Birthday Girl

There's no good way to talk about your baby's first birthday without sounding a little trite... can't believe a whole year has gone by... can't believe how much she's changed... blah, blah, blah. I actually thought I would be sad when the one year mark came, and while I'd give anything to go back to that delivery room and hear her voice for the first time all over again, I'm happy that she's a year old. She's a good, funny little person who seems to enjoy each day more than the next as she aquires new skills and comprehends more and more of the world around her. So, at the one year mark, I just feel really blessed that we have such a great little girl.

Here's a couple photos of Anna opening gifts at the Kulp family Memorial Day / birthday party that my parents hosted on Monday. Word got around about Anna's love affair with duckies, so she got a few more from her Aunt Ellen and, clearly, was thrilled about it.

I love this photo of Anna and her buddy Nicholas examining the goods. Poor Nicholas was in tears just before this picture was taken when he saw Josh let a birthday balloon fly away. Josh consoled Nicholas by telling him the balloon went to be with Jesus. It worked... no more tears.

Here's a photo of the entire Kulp clan (minus Jacob and Caleb). We just keep getting bigger. In the past four years we've added seven new members!

Anna got a Winnie the Pooh birthday card in the mail yesterday and she's been it carrying all around the house ever since. It's pretty cute, despite the glittery trail it's leaving.

Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi

I think it's official... Anna's first word is "hi!" Of course, she's been saying "duh duh", "da duh", and "da da" for months now, but "hi" is the first thing she's said with actual meaning.

We finally had a nice weekend here in RI so Josh got lots of work done while Anna played in the back yard...

... and here's a random photo of the little munchkin eating Cheerios out of her bowl in the morning. I just love the tight-as-sausage-skin pjs, the random Cheerio stuck to her shirt, and her unusually large head with a little bed hair going on.

Stuck

Just when I thought I had the back room childproofed, Anna learned how to climb up the lone stair... and has no idea how to get back down once she's up. Watching her struggle is painful, but Josh keeps encouraging me to let her go so she'll learn. This has resulted in several falls (some flat on her face) over the past few days. Sigh.

New Photos

We received a special request for more Anna photos, so here you go. First, a picture of her in the new bathtub with a hair style created by Josh. You'll see a couple duckies floating around in there. She can't get enough of them and she definitely knows that their "home" is the bathroom. If I put her down in the upstairs hallway, she immediately yells "duh duh", flies into the bathroom, and picks up the first duckie she sees. Too cute.

And just in case you thought you'd never see a picture of Anna and mom, here it is. Since I'm usually the one behind the camera, there's been very little photo documentation of my presence (despite logging a solid 84 hours on the job each week). Josh took this on Sunday morning before we left for church.