Party Animal

This little girl had a birthday recently. Don't let those big blue eyes fool you. She is innocent and sweet, but she has opinions and she doesn't mind letting you know what they are! I didn't think one year-olds really had lots of opinions. But this one does. She prefers chicken tikka masala to any baby food found in a jar and unless you've got some cheesecake, don't even bother with any pureed foods. Period.

Anyway, I love a girl who knows what she wants and I definitely love this little girl. We've had such a fun year getting to know her and although birthdays are a reason to party, I can't help but be a little bit sad that a first birthday means that she is no longer a baby. Luckily she still lets me snuggle her when she can pencil me in.

Since we had an abundance of pureed baby food sitting on our shelves (please read above for more info on this), I decided to make a carrot cake. It uses pureed carrots and applesauce so I was able to use up 4 jars of the 64 jars of baby food sitting on my shelves. Perfect...anyone got any recipes that use the nasty pureed infant meats? Let me know.

She cracks me up. We did the whole off-key birthday song and blow-out-the-candles shenanigans and then we waited for her to tear her cupcake apart and trash the dining room. She just picked it up like she was middle-aged and took small bites out of the side, even setting it down on the plate every few bites to take a sip of milk. What?! Seriously, I love this girl.

Um, love her dad too :)

So after she ate the entire cupcake, she got this big grin on her face and squealed. Then she picks up her plate (not plastic) and chucks it on the floor! And smashes it to pieces. Then squeals again. Then exclaims, "Uh-oh."

Uh-oh is right. We've got a party animal on our hands.

Well, I got my broom out (the one that says, "Meredith, you sweep me off my feet!" on the side...thank you, Tom). And after I cleaned up the mess, we moved the party to the living room for presents.

Her first doll (from her grandparents). Every little girl needs a doll, don't you think?

Here she is, taking the doll for a walk. So motherly already. [A few hours later she completely undressed the doll and threw her over the side of the crib. Talk about inhumane...she is lucky I don't do such things to her. Better keep working with her on the mothering skills.]

And after a bath and twenty minutes of jumping on the bed with her older brother, the little party animal was ready for bed.

It is so hard to see my sweet kids grow up so fast! I love it. But I wish I could replay it and watch it in slow motion. I remember being younger and always looking forward to things - graduating from high school, going to college, getting my first job, getting married. But during a lot of that time I felt like I hardly enjoyed each milestone because I was always planning for the next one (not the next marriage, just the next milestone). Becoming a mom was different. Babies grow so fast and change so much so quickly that if you're not paying attention to the present, you miss out. It was a turning point in my life for many reasons, but most importantly because I stopped spending so much time looking back at the past or forward to the future and started to just focus on the sweet little baby right in front of me - and everything else that was good about right then. I think that lesson stood out to me even more after having a second child. The second time around I wasn't worried about her smiling at exactly six weeks of age or being one and not walking yet - I just have been able to enjoy whatever she is doing while she is doing it.

Speaking of milestones, she might not be walking yet but did you know that she can scale the entire piano (no pun intended) without assistance and sit on top of it? I found her doing just that a few days ago. So you see, I really have no choice but to focus on the present moment :)