Luna decided to model her new dress from her great-grandmother Momo today.  Momo bought it for her to match her blue eyes and looks super cute on her. Thanks Momo and Popo!

Yesterday Luna enjoyed celebrating her friend's mommies birthdays. Jack's mom's bday is today and Alex's mom's bday was yesterday. So we all headed to our friend Jenny's house for a birthday playdate and watched the last episode of Oprah.  Of course the babes were playing so hard we barely watched the TV (luckily I tivoed it at home) and we were all dying over the Sprinkles cupcakes and Sangria. Yum.

Last night for dinner, Luna had spaghetti and absolutely loved it!  Her face was covered in it and she was almost unrecognizable.  She kept signing, 'more, more!'

Tonight we celebrated Heather's birthday at Mariano's.  It's the perfect child dining experience with tons of highchairs and tots all over the place.  We had a great time celebrating her birthday and Luna loves Mexican food like her Momma the avocados, tortillas, beans and chicken.  And I loved the Skinny Margarita they serve too with Agave Nectar.  Yummm.

This week flew by!  I still can't believe her 1 year birthday was last Friday.  On Tuesday we ventured to Central Market for Spain Week.  We took Luna there wearing her cute little 'Luna' onesie from her friend Jillian (her 1 year old friend next door) and was so proud of herself.  She loved sampling the Spanish foods and the tortilla espagna. 

On Thursday her Abuelo Richard came to visit from Austin.  Luna was all smiles and enjoyed visiting him and going to Mint for dinner.  She had her first taste of Pad Thai and loved it!

On Friday morning we met her friends for Chick Fil A Friday breakfast!  She loves their treehouse playground and was modeling her 'I Love Chick Fil A' T-shirt from Aunt Heather.  (not the best picture quality on my iphone)

Then later that afternoon her triplet friends came over to play!  She loves her boyfriends Luke, August and Henry.  They are so cute and had a great time playing together.  They spent most of the time in our ball pit.  Of course they mostly all loved playing with the non-toy items like the TV remotes, sofas and Honey Bear's staircase.  Adorable!!

The next morning we walked up to White Rock Coffee for breakfast and Luna was in her pajamas.  Then we met my mom (CoCo) and Aunt Erika for lunch at Whole Foods, then it was back home for her second nap.

She had such a busy day that she fought her afternoon nap.  Poor thing.  We had her friend Caroline's first birthday party to go to at 4pm and she didn't fall asleep until 4. So I let her nap for 45 minutes, then woke her up to go to the party. She was cranky but once we got there she snapped out of it and had a lot of fun!  I was so busy chasing Luna around the outdoor party, that I forgot to snap a picture of her, oh well.  That's being a mom, always rushing around :)

Sunday was a relaxing day of no commitments!  We took it easy and Luna took her 2 good 2 hour naps.  Then I went out for some good mommy time for a girl's bday dinner at Chuys.  There are 3 girls in our group with birthdays in May!  Unfortunately with the Dallas storms, a few could not make it, so we hope to reschedule soon!

Luna had her 1 year check-up yesterday and passed with flying colors!  She received 2 shots, the second Polio and second Hep B.  Her doctor said she is doing well and she can now eat peanut butter, drink milk (whole or 2%) and honey!  Yay!  We still have to watch foods that are choking hazards though like apples, hot dogs (like I would anyway, intestines anyone?), nuts and grapes. We gave her peanut butter yesterday and no problems so far :) She has had allergies the past couple of weeks and I thought she was on her way to her first ear infection, but her ears were great! She made it to one year without an ear infection, yay!!Here is some information from her check-up and her progress at 1 year:

Weight: 18.11 (15%) the doc thinks she is just fine, no worries. I had no idea she was so little!
Length: 29 inches (50%)
Head: 45 cm (30%)

