Christmas! Part One

Last year, Hannah was only six days old on Christmas day. That was officially her "First Christmas," but she was hardly awake more than a few minutes at a time. This year, things were much different! She was completely aware of the holiday and even more excited about getting her hands on presents! She was schooled rather quickly, since her first birthday party was on the 17th of this month... she had ample gifts to open that day and she learned quickly that under that wrap was something wonderful for her to have.

Hannah enjoyed opening gifts at our house on Christmas morning.

She also got to open gifts at Nana's- her Great Grandmother's house.

She also got to practice her "present-opening skills" at her PopPop's house on Christmas Eve:
What a difference a year makes! More Christmas pics later!

Birthday Breakfast

Hannah turned ONE on Tuesday. Since we had her first birthday party on Saturday, I decided that we still had to do something fun on her big day. So I woke up extra early and made us all a hot meal for breakfast.
We had pancakes and bacon, and Hannah got to have whole milk for the first time! No more formula!!! Hooray! Hooray! She LOVED the milk. She threw back six ounces in one big gulp!!Hannah enjoyed eating her pancakes too. Hers didn't have syrup on them like ours did, she enjoyed them just the same. She even double-fisted them into her mouth. Yep... she's my baby!!
The other big news of the day is that we got to change the car seat around so that it's forward facing!!! I read the instructions from the manufacturer, and the warning label says the child should be over 20lb AND over 1 year old before it is turned forward. So I complied. She only weighs about 20lb 7 oz now, so I thought why not just wait until she's one just to be safe. She was thrilled over the change, and she showed her enthusiasm by screaming the entire way to Aunt JuJu's. We have one happy baby!!

Happy Birthday, HANNAH!

Hannah's first birthday is this Tuesday, December 19th. On Saturday, we had her first birthday party. She had a BLAST. Man, my baby is one hip kid. She enjoyed every part of her party... from opening presents to eating her cake, socializing with all the people and even sharing her new toys with the kids, she had a big time. She has such a good disposition too. She skipped lunch, didn't take a bottle, and just had mouthfuls of nasty pink icing and cake. And she was happy as a lark. She never cried, never fussed, nothing. Just played and played. She missed her afternoon nap, and still just had a ball. She didn't miss one second of her first birthday party.

Here she is all decked out in her one year birthday dress. She's an old pro at smiling for the cameras now.
Here she is all ready for the big serenade...
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear HANNAH,
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Then she got to tear into her own cake. Now, keep in mind, she has never eaten cake before, so this is a big day for her. I'm not sure what she thought about it...
But I do know what that sugar did to her!!! WHOA Baby!!!!

No WONDER she missed her nap!!!

Under the Camillia Bush

I have a camillia bush in my front yard. And for some reason, it started blooming two weeks ago, in December. Usually, this bush produces a tree full of camillias in the spring. I don't ever remember it blooming so much in the winter time. But it must have decided to do a winter show as well because one day we woke up and there were thousands of buds on it. Naturally, the little cold blast we had knocked down most of the flowers. So there were petals all over the ground. It looked like snow. So we took my little pink baby all dressed in pink from head to toe and brought her outside to sit under the pink camillias. It made some nice shots.

But to be honest, all she was interested in was eating her cracker...

Meeting Santa for the First Time

The day we went to the Mall of Louisiana, Hannah wanted to check out Santa Claus. In fact, she was fascinated by him. She walked right up to the gate and just stared at him. But I didn't have her dress that I bought for this momentous occasion, so we decided to skip it and just take her to the Santa at our mall in Lafayette instead. Poor kid... that close to the big red man and we have to leave because of a dress.

Fast forward a week or so. We bring Hannah to the mall, complete with precious Christmas smocked bishop gown. The stage is set. Hannah is dressed just like her mama wants. Check. Santa claus is here and taking photos. Check. The line is short! CHECK! Everything is in place for us to have the memory that Mama has in her mind of her baby's first Santa picture.

But one thing is wrong.

WE SKIPPED NAP TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In all the busyness of the day, we forgot, okay, I forgot to put Hannah down for her afternoon nap. So the closer we got to the front of the line, the more she rubbed her eyes and cried. It was HOT in the mall and even HOTTER in that line. She did NOT want to be held, did NOT want to stay with us in the line, and all she wanted was to be put down so she could walk down the ramp. Oh yes, and she wanted a biter biscuit. Do you know how messy those things are?! I was like, NO WAY!! So by the time we got to Santa, she was miserable. He was a good looking Claus, though, so that was a bonus. The photographer was ready and we got one shot before she broke out in histerics, so we are grateful for that.

Ah, yes... the first picture with Santa. Luckily, Hannah memories of her first meeting with Santa won't be tarnished by her lack of sleep. Most babies cry when they are on Santa Claus anyway, so I can just blame Santa instead of blaming myself for not putting Hannah down for a nap. Yeah! That's what I'll do! It's Santa's fault that she cried. :)

Big Shoppin Trip to Baton Rouge

Well, we've initiated Hannah into the world of shopping. In her brief 11 months, she has managed to go to Baton Rouge FOUR times on big shopping trips. Here we are at the Mall of Louisiana. It's totally decked out for the holidays, and it was a lot of fun to see Hannah enjoy all the sights and sounds at the mall. Their mall is cooler than our mall.
Here she is shopping in the Disney Store. She loves Nemo. She knows that he is a FISH, so she calls him "sh." I think she was freaking out over all the stuff in the Disney store!! She found a Mickey Mouse but she kept pointing to Nemo. Hmmmm... wonder if her Pop Pop or her Nanny will read this blog and go get her Nemo for Christmas?! I just love that baby.