Happy Birthday Domonique!

I think she had a pretty nice first birthday (on the 4th). She enjoyed some pancakes with ice cream (although she didn't get to pick the flavor). Then she "read" Grammy and Gaffa's card. Then all the kids enjoyed balloons. (I remembered!) It was fun to watch them all play, for a little bit because then the baby went to bed and everyone else went out to work in the garden!

After lunch, and a little more work in the garden, we suited up and went swimming at a friend's pool. It was great! It was the first time the entire family has been in the water together for quite some time and we all enjoyed it. Well, Domonique wasn't really happy about it but she calmed down once I held her close. (There's no picture of that because we were all in the pool.)

We headed home for a quick dinner, then cake and presents with Grandma and Grandpa Nichols. I had all the other kids pick out presents from toys that I took away a while back so no one has seen them for a long time. It turns out the baby really enjoyed them all so we did good! Kevin picked up a really big, super cute, stuffed penguin and a large bottle of bubbles. Grandma and Grandpa Nichols got a couple noisy toys and Domonique loved them - laughing and babbling as they made noise. It was really cute. I'm glad Kevin was video taping.

Then she got a phone call from Memere (Kevin's mom) and that was funny to watch. Kevin put it on speaker phone and Domonique looked at the phone and then at Kevin and then back at the phone. She was trying to figure out if it was a toy or not.

Kevin headed to bed after the party and I stayed up with the kids to take them to the fireworks. We ended up in an okay spot but next year we'll try a different place to see if we can see the lower ones. The kids were all very tired, a bit cranky, and went right to sleep when we got home.

All in all I'd say that was a pretty good day!

I took her to her 1-year check-up on Tuesday. She weighed 18 pounds, 8 ounces, and was 29 inches long. She's a little small for her age, but not at the bottom of the curve. She received 4 shots and didn't like them at all. She has been full on walking for about two months now and has 6 very sharp teeth. She doesn't like the sippy cup so she usually gets only 18-20 ounces of fluids a day because I'm still giving her bottles of formula. (We'll make the switch to real milk as I run out of the remaining formula.) She still has blue eyes and is really starting to laugh along with the other guys. She will give me 5 and kisses (the open mouth kind). She's just a sweet little thing and we love her to bits!