Camilla is 1!

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was in labor and had the fastest delivery imaginable to welcome our sweet little Camilla girl. Camilla, whose name wasn't even on our list, but came to us and we realized that it's perfect. I don't think I ever wrote it down, but she was going to be Amelia Grace. At least that was the only name we didn't hate the idea of, but it was never quite right, and she came out and just wasn't an Amelia. Matthias was thinking Catherine, but I just didn't think she was a Catherine at all. Jokingly, Matthias said we should put the two names together, and call her Camelia, and well, that let us to going between Camille and Camilla. We decided to sleep on it, and when I was waking up for the morning (although I'm sure I nursed a time or two in there) Matthias told me that he felt really good about that name because he'd looked up the meaning of it. Both names meant "perfect", which was all we could ever call our precious little girl. Camille is French, and Camilla is Italian, so we went by Matthias's mother's heritage since she is half-Italian. Camilla has been perfect for our little girl, and I'm excited to see how she likes her name.

We decided to continue our tradition of sneaking presents into the crib while she was sleeping. She didn't even notice.

We got her a little teaset to play with. Notice how perfectly her little finger is extended. Oh, and that's a picture of a yawn, but it sure looks like Camilla-zilla, doesn't it?

Oliver came up with the nickname Camillie, so that's what we call her when we don't call her Camilla. However, when she is tired and gets into crazy mode, we call her Camilla-zilla.

Camilla has been slower in motor skills than Oliver, but I feel like I can communicate with her better than him at one year. Part of that I'm sure is that I know more, but she's a little communicator. For a long time she wouldn't even put weight on her legs, she would just hold them out ready to sit down. In the last month she has been putting weight on them and climbing up on things. She'll be walking in no time, and Oliver can't wait! For now I'm loving that she still army crawls and that her shirts get far dirtier than her knees.

She decided to grace us with her first "I'm tall enough to pull up and play the piano" on her birthday.

I love her little toes!

Having a Memorial Day birthday was fun because the whole family was home to play. First we had a photo shoot where Camilla was a doll!

Do you want some, Momma?

Showing off that she actually puts weight on her feet now.

Ah! That smile! All 6 teeth and those eyes and cheeks just kill me!

Camilla's smile reaches her eyes, and she often does it with pursed lips like she's holding in the laughter.

She gets very serious when stirring her cocoa. And notice that the headband didn't last long at all. ;)

She was using her spoon on a bit of grass that was on her tutu...

That face! And you can see that her hair is getting long enough to show a little  bit of curl.

How she spends most of the day: with something sticking out of her mouth. She crawls around all day with various toys in her mouth. 

More stirring. We just discovered that she LOVES using a bowl and spoon/fork. Oliver was a disaster with food, but she is actually pretty neat with it (well, as neat as a baby can be, lol!)

Check out those little toes in our lawn of clover. ;)

Being an army crawler gets her shirts filthy, but she spends her day with her feet in the air and it's adorable!

 Such a curious little girl...

Full of so much spunk! I love our little Camillie!

Then, while I was making dinner (mmmm...I made Greek gyros!) Matthias set up our new to us inflatable pool and the kids played with him outside. I even joined them with my feet in for a little bit. The best idea was when they put the slide in. This could keep Oliver entertained for hours!

All the while Matthias was chilling with Camilla, who was playing with the Woody ball.

 I should have gotten a picture too, so we could sing "We are a happy family!" I love these three!

Then we had some dinner of Greek Gyros. They were amazing, if I do say so myself. And Oliver and Camilla would agree too.

Camilla loves to share her food.

And Oliver's gyro took a turn being a dinosaur...

For Camilla's first taste of cake I tried out a new recipe for pink lemonade cupcakes.

Camilla was really excited about it all, and once she had a taste she was stuffing it into her mouth as quickly as possible.

Matthias made sure I got some pictures with the birthday girl. She really wanted my cupcake, but luckily she shared once I gave in.

Oliver liked his cupcake too.

Then we finished the night with a family picture thanks to the timer on my camera. Luckily 1 out of the 10 shots had this perfect smile on Oliver. The others are all stony-faced!

I'm pretty sure Camilla was on sugar overload. I love our little family!

Now for the stats:
Weight: 20.8 lbs (about 40%)
Head: 46.5cm (about 85%)
Length: 28.5" (about 20%)

As you can see, she is a smart baby, but slow on the gross motor skills. Her fine motor skills constantly amaze me though. Every baby is different, right? (oh, and she has a big head and little arms...)

Her words are:

Hi (accompanied with a cute little wave)
Bye ( " )
Mama
Dada
Ssss (Potty, accompanied with the sign)
Yayaya and pretty much all other babble noises in parrot.
She calls her little lambie and her little baby doll "Buh" and hugs and kisses them.

She can also sign "More", but usually screams like Camilla-zilla first. ;) Oliver would join in, so we told him that he needs to be a good example for Camilla and we remind him to whisper scream, and she joins right in.

One of Camilla's favorite games has always been Peek-a-Boo, and now she she pulls her blanket up she says "Buh!" with her eyes laughing in pure pleasure.

Matthias loves to make our babies talk, by moving their chins and saying words in a high-pitched baby voice. It was funny when Oliver would try to mimic Matthias mimicking Camilla, but it's funnier now that Camilla mimics Matthias and Oliver mimicking her. She puts her little finger up to her chin and says "Me, me me" which is the generic word that Matthias would always use when he wasn't saying "I love Dada!" or other such nonsense. I love it!

She also started nodding her head every time we ask her a question. It is just about the cutest thing ever and she does it so confidently like she knows what we are saying (and I'm pretty sure she does a lot of the time). It's so refreshing having such an agreeable baby along with an almost 3 year old.

We love our sweet Camillie and her snuggles and smiles and kisses melt our hearts every day! She's been an amazing sleeper until recently, but I think she's starting to transition to 1 nap, and I remember this being torture with Oliver, and it's not there yet. It wouldn't be so bad if Oliver weren't insistent on playing with "my sister" when they are trying to go to bed. You know, cute and aggravating at the same time. At least they love each other, which is what we wanted in having 2 kids so close together. Oliver is pretty cute, and Camilla is pretty cute, but together they are just amazingly cute!