou. She is full of spunk and loves to be silly as well as dramatic. Lou is an independent girl who knows what she wants and will try to get it herself or make sure you know she needs/wants something. A few days after her birthday she refused to nurse and has never looked back. I'm both sad and relieved to be done nursing. I'm glad to have my body back and to move on to the ease of sippy cups of cows milk, but I miss the extra snuggles and closeness with my baby girl. Rachel is growing up rapidly!

1st annual picture wearing Momma's boots

We celebrated her birthday by having our family over to swim. Rachel loves the water, so she had a lot of fun receiving extra attention in the pool. We also had dinner including some of her favorite foods; hamburgers and berries (with chips too). After dinner we had strawberry cake with chocolate chip ice cream. Lou didn't care much for the cake, but loved the ice cream! We ended the party by opening gifts and she was the cutest baby opening gifts I've ever seen! She was actually interested in most of her presents and enjoyed the process. As soon as she was finished opening the gifts she put her ball in the basket of her stroller, one baby in her stroller and the other in her arms. She snuggled and patted one baby and pushed the loaded stroller around with a big grin on her face.

New Stats:
height- 31 inches (95%)
weight- 19 pounds (35%)
head circumference- 46cm (80%)

New Skills:
drinks whole cows milk well from a sippy cup
Shakes her head yes and most often no
imitates her family (brushes her hair, talks on the phone, puts on her shoes, cooks in the play kitchen)
points to everything she sees and often say Tha (that?) to ask what it is she is seeing
adding bunches of new words to her vocabulary: Dada, Mama, Daw (dog), Peeka (peeka-boo), Dow (down), Jo (Joel), Go, Todaca (to the car!), Ca (car), Ba (ball), Bubu (Bubba), Nana (banana), uh-oh

Favorite Things:
dancing to music
clapping
eating
fruit (especially berries)
meat
dairy (especially cheese)
dogs
balls
baby dolls
playing games with her brothers (peek-a-boo, patty cake, imitating their facial expressions)
finding her brother's tiny toys and putting them in her mouth (especially legos and nerf darts)
naps and bedtime
playing in water (baths and swimming)

Dislikes:
being man handled by her brothers
having her feelings hurt (being left alone, put down when she'd like to be held, not given what she wants right away)
*recently she has started having "breath holding episodes" where she crys while exhaling and 'forgets' to breath in to the point of turning blue and fainting! These can be scary, but thankfully if we notice in time and distract her (often by blowing in her face) she will gasp a big breath in and avoid fainting

We all love her so very much! Watching her grow, learn and become a big party of our family has been so much fun! I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store for our baby girll!