ONE!

December 31, 2008, Adelyn Mei Anderson was born. 8 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches. Here is what she looked like when we brought her home from the hospital:

December 31, 2009 she turned one...not quite sure her current stats since she was too sick for her one-year well visit, but we know she's a cutie! Here she is in her $5 ride at the mall...loving every minute of it.

It's been a busy year for us, but a good year and we are so happy to have her in our family. Those of you who are around here know she has quite a little personality. She is very expressive and lets you know loud and clear what she wants, often times just with her face (I'm sure you can guess what happened to this crown right after the picture was taken).

She has been busy adding vocab (and nodding) to her expressions and can say: dada, momma, bye-bye, hi, water, cracker, banana, cheese, hot, dog, go, outside, up, down, sock, and book (my personal favorite). Reading is by far her favorite pasttime, but I think dancing to the ringtones on my phone is a close second. She loves music so much that she even dances to the songs that we sing for her and has recently added headbanging to her repetoire of moves!

She is still working on the walking thing, but is getting braver and braver and now takes up to five or so steps at a time. Here she is blowing out her candles, well, Jadyn blowing out her candles is more like it!

I made carrot cake cupcakes for Adelyn since that is the Baria family favorite and I figured I should indoctrinate her early on. Sadly, I think she would have been a lot happier with the traditional chocolate, as she didn't even finish one little cupcake!!

She is indeed a big fan of chocolate, but her favorite food is definitely bananas. She isn't digging cow's milk so far and last night we discovered she has a love of tofu, so maybe she IS half Chinese after all! Pretty much she just loves whatever we are eating, and wants to be just like us--she even cried and cried to have her own chopsticks to eat. She is also still working on the teeth though and finally almost has four.

Thanks to all those who helped us celebrate...including those who helped us celebrate from a distance. And thanks to all who have helped us out along the adventures...with advice, babysitting, friendship, support, praising her genius and cuteness...it all contributes to our happy standard of living. :)