Letters to Layla

Dear Layla, 


Happy first birthday!  Somehow we are here, your first birthday.  How did we get here so fast?  Twelve months of laughter and love and proud milestones.  Every month as I sit down to write these letters I think "this has been my favorite month."  And that is exactly how it has felt, each month with you better than the last.


This month I have really seen you transition from a baby to a toddler.  While you're not fully walking, you cruise around the house pretty well and will take a few steps here and there.  You can stand on your own for a while and climb up and on just about anything.  One of your favorite activities is taking things out of containers and putting them back.  You do this over and over again.  You absolutely love to read and usually spend about an hour each day happily reading books.  Now that the weather is nice you are enjoying spending time outside and at the park.  You really have developed a mind of your own.  You know what you want, and what you don't want.  You know how to get what you want on your own and how to tell me what you need.  You are incredibly social and love every baby you meet and most adults!  It's rare to find you without a smile on your face.  You clap for yourself whenever you do anything good, and sometimes when you are just sitting there doing nothing.  You still love to dance and have started to try to sing along with songs.


You weigh 23.7 pounds and are 31 inches tall.  This puts you int he 75% for weight and 85% for height.  100% perfection.


Your vocabulary has exploded this month.  The Dr. is very impressed with your verbal skills and said you are verbally at the level of an 18 month old.  In addition to your own little 'Layla-language' these are the words you can say pretty clearly and at the correct times: Mama, Dada, hi, bye-bye, up, down, out, nana(banana), apple, moo, woof-woof, more, no, home, brown bear.  You've even put two words together several times and say "hi Dada!" "up Mama" and your favorite "Dada home!"  You try to mimic a lot of words that we say and you are learning new words every day.  It's truly amazing to see you learn so much in just a month.


Your father and I have loved every minute of the past twelve months. We marvel in the joy that is you daily. Being your mother is beyond a gift, beyond a blessing. It is the thing that my life was meant for.


Happy first birthday my love.  I hope every year holds as much joy and wonder as this one did.


Love, 


Momma

 

Layla's favorite thing to do at the park: picking up mulch and putting it on the slide.  She could spend hours doing this.

And just to show you how far we've come: