Thirteen months!!

Amara had her first birthday party in January. We waited to celebrate until after the holidays to make sure that friends and family could attend. It was a lovely event held at our local park at Morley Field. The theme was "Picnic-- BYOB (bring your own blanket!). Amara has quite a few little friends these days who are the same age and seeing them crawl and play in the park was a delight! Amara seemed to have a great time and enjoyed visiting each blanket :) She also seemed to enjoy her first birthday cake! It was a white cake with vanilla icing -- very light tasty!!

She loved the balloons too!

Just to add a few more words about Amara these days-- new WORDS and MOVEMENTS are happening every day! Amara now says "Moon", "Bubble", "Bath", "Done", and a few others. Sometimes she will repeat a word right after you say it to her. The other day she did this with "Cheese" (which she loves to eat). Amara has begun to climb stairs (with help! yikes!) and pull herself up to standing. She carefully watches other kids run and climb and walk at the park and plans her next move! It is so much fun to be her parent :) And here are a few more photos from Coronado beach. Forgot to mention that she is a sand lover!!

First Birthday and Second Christmas!

So much is happening these days! Amara is saying more words and sounds and growing bigger by the hour, it seems. We celebrated her first birthday by going to the San Diego Zoo. Amara loved seeing the monkeys, birds, bears and ducks. She also loved checking out the gift shop where she got two new books. Have I mentioned that Amara LOVES reading? She can sit and read/explore book after book. Mom and Amara often read 6-8 books in a row without losing interest.

We enjoyed seeing a lot of family this Christmas. Grandma Patty, Grandpa Hamid, Uncle Cyrus, Patty Ann and her family, Aunt Veronica and Jim, and Mary and Jacob all came over for Christmas dinner. Amara sat in her high chair and ate dinner with the group. And she spent hours crawling around and playing with our guests, enjoying new wooden toys and lots of hugs!! Last but not least we attended an upscale "Meet your Advisors" (client appreciation) post holiday luncheon at the Loews Coronado Hotel. Amara wore her Christmas dress from Grandma and was a hit at the event. We are so proud of our little girl!

Early Christmas in Arizona

We had a wonderful time in Arizona visiting "Boppa" (Grandpa Bob), Jan, Auntie Anne, Uncle Carl, cousins Nathalie and Carter, and Uncle "Noons" (Uncle Don). Amara was SO excited to play with Nathalie and Carter and to explore Boppa's house. She has been perfecting her crawl which is more of a fast scoot with her right foot on the ground. So cute! Amara has been talking in baby language and has sooo much to say! We wish we could understand it all. She also has 6 teeth now. Her front two teeth are coming in nicely. We love to see her smile. Sometimes she tilts her head back and smiles a wide grin when she knows her photo is being taken. In Arizona we enjoyed a lot of play time (reading books, playing with play silks, and climbing on a large stuffed dog named Floppy). We also had a fun outing at Tohona Chula where we saw holiday lights, art, and live music. Amara's favorite was watching a trio of fire dancers. Amara and Mom stayed a couple extra days to spend some one-on-one time with Boppa. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden and Jerry Bob's. Amara tends to get a lot of attention in public places because she is so cute and expressive. She loves to wave and say "bye" to people. Precious!