Goodbye 2012, I learned a lot

Let's get some perspective on all that Leilani has learned in the last year. In just one year, Leilani went from not being able to flip over or lift her head to doing both of those plus smiling, talking, laughing, singing, clapping, crawling, walking, running, climbing, dancing, spinning, sitting, tripping, falling, reading (well, looking at the pictures in a book), hugging, kissing, peek-a-booing, learning a few letters (mostly Q), knowing she's 1 year old (by show of fingers), eating like a big girl, outgrowing every size of clothes meant for her age, popping out 7 teeth, and an infinite number of cute and funny faces (4 included below). I'm sure I've forgotten to include many many others, but those alone are pretty amazing to me. We're so happy to have you all in Leilani's life and look forward to another fantastic year.

Happy Holidays from Tinker Monkeybuns

That's Leilani's elf name in case you're wondering. About this time last year Jen and I were still in new parent shock and Christmas was more about surviving the holidays than truly enjoying them. This year–a whole different story. Leilani is becoming a big fan of being paid attention to and will happily perform if it draws a crowd of applause. She's so interactive, it's mind-boggling to me that she is only a year old. Seeing her play with her cousins is so cute. It reminds me of my own childhood and how close we were to our cousins. This year I got everything I wished for and more. So from Leilani, Jennifer, and Billy, Happy Holidays.

Whuuu?

This is an older photo, but after stumbling upon it, I had to post it because it cracks me up. I think Leilani is about 8 months here. That's Leilani sitting with Johnny who she only just met but instantly took to as if she had known him for months.

Snow Day

What do kittens, a fat guy, a horse a with purple feather in it's hair, and an adorable girl have in common? Nope, not this blog post. You're wrong. Okay, it's this blog post. Whatever. You think you're so smart. Anyway, today was the Christmas / Cookie Exchange event in our community. I realize there are no photos of cookies to support my case, but trust me, there were tons of cookies. This is the day better known as Snow Day, because they dump snow all over the grass so that kids can hurl what is basically solid ice, not powder snow, at other kids.

A truly Happy Birthday

Leilani had the best time on her birthday. You never know how those things are going to go, but she loved every minute of it. Thank you all for making it such a special day for her. If anyone would like to add to this post with a photo they took on her birthday, I'd love to see it. Email it to salvadork@gmail.com.