Almost a Year.

Eleven more days.

The splotchy parts are my address and such. Not really comfortable having that info out there.

Eleven more days and my little girl will be a toddler. I almost tear up just thinking about it. It does make me happy though that my parents will be here for her first birthday. They miss a lot of stuff because they live so far away, so it's nice they get to help celebrate her turning One.

Standing on her own!

She's been letting go of stuff for a few weeks now and standing by herself for a second or two, but I've noticed in the last few days that she's been letting go more and standing for longer periods without holding on to anything. She still won't take any steps, but I think she's getting closer! We went to a play date yesterday and 3 of the babies there were walking, all within a few weeks of her age. Maybe she saw them doing it and was encouraged a little bit?

Little Miss Stairmaster.

I came upstairs yesterday to grab something and left Natasha in the kitchen. Any other time she would play contently on the floor and wait for me to come back. While I was up here to grab the item I decided to use the bathroom. I guess I was taking too long because before I made it back downstairs Natasha showed up at the door of the bathroom. I have to say it scared the crap out of me. I started second guessing myself if I had really left her in the kitchen or brought her upstairs. I guess it's time for a baby gate for the stairs.

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We had Natasha's One year photo session as well as christmas photos done this past Saturday. I won't show the Christmas ones but I'll share some of the regular poses and her cake ones. :-)

Wow we are behind...

I did not think it had been since Oct. 10th since my last post! The bug is growing like a wild weed, she's already 30" in length and 26lbs. I have fears that she will outgrow her carseat for RF (30lbs/32") before her 1 yr birthday. My husband tells me to stop fussing, but I can't, it's my nature. Apparently, my friend's little boy is 31" and 26lbs and her doctor advised her that if her little guy hit the 32" mark before his first bday (Dec. 6th) she had to switch him. I had always understood it that it was min. 20lbs and 1 year. We bought the Britax seat because of it's high restrictions with the thought that she'd be RF for a long time.

She can't possible grow 2" and gain 4lbs in 3 weeks right? Everyone keeps telling me that she will start to slow down in her growth, I'm hoping it happens soon. Again, O does not see the back deal of turning her around at a year old. I guess for me, it's just been drilled in my head so much from the parenting boards that RF is the safest position and you should keep your child that way for as long as possible. I had visions of her being that way until she was almost 2. I guess if she meets the restrictions for turning her around she'll be safe right?

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We had her Halloween pictures done last week, I'm very happy with how they turned out;

She had a special of 5 for $25, but as usual she tossed in a couple of extras. She does the same when we do N's regular sessions. When we chose the 36 photo pkg, we usually get 4-5 extras if she has a hard time choosing which ones.

We will be going back this Saturday to have N's christmas + cake Smash/birthday + 1 year photo session done. This will be the last set of photos (which kind of makes me sad :0( ) until we do family photos next yr for Christmas and then eventually (I hope anyway ha!) maternity photos.

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Her One year Birthday is coming up and just the thought of it makes me tear up! Everyone says it, but I can't believe she's almost a toddler! Our house is going to be a zoo come Dec. 1st when we have her party. My parents will be here, plus all O's Aunts/Uncles, plus some friends. We wanted to have something small and quiet, but then realized we can't invite couple of the relatives and not invite others, so about 4 weeks from now my house is going to be busting at the seams with 30ish ppl. Luckily we went to her playgroup's birthday party this weekend, so we all had a big party then and I won't feel quilty not inviting them. It's kind of nice how all our kids in the group are within a few weeks apart in age.

To try and limit the amount of people in the house at once, we've decided to do an open house 1-4pm and are **hoping** that people will come and go. So as 2 to 3 leave, say 1 shows up. I can only hope right?

A few of her photos from this past month;




I love this one, it looks like she's twirling with Daddy. :0)

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And lastly, we did her almost last Bear photo. I put her in a summer dress for it, as it was my favourite of all her dresses even though it was October. It's my favourite dress and I wanted a good photo of it.



I'll do a big final of all her Bear pictures at the end of the month. Which you all know is code for "I'm too lazy right now to find them and post the previous 10 months".