The Lienau Family: Reflections on a year ...

I can't believe that I am sitting here writing that my baby is 1 year old today! I guess I should say my "toddler" is 1 year old today! GEESH! This has been both the longest and the fastest year of my life. One year ago I was in the hospital and in a lot of pain, not having any clue what was ahead of me. This morning I went in to wake Kennedy up and couldn't believe that this loud, smiling, sweet child was not even in this world yet one year ago. Amazing!

Kennedy is the greatest blessing in my life and I love her so much. She has truly taught me so much about who I am and what is most important in my life. I don't think there is a way to truly understand that unless you have a child of your own. Almost like it opens your eyes a bit and makes everything make a bit more sense! You understand that EVERY day is a precious gift. I feel so unbelievably lucky to have her as my daughter and to be able to watch her grow and develop everyday. A year ago, she was so small and new and now she is just so full of excitement and life. While I do miss my tiny little baby, each day is a new adventure and brings something more to love!

Anyway... enough mushy-ness for now! :) Let's talk about what Little K has been up to lately! She no longer wants to be fed and eats mostly by herself. If you try to feed her something, she grabs the spoon away and thinks it is a toy. She eats alright, but I am concerned about her getting all the nutrition she needs when we take her off of formula somewhere in the near future here! She has a 12 month checkup on Friday so I plan to talk to her Dr. a bit about it then. Kennedy is not "walking" independently but loves it when you hold her hands and help her to walk. She has quite the power walk when she gets going too! She will also pull herself up on things and walk. I have seen her pushing her "walker" twice now but that was mostly on accident. She will now put her hands up in the air when you say "so big!" and can make the "vroom vroom" noise of the quad and the "neigh" noise of a horse (compliments of gma and gpa Johnson!). She also "barks" like Henry does which is pretty cute.

Her favorite thing to do is to "sort" stuff. She takes piles of magazines, papers, towels, little toys and picks them up, inspects them, talks to them, and then sorts them to either side of her. She does this very seriously and with a lot of focus. She is also quite infatuated with other babies and children and really likes to watch her "baby" movies (which is the only way I get things done some days!!!). Really, she is just busy busy busy ALL the time. I am shocked when she actually falls asleep most days because she just never seems to slow down! She does not follow a "nap" schedule, but usually does always go down to bed around 7 p.m. and sleeps until around 7:30 a.m. She is definitely not a cuddler, but we do sit and read a story each night before bed. I do also get the occasional hug and open-mouthed tongue kiss. :)

This past weekend we had her 1st Birthday party at our house. It was a lot of fun and I am thankful to so many friends and family that were able to make it to celebrate with us. I am disappointed the weather was not nicer so we could have a bit more space outside, but oh well! Kennedy enjoyed seeing everyone and especially enjoyed her first cupcake... well, mostly just the frosting! ;-) We have lots of new toys, clothes and books to replenish our stock and even a shiny new quad (which she has already learned to operate herself!-I have video and will post soon!). All-in-all it was great to celebrate this wonderful first year of her life with friends and family. We could not have done it without all of them!

I am a little behind on pictures.. so let's catch up!