Alyssa- almost a year old!

I can't believe this little girl is nearing her first birthday. wow. It seems like just yesterday she was a screaming little colicky babe and yet sometimes its difficult to make that connection with who she is today. She warms my heart with her cute toofers and even bigger smile! She's been a mover and a groover from day one and not much has changed. She can't stand to get her diaper or clothes changed because that would mean she'd have to sit still for more than a half a second. She crawls around every chance she gets and loves to cruise the furniture, toys etc. As of this past week she loves to carry around Madelyn's baby dolls. I think she knows their pretty special since her big sis always has one in tote. Of course, then we go through the whole fit from Madelyn about how those are her babies and she doesn't want Alyssa eating them:) I am thinking Santa might bring Alyssa her very own baby this Christmas.

Alyssa's been crawling around for a couple of months at least but just last week she started flocking to the stairs. We are only home in the evenings so I've just kept a close eye on her and kept her away from the stairs. Well after a couple of nights, I had given her a bath and brought her down to play while I got her bottle ready. Being the pig that I am, I took a couple extra minutes to stuff my face with a piece of pizza for dinner. As I was sitting there I heard a loud BANG and it did not sound good. My heart skipped a beat as I hear her let out a loud cry. I run into the living room frantically looking around and yelling "Where is she?!?!?!?" (it seemed like forever) Then I remembered--the stairs. UGGGH She was lying at the bottom of the stairs, lifting her face off the wood floor (eek!) and bawling her eyes out. I felt horrible. I had completely forgotten about her new ability to climb the stairs. It was awful, awful, awful. Since it was bedtime, I took her upstairs to her room and rocked her with the bottle as usual. She had missed her nap that afternoon so she was very tired. She fell asleep and then I brought her down to sleep on my lap for a couple of hours. I woke her up a few times before going to bed myself that night. I know accidents happen but it doesn't make it any easier when your baby is hurt.:(
Needless, to say we now have a gate at the stairs!

Here are some pics of my big girl climbing:)