to my littlest big girl

Dearest Little Kaia,

Today you turned 1 year old AND started walking. Two big milestones in one day - phew!  You walked from the kitchen into the living room and back, without stumbling once, and seemed SO pleased with yourself. You were smiling and gabbering the entire time, like you had been walking for weeks. What a fun little birthday present for yourself.

You love to be outside to look for birdies and doggies and squeal with delight if we happen upon either.  You point to the trees and say, "Whasa?" (what's that?) when you hear the birds chirping. Your reaction to dogs is the best, though. You screech and squirm until you're close enough to see and then you point and say, "Dowee" (doggie) and grunt three times for "ruff, ruff, ruff." It makes us laugh with pure delight.

Tonight we celebrated just with our little family and you devoured your Elmo cupcake for dessert. I don't think you could believe mommy was letting you get so messy and were very tentative initially, but after the first few bites of frosting there was no turning back.

I can hardly believe you are a whole year old, that we've known you and loved you for that long. We are grateful you came to join our family, and if you could start sleeping through the night regularly, we'd be that much more grateful.:-)

Happy First Birthday, Kaia Elizabeth.