Leighton turned ONE last week and I’m going to say what every mom says: it went by way too quickly!
I think Leighton has more nicknames than K did at this age and she responds to every one of them. 🤷🏼♀️ K calls her “sister”, “my little cutie girl”, “Elle babe” and “Elle girl”. I mainly call her Elle (L-E) girl but I throw in a “Leighton Elizabeth, calm down!” as she thrashes her body around while I dress her. She actually might think her middle name is “calm down”.
Elle is SO animated and there’s no holding back the whole body bounce and arm flails when she’s excited. She loves to dance to baby shark and Elmo and her favorite toy is still a door stopper. Second best is a remote, but don’t you dare give her a “baby toy”. Not interested.
Leighton is obsessed with her daddy (and seems to just stare at men in general 😂) and has FINALLY started giving me snuggles. Only took a year…
L has zero chill. She’s either 100mph or asleep. Even when I feed her at night she eats, then shoves herself away to lay back in her bed. I don’t think she’s let me just hold her, calmly, since maybe 6 weeks old. LOL
She finally started crawling on all 4s, but she still prefers to army sprint across the house. She’s standing and makes her way around the couch as long as she has something to hold on to. She’s so eager to get up and run around with K!
Their bond is the sweetest thing to watch. Kensie is the most caring, protective and gentle hearted big sister. She can be in the middle of a screaming tantrum and will stop in her tracks if it’s for “sister”.
Leighton seems like she will be our “rough n tough” one. She climbed Kensie’s Elsa castle 3 times in one week (and fell off twice). 🤦🏼♀️
She has always been and still is our little sleep champ!!! Elle sleep trained herself and she’s currently weaning herself from breastfeeding, too. Girl just wants to sink all 4 of her teeth into some FOOD. Zero complaints here.
Leighton also has quite the vocabulary. She says momma, dada, hi, bye, yeay, wow, uh oh, cracker (well, “cack uh” 😆)…and I think that’s it right now. She’s a chatter box. She’s also very physical in that when she’s done with something she will chuck it across the room, smacks anyway anything she doesn’t want (with impressive force) and smacks her mouth awkwardly hard when she wants food. 🤷🏼♀️
Elle has insane flexibility – her pediatrician thinks she has hyper joint mobility. As long as she continues hitting her milestones, it just means she’s abnormally flexible. I hope it helps her in gymnastics and she’s blessed with the straddle hips that I never had. 😂
Leighton’s 1st birthday photos are where we discovered her love for SUGAR. 🤪 She rarely looked up at the camera because she was too busy rolling her body in her cake. 🤦🏼♀️
When we tried to get K involved, she asked the photographer for a fork and plate and said she couldn’t kiss her bc she was “messy messy!” 😂😂 If that doesn’t tell you she’s my kid I don’t know what will. I had to point out a clear spot on her face (and probably bribe her while I was at it) for K to commit.
Next up: become bilingual!! Leighton is officially at daycare with K and with how much she already talks, I have no doubt she will be speaking Spanish soon, too. We are SO grateful for Nana, Isa and Mrs. Ria. L has zero tears when I hand her off and the way she reaches for them tells me she LOVES them. They also threw her the sweetest 1st birthday party and K officially has competition for the “princess” role. 🙄😆
I’ve said from the day she was born that she has the most special little sparkle in her eye and it hasn’t faded one bit.
Happy first birthday, Elle babe. We love you SO very much. 🥰
Bows of KB & Elle 