Happy birthday, dear Beatrice.

My darling girl,

You are such a delightful baby.

I am so happy that you are one now because I feel like you really want to be. You have a big toothy smile, you’re trying out new words, you take shaky steps, and you just can’t wait to do everything that your big sister can.

I still don’t know how this dark-haired, brown-eyed mama produced a blonde, but I love patting your fuzzy yellow head and looking into your big blue eyes. I’m admittedly biased, but I think that you are just plain gorgeous. You live up to your name by making things more beautiful wherever you go.

You’ve had a pretty good first year. It’s been (ahem) a loud one, seeing as you never appreciated the pacifier that I kept trying to shove in your mouth. My goodness, girl, have you got a set of pipes, and you like to use ‘em. Happy? Loud. Sad? Loud. Quiet? Better go see what you got into.

You’re a smart girl who’s figured out how get into all sorts of cupboards and drawers, but here are only a few times of day when you like to toodle around by yourself — you much prefer playing with people. Clapping, waving, and the mouth bibbles seem to be pretty fun. And then there’s peekaboo, your all-time favorite game. I know that things are bad when a round of peekaboo won’t cheer you up. You’re not a huge fan of toys except when sister has them. Then, of course, they are to die for. It is rather unfortunate that you settled on Lucia, Camilla’s favorite doll, as your favorite as well. She’s been pretty good about sharing, but we are hoping that Gloria, your new (and very similar) baby will help you to avoid confrontation in the future.

Your birthday was Friday, but seeing as we’ve had a very busy weekend (and that you can’t read), I’m hoping that you’ll forgive me for being late with this post. Daddy’s birthday was yesterday and we’ve been very busy trying to make sure he had a special day too. I love your daddy so much, and the fact that we made you together only makes me appreciate him more.

You are my Sweet Bea and you always will be.

Love,

Mama

…

Now, for family who like to look at this sort of thing, here are some photos from June 15. We had a delightful day with a very few presents (it works so much better that way) and a yummy dinner with her godmama. I think it is safe to say that Beatrice enjoyed her birthday very much.

Camilla and I decorated together the day before.

I finished my photo project and printed them out! More to come about that.

We made cupcakes together on Friday morning.

Camilla is a very good cooking helper.

Dumping and stirring are her favorites.

A “1″ for Bea and a “3″ for Camilla. (If was smarter, I would have saved the one afterward to make “31″ for Josh.)

Here comes the birthday girl…

Now for the presents.

The sisters and their (almost) matching dolls.

Thank you, grandma!

Now for the other fun present: tissue paper.

Peeka…

Boo!

It gets her every time.

Oh wait, there’s something else in the gift bag.

What can it be?

Hooray! My very own bonker!

What baby wouldn’t want to hit things with a little wooden mallet?

Now for the birthday dinner.

Bea’s godmother Laura came to eat with us and practice her baby-feeding skills.

Beatrice is ONE!

Now for the birthday cupcake.

Mama helps blow the candle out.

But you get to eat it all by yourself.

Hey, this is good stuff. You’ve been holding out on me, fellows.