Happy 1st Birthday Quinn!!!

Yeah, our little girl is ONE year old!
Our baby turned into a toddler today. What a milestone. And hard to believe that it has been a year since the day she was born. I remember it like yesterday.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!! 

The day started out with......presents. Quinn LOVES presents. She starts smiling and knows exactly what to do with them: rip that paper off.

Cousins Tess and Luke are "here" to wish her happy Birthday as well and watch her opening her presents. That is, on the computer screen of course.

Quinn is going to check it out. Even though she likes her present, the computer is still more interesting, especially when it's on the floor, within reach.

Tess and Luke and uncle Arjan and aunt Aafke also had a present for Quinn, so we opened that while they were watching.

A beautiful tea set. We can have tea parties now! How fun. Thank you so much.

And then there was a present from my cousins Karin, Martijn and Wouter........

.....which we opened while aunt Lia and uncle Kees were watching us on skype.
It's awesome that with skype, we can bring our family and friends from across the ocean closer to us in our home like this.

Quinn playing with her new toys.
The tea set.....

....and the keyboard that mommy and daddy got her.

The day was filled with unwrapping presents. What a blessed little girl we have.

We had a little party for her in the afternoon, so we warmed up the sun room....normally it's way too cold in there for Quinn to play in, so this was the first time since she probably remembers she was in there. First thing to check out: the pool table. How fun is that!......Her cousin Tess is probably a little bit jealous right now, because the pool table was her favorite when they visited us last May. She still asks about it all the time. Now that Quinn has 'found' it as well, I'm sure that once it starts to warm up and the doors to the sun room are open more often, this is where we will find her a lot! 

The hot tub is pretty interesting also. It didn't take much for her to climb on top. Now we have to wait for daddy to fix it, so we can go swim in it!!!

Back to the pool table, on top of it this time.

More presents when a few of our friends came over. Even though we kept it small, it was pretty overwhelming for her.

The icing on her big day was the Birthday cake. I had it made by uncle Mike's and they did a great job decorating it with her favorite character: Nijntje.

Not too close, but close enough for her to stick her little fingers in it and taste it.

A few bites from mom's piece of cake. Yammie........

What's going on at 12 months old:

* still the same four teeth, we're patiently wating for more to come through

* there are some days here and there on which her morning nap is skipped, but normally she still sleeps twice a day: from about 9 to 10am and from 1/1.30 to 3.30/4.00pm

* night time sleeping is off right now, she has the tendency to wake up a few times a night. Hopefully this phase passes soon.....

* her 12 month wellness stats are:

- weight: 19 lbs 2 oz (8700 grams)

- height: 29 inches (73,6 cm)

- headcircumference: 46,5 cm

* she is standing by herself and has a very proud look on her face when she does.

* she loves it when you chase her

* she babbles story after story. No specific words yet though except for mama and dada.
* she is always full of smiles and just a very happy little person.
I can't say it enough but we're so blessed with her. She fills our hearts with love and we enjoy every little moment with her.