Victoria turns one

I still can't believe it's true, but we are officially parents of a one-year-old.  So much has happened in the past year that, on the one hand, it feels like we've had our little bundle of surprises for much much longer.  On the other hand, it feels impossible that time has passed so quickly for our little pumpkin to be jumping into the world of toddlerhood. 

Luckily, we got to celebrate her birthday in good style.  Because Dave had finals all week, we had to host the party a little after her birthday (3 days late but she didn't know the difference).

I made her a cake with bread loaf pans to construct a "V".

 
Victoria's hair is coming in so strong and thick!  Seeing all the curl at the bottom is somewhat of a consolation for having lost all my curls post-pregnancy.

She looked more confused than anything else when we turned the lights out and started singing to her.

Of course, she got spoiled with presents.  She's absolutely obsessed with these blocks from Aunt Nicki.  She's only content when every single one is dumped out across the floor.  And, if anyone tries to build something with them, she comes straight over to take it down.

So much fun opening presents!  Actually Victoria didn't appreciate my attempts to show her each present.  She accepted the routing for the first 2 presents and then took the 3rd one and ran to hide under the table.  She was determined that I wouldn't make her give up her presents.

Lots of family!  Here are the Bennetts.

And the soon-to-be-married Tom and Nicki and boys.

Of course,  grandma and grandpa had to get some snuggle time with the birthday girl.

Here are some of our favorite things about Victoria right now:

*Her half scoot/half crawl.  She puts one leg tucked under her and tilts herself up and pulls herself with her other leg and arm.  She wants to walk, I think, but doesn't like when we prop her up to practice.  She'll stand and walk along furniture and it likely to be running before we know it.

* Victoria is SO social.  She doesn't mind being passed around to anybody who'll take her.  She has some hidden reserve of energy that is activated only when we are around other people.  She'll go for hours past her bedtime because she can't miss any of the action!

*She is also VERY talkative.  We have decided her first actual word is "Daaaw" aka "Dog."  She'll say a variety of consonants but her "mama" and "dada" aren't really attached to us as people.   She waves "hi" and "goodbye", claps when we get happy, does a "pow-wow" putting her open palm to her mouth, and tries to talk in the phone out in front of her mouth like she's on speaker phone.

In general, she's a lively, fun, social, inquisitive, and super enjoyable kid.  We just love her!