HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAYLA!

Dear Layla,

Dec 12, 2009: 15 days old

Dec 9, 2010: One year later.

A few weeks ago you turned one! (The day you turned one we were making the full-day road-trip from Chicago back to Bentonville, and I've been praying that the pictures from your birthday party would miraculously return to us before I posted this, but now I think I'd better just say how wonderful you are at 12 months before you are not 12 months anymore!)

You are sheer joy. You excude it. You share it with strangers. You've used it to create a sort of force field around yourself, apparently protecting yourself from minor bumps and bangs (something's got to explain the way you seem to not notice 90% of the bumps and bangs, not to mention tugs and tackles). You spread it.

Life is sooo good!

You are also sheer noise. And sometimes sheer mess.

Let me tell you some of the great things that make you YOU:

You've recently learned to talk. Or at least you seem to think so. You babble in full sentences non-stop, except for the frequent pause allowing for responses, which are often, "Uh, okay. Really?" That seems to suffice and you go right on ahead with your babbling. For months you've been a great mimicker, and for even longer than that, you've had a quite successful growl. Now you growl, mimic, and babble! Such a good little companion.

You do have a few words under your belt. By your birthday you could say: Mama, Daddy, Layla ("Yaya"), Grandma ("baba"), hi, bye bye, and baby. These are all pretty clearly pronounced.

By your birthday you could take one or two steps, but usually only when tricked into doing so (like I wrench my fingers free while you are standing and taunt you with a desired object). A few weeks later as I write this, you are taking up to 5 steps at a time, usually on your own initiative--progress!

You love to eat. You love cheese most of all! You, like your sister, have Fructose Malabsorption, which means no fruit. Not even bananas for you! Which is too bad, because you love bananas and you know it. But you also love carrots and peas and the occasional chocolate cake. There's nothing I can think of that I put on your tray that you won't eat.

Although, since you only had 3 teeth by your first birthday, you still don't get much of anything exciting to eat. (Your 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th teeth have been in the works for about 5 weeks! Ouch!) I thought that the top two and the bottom two were alwasy pairs. What a funny little smile you have with just one top tooth, and it's been that way for months!

You have a little dimple on your right cheek, just like Campbell. I hope it stays. Your facial features and head shape are almost exactly like Cadence's, but you've got Campbell's dimple, coloring, and facial expressions.

Blessing Day: April 10, 2010

You sleep through the night about 5 times a week now (YAY!) and you bounce up and say "HI!" As soon as I come in to get you in the morning. Then you get all jumpy and excited in my arms as you look around the house for your sisters and daddy.

Your favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider", although you love any song with hand gestures or any finger plays. You love to clap along and I've heard you sing a few times, usually to church or Christmas songs, and not so much pop or other fast, lyric-y music.

You love your friends! You recognize the other little one-year-olds (there are several in our ward) and as soon as you see one you light up! You go towards them with beaming smile and babbling away, expecting them to throw open their arms and welcome you, it seems. But like most one-year-olds, they back off and get a little suspicious of you invading their space. It happens every time. It's so cute.

For the last few months, you've refused the pacifier. It seems to me that you figured out that I was only popping it in your mouth when I wanted to trick you into being calm and quiet (which isn't that often, since you are so happy most of the time). You'll take a pacifier if it is lying around and you put it in your mouth yourself, but if I try to put it in while you are upset, you reject it dramatically, as if to say, "I will NOT be pacified!!!"

You give the best hugs, you give sloppy kisses (verrry sloppy), you make everybody feel wanted. You are a mama's girl, though. You are busy, energetic, social, happy, adventurous, and pure. These things may be the things that make you who you are some day in the future. I hope that person is happy, balanced, and uses her gifts to bless the lives of others.

We love you Layla! Thank you for coming to our family. We wouldn't have it any other way. I mean that in the most sincere way possible.

Love,

Mom and Dad.