Happy First Birthday Lucy!

What a wonderful, fun, joy-filled, amazing, tiring, interesting and fast year it has been! Will and I can hardly believe that our little bean is a walking and talking one year old! Where did our baby go? Thankfully, she still has those squishy and kissable little cheeks and when she cries, her nose crinkles up the same way it did the moment she was born. I am feeling the adjectives tonight as I reflect on a year with Lucy, and I am so happy, grateful, and awed that our little girl celebrated her first birthday today.

This past month Lucy has been perfecting her stride. She scales the walls, furniture and loves to hold onto our fingers as she explores the world with her feet. She has even discovered how to lift her feet up to go up stairs. She has a fascination with doors and will spend long intervals opening and shutting them while she walks back and forth holding on.

Here she is taking Grandpa T for a stroll in our driveway.

She loves being outside and is upset if we can't go out because it is raining or dark. She has added the word "bye" to her language repertoire, and can now quack, moo and baa when she sees the appropriate animals. At our new house we have had the opportunity to see both ducks and sheep in our front yard and Lucy spotted them first and let us know we had visitors by the quacks and baas she was squealing. We have a pair of wooden birds on sticks outside of our backdoor that Lucy loves to hold onto and watch the wildlife around our house. Here she is below at her favorite post. We bought Lucy her very first pair of walking shoes which was a fun experience and a shocker - I had no idea that tiny shoes would cost more than the pair I was wearing! Lucy also had her very first cold this past month which lasted about one miserable week but left her no worse for the wear. She is working on two more top teeth to bring her teeth total to 4 going on 6 and is still trying to decide if she needs one nap or two these days.

Some of you may remember the yellow tulip connection we have with Luke and Lucy. A couple of weeks ago Will and I hired a local stained glass craftsman to build a pair of windows that we designed for our new house. The stained glass windows were installed last week, just in time for Lucy's birthday and are absolutely beautiful.

They are in east facing windows so in the morning prisms of color are splashed on the floor and Lucy is fascinated by them. We had a beautiful day for Lucy's first birthday. It was the kind of day where you couldn't help but notice that the days activities were going to be suspended in time forever in our memories. It was like the entire day had a golden haze around it as Will and I proudly watched our little girl on her birthday. The weather was perfect - sunny and not too cold or hot. We got up early this morning and brought Lucy down stairs to open her birthday presents. After playing a bit with them, we headed out to get some birthday portraits taken, then stopped by and paid a visit to our family chiropractor and then journeyed on to the zoo. It was the first time we had taken Lucy to the zoo, and since Will took the day off to spend with Lucy and I, it made for a great day. Here's pictures of our little birthday girl at the zoo, walking with her Dada.

Here is a family picture at the zoo's fountain.

Lucy had banana cupcakes for her birthday, and did a good job blowing AT the candle. After a couple of tries though, we helped her blow it out.

She ate every last crumb of that cupcake and very much enjoyed her first experience with sugar.We have already experienced Luke's first and second birthdays but today was different. There were no tears today, only smiles. While we still longed for Luke to spend his sister's birthday with us on earth, it was a happy day. We savored every moment and couldn't stop thinking about how different it is to celebrate a birthday with a child on earth. When I was pregnant with Luke I had bought him a set of circus finger puppets that I have been holding onto ever since. We thought Lucy's first birthday was the perfect time to pass those along to his baby sister. We finished off Lucy's birthday with her opening her present from her big brother in heaven. I just know Luke was there with us in spirit today, proud of his baby sister. Happy Birthday Sweet Lucy, we are so proud of you.