ONE YEAR OLD!!!!

My little Banana is turning one year old tomorrow!! I just can't believe that a year has gone by already. I still remember sitting in the doctor's office Wednesday evening, Dr. Kelly telling me that I won't go into labor tonight, but I might get a few contractions because of the exam. I was VERY unhappy to hear that, to say the least! We went to Culver's afterward and had a double butterburger with cheese and bacon! Then around 2 am I got my first contraction, and I noticed that they kept coming every 10 minutes. After that kept up for 2 1/2 hours, I thought... okay, maybe this really IS going to happen today! So I woke Tim up at 4:30, much to his confusion. Of course, when he found out why I woke him up, he was much too excited to go back to sleep! We got up, took showers, made sure everything was in order, I called work to let them know maternity leave was starting, and around 7:45 it was time to call the doctor! We made it to the hospital around 8:30 (though if I had my way, it would have been sooner - I think I'm lucky Tim didn't throw me out the car window!), then about 5 hours later, our darling little Anna was born! Other than having a little trouble at the end, the labor wasn't too bad (the epidural helped, of course). The umbilical cord was loosely around Anna's neck, so that caused a bit of trouble when I was pushing; the nurses solved it by having me lie on my side for a minute in between contractions. I have no idea why that helps, but it did. Anyway, one year later, here we are! Let me see if I can give a run-down of how she's doing...

Anna's likes:
Music - any toy that makes music, particularly her Cookie Monster saxophone, her CD player, and her Love Bug book. She also likes it when I sing to her.
Books - holding and turning the pages are a delight to her. She also loves her Sesame Street book with the finger puppets
Crawling/Cruising - honestly, I never even thought she would crawl, but I guess she has found it a lot safer than trying to walk. I thought for sure she would be walking by now, but she is so cautious about trying to take risks. She always considers taking a step when she is moving to another place, but if she determines it looks too far, she will drop down and crawl there. She does love to walk while holding onto things, and she is very fast!
Exploring - she gets into EVERYTHING! No cabinet is left unexplored, no shelf within reach is off-limits, and she loves the microphone that was plugged into my computer
Food - go figure, she tends to likes breads and unhealthy things! She loves mac and cheese, spaghetti, fruits, and pumpkin. I've also made her a ground sirloin, spinach, tomato, sweet potato mix that she devours! I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with that.

Anna's dislikes:
Pizza, surprisingly. I think it's too much for her to chew!
Taking a bath when she is too tired already.
Being strapped into her car seat with her coat on (can't blame her there)
Okay, she doesn't really have any real dislikes. She's such a happy kid, and so easy-going I can't believe it! I love her more than anything in the world!