white, gold & pink: tatum's first birthday and party.

We were fortunate to have all of our family come over to help us celebrate Tatum's first birthday this past Saturday... on her actual birthday. That hardly ever happens! It was cool because her birthday and party got to be on the same day. Not so cool? She only had one day to wear her birthday outfits. Or can we use the entire month of August to wear those? Yes? Perfect.

Anyway, the day was so much fun. We don't exactly know what Tatum's favorite foods are yet (um, she eats everything), so we just guessed as to what she would enjoy on her birthday. Eggs for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch and some Mexican food for dinner.

Oh, and a cake. All for herself. Which I'm fairly certain she enjoyed. Too much? Perhaps. But hey, it was her party and she got to do what she wanted.

First birthdays are always a little bittersweet. And with us fairly certain this is our very last baby (only a miracle from God would we conceive another – Sawyer's convinced [!]), celebrating Tatum's was especially so. But I love the years that are ahead of us. The first year is always a little hard for me. But now? When she's starting to become more independent and can communicate better? I have no complaints!

So a little one year update on our sweet girl:
– starting to stand up and take a few steps
– has 4.5ish teeth (and y'all, her two side teeth came in before the two front teeth; it's awesome)
– eats three solid meals a day and at least one snack
– still nurses four, sometimes five, times a day
– sleeps through the night (with an occasional random wake every once in a while)
– takes two naps a day – a longer one in the morning and then a shorter one mid-afternoon
– says dada and mama... but definitely prefers saying dada
– maybe has other words, but they don't mean much yet
– loves her brothers fiercely; they are her biggest fans
– loves her daddy but still slightly prefers her mama
– gets into everything. EVERYTHING.
– climbs on top of things she shouldn't
– is in a size 4 diaper (our boys never wore above that when potty training at 3!)

And I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Mostly? She's a sweetheart and we all love her to pieces. It was so fun to see so much pink at a birthday party around here. Even Cayden was confused for a bit on the girlishness of everything. But we were all super-okay with it and loved celebrating our sweet tater tot.