Dear Eisley...Twelve Months.

Dear Eisley,

My little bitty love...how are you already 12 months old. This year went by so fast but at times so very slow. You are changing and growing so quickly I feel like I need to enjoy you every second, because they pass by so fast.

You are starting to show some of your personality and your humor, you are a funny one. Your new "trick" is fake sneezing. It's so cute, you do you fake sneeze then look at us and laugh. You also started saying "Ahhh" after you take a sip of a drink, or when you see someone taking a sip of a drink. You love being hung upside down and swung around and being thrown on the bed. You make so many more faces and noises too, your new one is making duck-lips, and then sniffing you upper lip...I have no idea how you came up with this, but think it is hilarious and will do it all the time. You also try to make whistling sounds, sometimes you get pretty close!  Laughing is a daily occurrence, and most everything is making you laugh. It is the sweetest sound, I honestly could listen to your little chuckles all day!

Your biggest belly laughs come from the kitties, anything they do is funny to you, and you are constantly trying to get them to play with you but they are not interested in the least. Sadly we had to say goodbye to one of our kitties. This was so heartbreaking for your Mama and Papa. I was looking forward to the relationship you two would have when you got a little older, he was always so playful and I just new you two would be pals. I am so sad you will never get to really know him. Even though it was sad, I just know you are going to be a cat person. Whenever you see a cat, or really any animal, you meow at them, it is so funny to see you pointing at birds or fish and meowing at them. We can ask you 'what does the kitty say?' and you will meow back at us. Its amazing to see you learn and engage with us more.

You are interacting so much more with everyone, you wave bye and hi all the time now, and even say it sometimes. You blow kisses and can give big slimy open mouth kisses when we ask you. The stage you are in right now is so fun, we can play games, be silly, or just be lazy and cuddle. As much as it is fun, it is also hard. You are into EVERYTHING, and I know when you learn to walk, which will be in no time at all (you have taken a few steps here and there) you will be into things even MORE. I have realized I really need to step up the child proofing because you are a smart girl and quickly figure out how to get into things.

We started sleep training this month. Brian and I decided that we didn't want to do the cry it out method, so we got a bunch of books from the library, I guess a lot of parents struggle with non-sleeping babes as there were a TON of baby sleep books to choose from. We decided to go with the sleep lady's shuffle, and it worked! The 2nd night you slept through the night in your own room, that felt good, and this ended up not being a fluke, you continued to sleep through the night in your own bed. There are so many things I love about co-sleeping, but it could never beat a whole night of UN-interrupted sleep! So thanks for that Eisley. I also think the night time sleep got better because your day time sleep got better. We took you out of daycare and you started staying with a Mom and her two kids during the day, I could tell right away that you felt so much better there. So far it is working out great and you are having so much fun.

I hope you will look back on this first year of your life, and know that we thought a lot about the choices we made for you, struggled to figure out life with you in it, made mistakes, had fun, made lifetime memories, experienced new things, cried together, laughed together, but most importantly we loved you fiercely.

Love,
Mama and Papa

Crown headband by little blue olive