JOEY LULU, ONE YEAR OLD!

JOEY LULU, ONE YEAR OLD!

Our little Joanna Lulu turned one a couple of weeks ago! She celebrated by getting her first tooth and three shots. Worst birthday presents ever. Hence the sad face in the photo above. This was one of the least tearful pictures we were able to get, and we tried at two different times. So luckily a few days later we had some real photos taken with a real professional photographer and those turned out MUCH, MUCH better (stay tuned for those in another post).

We’re going to sound like such braggy parents for a minute, so forgive us, but we are so so so proud of the little girl Joey is becoming. She’s got the sweetest little personality — thoughtful, pensive, curious, happy. She watches everything around her and seems to always be thinking, taking it all in, trying to make sense of it all. The first thing she does with any toy is flip it over to see how it works. She is obsessed with Ruby and Mocha, our dog and cat. She loves walking (in the cart) around Target waiving and smiling at every single person she sees — she makes everyone smile. She’s a night-time and nap-time sleeping champ, which makes our lives ten million times easier.

Look at how little she was 12 months ago!!

And all 12 months …

She’s grown so much! About 14 pounds and 11 inches! Now she’s walking (with help), crawling like a speed demon, babbling and giggling and feeding herself. It’s been a pretty incredible year!

We celebrated Joey’s first birthday with Joey Lulu’s Luau, a Hawaiian-themed brunch with a few friends. And grrrr I didn’t get a single picture. Not one. (The one above I took the following day.) That’s what happens when a) we accidentally slept in and got a late start on prepping and b) guests started arriving early. But anyway, take my word for it that it was tons of fun and really pretty — maybe imagine it even prettier than it was in real life, ok, haha? 😉 We served homemade waffles with homemade whipped cream, pulled pork on Kings Hawaiian slider buns, and tons and tons of fresh fruit.

I have a bunch more pictures to share with you from our family photoshoot, so I’ll put those in another post to keep you from being completely inundated with photos all at once!!