Birthday Girl

Today is Niko's 1st birthday.  I can't believe she's one already.  This day is bittersweet.  It's impossible not to think of the milestones normally reached by the end of a baby's first year; sitting, crawling, eating, walking, babbling, roaming around, exploring, etc.  But of course I can't focus on these things.  And I usually don't.  But the first birthday is a big landmark and a big reminder.  Niko has not even had her first bite of solid food yet.

But she has made some impressive progress.
She now has a somewhat regular sleep routine.  She takes two naps a day, at around 10:30am and 2:30pm.  Her final bedtime is around 7pm.
I can now place her in the bassinet to sleep and walk away.  She can fall asleep on her own.  This is HUGE. 
She also has a feeding routine.  She gets 4oz of formula every two hours during the day, 6 feedings total.
On a few occasaions she was able to hold on to a wedge of fruit and suck on it for juice.  The fruits she can hold so far are apples and pears. And I have offered strawberries and watermelons to her (I have to hold these since they break apart easily, and she doesn't like the mesh bags).  This girl likes fruit.  
She can reach out and touch the face of the person holding her, which is a sweet way to connect with her.
And she can laugh out loud and recognize humor like a 'real' kid.  I say real because I sometimes forget to treat her like a real baby.  

Here is a video a friend shot today.  We sang happy birthday to Niko with a mini cake. She didn't eat it and looked around with a pretty puzzled look on her face.

Happy birthday my love!