Mahalia is 1-year-old!

...Well, she's really almost 14-months-old now, but you know what I mean. :)

There have been a lot of new things going on since my last update about Mahalia. First of all, I will now be updating on this page, rather than sending out mass emails. This way, anyone who wants to be updated can be, and anyone who doesn't, won't.


Although I'm way behind in sending updates, everyone should have received updated pictures of Mahalia (I will try to send out more recent pictures over the weekend) so you've seen some of what's been going on with her in the past few months.


Since Mahalia's first birthday was on a Tuesday, we had her birthday party on the following Saturday, November 21st. Mahalia had a lot of fun seeing the friends and family who came to celebrate with her. She got to play with her friends, eat cake (we had to MAKE her get messy) and open presents. Overall, it wasn't as emotional of a milestone as I thought it would be. I think the excitement of my mom arriving the day of Mahalia's birthday, as well as all of the last minute party preparations, helped to distract me from being sad about my baby getting "so old"! =)


Since her birthday party, Mahalia has had lots of shots (6 pokes! ouch!), blood drawn (they had to poke her in both arms! ouch again!), a cold, visits with family and friends (including her boyfriend, Bryant, of course), and we celebrated her second Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Although she was still on the high end of the growth charts at her 12-month check-up at the beginning of December (she weighed 24 lbs 6 oz and measured 32 inches tall), her growth has slowed down quite a bit now that she is one. She eats less, and is more active, so that's probably why. =)


As Mahalia gets older, her personality is developing a lot. Since mastering walking over the past three and a half months, she has become very active (her nickname with most people who see her in action is "busybody"). She often wants to run everywhere, because I guess walking is too slow for her! =) And although she has moments of "bratitude", she is overall a pretty happy girl. Jeremy and I are noticing that Mahalia is a very loving and helpful girl, too. She LOVES to give kisses (on the phone or in person) and enjoys helping us feed our dog Marley every day (she dumps the food in Marley's bowl and then carries the bowl to the kitchen). She is also quite the chatterbox and amazes us with the new words that she picks up on every day. Mahalia's vocabulary now includes the words/phrases: wow!, what?!, pup-pup, pa-pa (at first it was only for Jeremy and his dad Bob, but it now seems to be a "catchall" word), so cool, thank you, good girl, please, and up. She isn't always very consistent or clear about saying these things, but Jeremy and I usually know what she's trying to say. She even tries to sing some of the songs that we listen to from her Yo Gabba Gabba CD. It's pretty cute!


Well, I think that covers the "highlights" of the past few months. I will try to be better about updating this page when new and exciting things happen in the life of Miss Mahalia. =)