Oh sweet Glo-girl, I can’t believe she’s TWO. I can’t believe we don’t have a baby in the house anymore! Seriously, she’s really not a baby – and it makes me both sad and thankful as we watch her grow into a beautiful little girl.
Remember this constant companion?
It’s GONE. We took it away in August when we returned home from travelling and she transitioned beautifully. Though, I’ll never forget her reaching down the crack between her crib and wall and saying, “Pa-ii? pa-ii?” looking for it. There were no tears, but she still is known to swipe another baby’s if she can get her hands on it. 
And even though she’s not a baby anymore, we still rock the baby-wearing. This girl LOVES being in the ergo on my back. AND I love keeping her close like that.
She still adores and looks up to her big sisters
And wants to be just like them
She is so smiley and silly, and we love to watch her joke around.
She is also terribly opinionated and gets a little frustrated when she can’t communicate as well as she’d like. She has been slow on the fine motor (speaking) and quite quick with the gross motor (running, jumping, climbing, flipping, falling). She definitely keeps me on my toes. 
For her birthday we had a play date with some fun friends at the park. The next day we went to the zoo with our neighbor, Gloria’s sweet friend Madison and her Mom.
And as a special treat we rode the train:
(you can’t tell from this, but she loooooooooved it)
We also had a little birthday dinner and cake with our family and friends (but I need to find those and put them up another time).
We are soooooo thankful for Gloria’s life and the wonderful person God made her to be. She is truly delightful and full of life. And while she’s not a baby anymore…
(I took these the day we got our referral for Jonathan and David)
She will always be MY baby.
I’m working on posts for these two birthday girls, whose special days fall 2 week apart.
I always thought Noa and Martha looked alike and Glo was the one who looked a little different, but as I looked back on Noa’s photos from when she was around 2, I can’t believe how much they resemble each other at this age. Here is our Noa when she was around 2:
And here’s our Glo-worm
Whose who with Aunt Hannah?
Love these cuties.. and amloving celebrating their precious lives!
Can’t believe this monkey turned ONE this last Tuesday!
Gloria is such sunshine in our lives and it was a special week with many fun things to celebrate this precious girl. It started Monday night with our group of close seminary friends. We have “family night” every 2 weeks where we get together for food and fellowship with 6 other couples, all the husbands of whom are classmates with Eric. Glo LOVED the happy birthday song, and chowed down on her piece of pumpkin bread and whipped cream (I did too! Thanks, Christie ). I was enjoying it so much I forgot to take photos!
Tuesday morning we had our traditional birthday pancakes. This photo is right before she stuck her hand in the flame and I yelled for her to stop. She didn’t cry from the burn or the yell. So grown up…
And then on Friday, when all her FL cousins (that is, all her cousins except for Baby O – we missed him!) were back in town, we had a little celebration brunch with sorbet cones after. I wanted to make her a sunshine cake, but it just didn’t happen. Eric says if there is ever a year to not make the cake, the first birthday is the one to do it on. So, we plopped a candle in her sorbet and she was just as happy.
8 of 10 little cousins…
We also celebrated her baptism this morning at church, which was made extra special by my big brother Jonathan performing the ceremony. I’ll try to post photos and maybe a video later this week.
I can’t believe my baby is 1! It is so crazy to me, and terribly sad that she is growing up so very fast. But wow, there is so much joy in watching her grow too. She has begun to walk, she communicates quite effectively, and is such a lover of people. We just adore her!
We praise you, Lord, for Gloria Kathleen Noll and the incredible addition she is to our lives!
