Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Zoey!!! I can't believe that we have a one-year-old! I have been feeling a little emotional about her turning one, I really can not believe how fast this year has flown by!

Today was a very nice day. We spent the day getting ready for her birthday party and then around 4:00 had our families over for her birthday party. It was a very small party -only 12 people including Zoey, but that was perfect! It wasn't too overwhelming or stressful, so I was really able to enjoy the day, and I think Zoey definitely did too. She had her first taste of cake and ice cream, and was really interested in opening her presents. It was so fun!

Here are some pics:

Her simple, Betty Crocker from-the-box, Birthday Cake. I'm not very creative when it comes to baking, but it definitely tasted good! :)

Waiting to see what this birthday cake thing is all about...

She wasn't too sure about the cake at first....But after some encouragement, she dug right in!

Presents!

Zoey received lots of nice presents, and really seemed to enjoy opening them. It was a big change from Christmas when she couldn't really open things and didn't seem all that interested in what she was getting. She was very excited about her new toys, but waited very patiently for Daddy to take them out of the box so that she could play with them.

Baby sign language is so fun!

Zoey started signing for nurse about a month ago, and since then it's like she can't get enough and is picking things up left and right. So now, her "vocabulary" is up to 10 words. In addition to nurse, she knows baby, book, kitty, doggy, eat, drink, more, fish, and shoes. It's so awesome that she is able to start communicating with us even though she isn't able to talk yet. And she gets so excited and proud every time she spots something that she can "talk" about. This morning we went to the Target and when we went down the pet supplies aisle, she was so excited to see all the dogs and cats on the packages that she just kept pointing and doing her signs for "doggy" and "kitty". It's really amazing to see how much she is noticing and taking in even though she isn't able to verbalize it.
For all you moms out there, I would highly suggest it. I think that my family all thought that I was wacko at first, and even Joe would sometimes roll his eyes when I would do signs with her. But now that she has started doing it back, everyone is so excited about it and loves that she can "talk" to us somewhat.