-Luna is still in her infant car seat but we have the new one bought and ready to go probably next month
-She is still breastfeeding 4 times a day and 2 times at night (trying to nip the night feedings in the bud!) We will slowly be cutting out the lunchtime feeding so it will go down to 2-3 a day
-We gave her milk for the first time today and she liked it! We decided on whole milk to fatten her up :)
-Luna loves turkey from Central Market, avocados, cheese, yogurt and crackers. She only will eat if she feeds herself, and will not eat anything you try to hand to her. Miss Independent.
-She is not walking yet, but stands up proudly, loves to push her walker and just now starting to stand by herself
-Today, Luna tried to feed me for the first time! She fed me a pea off her highchair tray- it was really cute!
-Luna is learning sign language and signs "all done/all gone", a weird version of "more", "light", baby sign for "doggie" and "hot"
-Her vocabulary is building and can say "uh-oh", "dada", "mama", "hi" and "light"
-Knows her name well and anytime we say it, she turns her head
-Loves to clap her hands
-Every day she is learning something new, like today I was snapping to a song and she copied me by trying to snap her fingers!
-She is wearing 12 months clothes and size 3 shoes
-Loves throwing balls
-Dances every time she hears music
-Goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up at 7:30am
-Still takes a Paci to sleep with (and when we are eating out and gets cranky)
-Takes 2 naps a day still
-Loves being outside, swinging and going to parks. In fact, normally when I get her out of the car she smiles but yesterday when she saw a park after getting out of the car, she was squealing in delight!

Having her first cup of milk today

I can't believe my baby is 1 years old today!!  Time has really flown. I remember bringing her home from the birth center and how happy we were and ecstatic at having little Luna at home.  The first year is a huge deal and I have had so much fun with her. I've kept this baby daily journal every day that records milestones, what time she slept, ate and her diaper changes.  It's kind of sad the journal is over :( I think I will have to go to the bookstore and find a new one as I've had so much fun writing down all of the things she has done these past 12 months.

She got a cute Bday outfit from Sherry in the picture above. 

So today we spent the morning at the Arboretum before Todd went into work.  She loved crawling around on the nice soft grass.

We then headed home for a much needed nap and Luna then had a visit from her Grandma Coco.  She opened a few extra presents from me and Coco. I got her a new pink laptop to match mine because she always wants to play on mine and gets so upset when she's not allowed to type on it.

She opened some cute new clothes from Coco and Momo, and a fun set of pink dishes to bang on.  She also got a sweet sterling silver moon piggy bank from Coco and a cute stuffed dachshund in the picture below.

After her next nap we went to Purple Glaze to make a handprint plate.  She was enjoying the paint on her hands but when we went to put it on the plate, she started crying and screaming bloody murder. So we waited until she calmed down and tried again.  Poor thing was all tears but we managed to get something that resembles her hand.

We then headed to the last event for her birthday. Dinner at Cyclone Anayas.  She loves their chicken, avocado and rice with peas.  They came over to sing Happy Birthday to her and she was all excited at first to see the sparkler in her cake but then quickly went from 0-60 and started crying. I think the flame really scared her.  It was pretty cute!

She has her 1 year check-up on Monday and I will update you with her stats then!

Yesterday Luna had a visit from our friend Maria from San Francisco.  She brought Luna a few birthday presents, a cute pink and white outfit and a ladybug Kimochi with an extra bag of feelings (therapist toy)!  So cute.  We enjoyed seeing her and having lunch at Urban Taco. This was Luna's 4th time eating there and she just LOVES their tortillas, black beans, green rice and red snapper.

Later that night we checked out Natural Grocers that opened in our area and then took Luna to the neighborhood block party in her new Red Wagon!  Her friend Jack met us there too and they were both so cute strolling down the street in their Radio Flyers.

Also, I forgot to post Luna in one of her new bday toys: her Coupe! She absolutely LOVES it!

Since we are getting super close to Luna's official birthday, I have been feeling nostalgic.  So, I decided to go out to eat at Souper Salads tonight. This is the last meal I had before Luna was born. I know, Souper Salads? Well, last year when I was super pregnant I was craving something healthy because all I was eating was pure junk. So I decided I needed a good salad and had not eaten at Souper Salads since college. And I realize why. The food is mediocre and feels like I am eating at a Cici's pizza or something. But it satisfied my cravings at the time.  Last year I waddled into the restaurant, feeling too big to even walk from the table to the buffet stand! 

