New Monkey Trick

(Side note: We had spaghetti for dinner last night and that's why Blake has no shirt on. I had just cleaned her up from the body-covering spaghetti sauce she had all over!)

After dinner last night, I was finishing up the dishes while Blake played in her favorite tupperware drawer. She has been attempting to climb on things lately and tries to lift her leg to get into stuff, like the bath tub, drawers, etc. Well her hard work has finally paid off and monkey Blake can now sit in the drawer while she plays!

It was pretty funny because every time I would put something in the dishwasher, (which is just to the right of the cabinet in the picture...) she would climb out of the drawer and try to get to the dishwasher. I would close the dishwasher door before she could get anything and she would turn around real quick and climb back in the drawer. We went back and forth like that probably 8 times before I could get all the dishes in!
With Blake getting so long and the weather getting so nice, I decided to switch to regular pajamas. I love the footie pajamas, which I was sad to put up, but her big feet and long body are to the limit of the 12 month size footie pajamas.
I think she looks like such a big girl in these! I bought 2 sets of these mix-and-match pajamas at Target that come with pants, a shirt, and shorts. I guess I can always get her more footies next winter.

High Maintenance

Friday night, after we had just opened Blake's presents from us, it was bath time. We bought Blake new squirting bath toys, and this cute frog bath organizer. The basket pulls off to scoop up all the toys and then you attach it back to the frog to drain. (Tim also bought her a baby golf set, but that doesn't apply to this story!) So I'm giving Blake a bath and Tim's mom Tina is watching us. Blake loves to take baths and tries to climb in the tub all by herself. She also loves chewing on wet washrags. I was trying to wash Blake with the washrag, but she wanted it, so I got another one out to wash her with. Everything was going fine, until we started draining the tub. I was scooping up all the toys in the frog basket and I only could find one washrag. I asked Tina where the second one went, but she didn't know. About that time, the water stopped draining! (Our house is really old and the bathtub drain is just an open circle, with no stopper or anything.) The washrag had gone down the drain!! Ooops. Tim says Blake and I are expensive...

12 Month Check Up

We went to Blake's 12 month well-check this morning. She weighs 21 pounds 5 ounces (55th percentile) and is 31.25 inches long (still 97th percentile). Dr. B says she is very healthy and is just long and lean (he always calls her that). For those that I haven't updated, Blake is back to sleeping normally. She takes 2 good naps a day, 3 if I go for a walk after work because Blake falls asleep in the stroller. She also sleeps 9-10 hours a night. I read in lots of books that babies go through a phase from around 9 months to 12 months of bad sleep habits, and they grow back out of it and return to sleeping well. That is exactly what happened to us! Thank goodness things are back to normal. Blake is not walking on her own yet, but is becoming braver. She cruises along furniture, will walk behind the kitchen chairs she pushes across the room or her walking lion toy, and will try to stand on her own briefly. She also walks on her knees. Blake also loves to eat!
Blake is also very into waving at everyone right now. She waves hi and bye to pretty much everyone, both on her own and when anyone says hi or bye.
These are also from Blake's party day. This is the shirt my mom and I embroidered for my little lovebug to wear.
The following pictures are also from Saturday during Blake's party. Not only were we blessed with great weather, but some special friends came, too. As we were all hanging out outside, my sister Katie noticed bugs all in our porch on the back of the house. There were tons of ladybugs crawling all over the windows and walls!

Party Time

We were blessed with great weather on the day of Blake's 1st Birthday! The week-of-wind let up and we had a beautiful, warm, sunny day. (As I'm writing this, it's raining and 44 outside.) Blake rode in her wagon for the first time along with her cousin Santiago.
These sweet kiddos are only 5 weeks apart. Here they are about to hug each other. If you tell Blake to "love on" something or someone, she will lean over and put her head on them, or hug on them.
Thank you everyone for celebrating Blake's birthday, and thank you for all the presents! My goodness, Blake is so blessed (maybe spoiled, you should see all her clothes and toys!)

Here is Blake with Grammy Tina and Grandpa Ricardo.

looking at a birthday card
playing in her mountain of new clothes

Cake time certainly didn't go like we expected. I really thought Blake would be so excited and would just stuff her face and that we would have to take the cake away from her. But Blake was very tentative and kept looking at me to make sure it was okay to do.

She did have quite a few bites, but didn't get anywhere as messy as I thought she would! She also quit eating on her own and was ready to move on. I wish I could have the same level of self-control around sweets.

Here is the chocolate-loving girl with Grandpa Monty and Grandma Karen.

Birthday Set-Up

We kept Blake's 1st birthday very small and simple. I had fun decorating, but I decided to keep it to a minimum, which made Tim happy! We had family over for a hamburger/hot dog cookout, and of course a beanbag toss competition! Here's some pictures of the kitchen.
And here are the cakes: red velvet cupcakes didn't work out like I wanted, so I made a double layer red velvet cake instead. Yum! The big chocolate cupcake (from the As-Seen-On-TV Christmas party!) was delicious too. The cupcake top was Blake's smash cake.
I still think my favorite thing was the invitations. Cute little ladybugs! The wings open up to show the party info inside.

Happy 1st Birthday Blake!

Here's the happy Birthday Girl!
Tomorrow we will be having family over for Blake Michelle's 1st Birthday! I will post pictures later. We also have her 12 month check-up on Monday morning, so I will update with all her stats, too.
I can't believe it's been a year... the best year ever!

Kickin' It Old School

I forgot to post about this... but last weekend Tim and Juan got the itch to go kick some field goals. The weather was beautiful outside, so we all loaded up and headed to the old football stadium.
Blake and I had fun watching. They made me promise not to laugh at them, as it had been around 8 or 9 years since either of them had kicked... but they didn't have anything to worry about. I was pretty impressed as they only missed a couple.
Blake loves to be outside, but she did not know what to think about the turf.

Pet Monkey

I really kind of feel like sometimes we have a pet monkey in the house. A very cute monkey, but a monkey nonetheless! Blake is a very curious little girl (yes I know every baby is) but she is into everything!! She loves to see what we're doing at all times: getting ready, cooking, laundry, putting groceries away, using the bathroom! I guess there is no privacy when having a baby... Anyway, as you can see Blake can now climb onto the dishwasher. Apparently it's a fun toy, although I do not agree at all.
Also, another funny is that the other day as I was cooking in the kitchen Blake came to see what was going on. She has certain cabinets that hold stuff she plays with: tupperware, pans, and this cabinet that holds her snacks and cups and plates and stuff. Normally she's very loud while she plays, but she was unusually quiet, so as I looked to see what she was getting into... I saw her with the Puffs container, which no big deal she likes to play with it... it makes a good shaking noise. But no, now my monkey can open the container! She sat happily stuffing her face.