Tonight it was kind of a different experience for sure.  Things have changed from where we were last year.  Now that we have Luna we had to take turns getting up to get food while the other watched her.  We constantly were trying to take turns feeding Luna, making sure she had her water, and not throwing food on the floor or spilling it all over herself. :)  Eating out with a baby is no easy job.  When baby is done, you are done and time to get out of there. Babies just can't sit still and wait while the adults finish talking and taking their time.

It was fun taking a walk down memory lane and doing an anniversary dinner.  I went into labor like 8 hours later and my next meal after Luna was born was food from around the corner of the Birth Center: Court of Two Sisters. Yum! I was too excited to eat much but I do remember it tasting super yummy.  Maybe we will get take out from them on Friday just to be nostalgic all over again.

Sunday was my first mother's day with my sweet Luna!  We started the day off eating Brunch at Toulouse with Todd, my mom and sister.  Luna was wearing her 'I love Mommy' onesie!  Then we headed home for a nap and then to Northpark Mall to walk around and shop.  Then we had a nice relaxing afternoon and ordered a pizza from Atomic Pie.  Todd wined and dined me and I didn't have to cook dinner, very nice!!  He also got me a nice facial from Aqua that I already used a few days ago! It was a really nice Mother's Day.  I remember last year feeling so huge and uncomfortable at this time as Luna was born just 4 days later.

On Monday we met some other mommy friends for a Mommy Lunch with the babes at Babes!  The kids loved it and I could have eaten like 5 of their biscuits!  I wish we could have Mother's day once a month :)

So this weekend was my little sweet baby's 1st birthday party.  It was such a fun day and she had an absolute blast!  She was surrounded by her loving family and friends and it could not have been more perfect. I am so thankful for everyone that helped in planning it including Aunt Heather with her Chick Fil A contributions for food, my sister Erika, Bao and especially my mom- could not have done it without her!  She even spent the night on Friday to help clean and set up the next morning.

We decided to go all-out for her first birthday party because, well, first birthdays are the most special of them all, besides her actual day of birth.  First birthdays mark a huge event, that you as a parent survived the first year and your child has made it from newborn, infant to toddler hood.  A major deal!  We wanted everyone that has been a large part of her life to be able to come and celebrate with us.

We decided on a Paris Theme- just like her nursery.  We had her family there that included grandparents, Aunts and cousins.  Then her little neighborhood playgroup friends came to celebrate and play. And then our close friends with babies and preschoolers came as well. So it was a full house! As much as we wanted even more of our friends and their children there to help celebrate, it was just too much for our Little Lu and we did not want to over stimulate her, so we apologize if you felt snubbed and did not get an invitation.  We still love ya :)

Thank goodness it didn't rain because we had a lot going on outside.  A pool/ball pit, playground, sidewalk chalk art, bubbles and a pinata for babies- complete with pull strings that did NOT work by the way. As usual the parents had to intervene and get the stuff to spill out of it :)

Luna LOVED being sung Happy Birthday in her high chair as she loves singing songs and the attention, but the actual cake part? Not so much.  She turned her nose up in the air and decided she was not going to have any part of the cake or icing. Which is a good thing.  Don't need to start any bad sugar craving, carb loving habits too soon.

My angel was then into meltdown mode after the cake and was needing a nap, as she got cranky fast!  After the guests left we opened her gifts with her and she was delighted at all of her goodies.  She received so many wonderful clothes, books and toys and we are very thankful to everyone!  She is not going to be hurting for toys to play with anytime soon. 

I'm thinking next year for Bday #2 we will pick a park venue, less hectic and no cleaning.  It's all about stress-free and low maintenance!  So glad she has a May birthday and we can move it to outside :)

We tried to get a photo of the last remaining babies, but I think that they had had enough!

Luna loves to laugh and it is so hard to capture it on video. So we snuck one in while she was playing with Chica the other day. (Oh and ignore the TV on in the background- we were having tornado weather as Luna was getting ready for bed and had to catch the weather report)