Little one turns 1!

Happy first birthday! Here's some cake!

Can anyone believe it's been a year? I certainly miss my sweet little newborn, but am thoroughly enjoying my sweet little one-year-old. Some things have changed, some things haven't.

The celebration started on Friday night with the arrival of Grandpa Hanks. Elise, having just been put to bed minutes before, was oblivious.

On Saturday morning, however, we were all thrilled to find that she managed to remember Grandpa, possibly due to our weekly video chats. The baby  insisted on being held almost immediately.



Elise kept her balloon close at
all times.



If Grandpa was the first birthday gift, the next was almost as fun: our cat arrived with him. Elise, who loves anything furry that moves, was over the moon as she followed the cat around, squealing with joy and occasionally giving it a surprisingly nice little pat. Also deserving a mention is the piano that rode along in Grandpa's SUV. It's now in our living room, and Elise, being a big fan of music, buttons and anything new, likes it too. It was a good day for the girl.

The city we live in had apparently found out about Elise's big day, and threw a parade, probably in her honor. We soon headed towards the downtown to find our spot to watch. This was both girls' first parade, and a huge success. Although Kalina buried her head in Grandpa's shoulder for the occasional loud noises, she loved waving her flag at the floats, watching people do flips as they made their way down the road and gathering candy that she soon forgot about. Elise bobbed up and down to the various bands, having recently developed the propensity to dance,  played with the leaves on the tree above us, and wondered why we wouldn't let her walk out onto the road. Both girls enjoyed their free balloons, the overall spectacle, and the dogs and horses that were allowed to march around. In fact, Elise loved her balloon so much she hugged the air right out of it. Aw.



Horse wanted to see the parade,
too.



By the time we made it home, it had already been a big day. But it was about to get bigger, as we had planned a small, yet festive, birthday party for Elise with a few friends. We all crashed for varying amounts of time, but probably not long enough for any of us, and then it was off to the races blowing up balloons, making a cake, decorating, cleaning and preparing some finger foods to celebrate our 1-year-old.

The theme of Elise's party was fruit, it being one of the things she loves best in the world and an easy motif for a low-key party, since the decorations doubled as the fare. Her cake was flavored like cherry and shaped like a watermelon (confusing, I know), and I also made a few fruity appetizers.

Which I was feeding to both girls as our guests arrived--our first in-town friends, with two girls who are each about a year older than ours. The youngest gave little Elise a big birthday hug (does it get any sweeter than an almost 2-year-old hugging a newly 1-year-old?), and everyone played and talked about the balloons until dinner.

Our guests!

Which we ate at our "new" dining room table, which actually held everyone comfortably! Congratulations, Elise, on being our first big event in our new house!

The older girls then helped me get the cake ready (one chose the color of candle while the other stuck it in), and the birthday girl insisted on gnawing on a toy as we attempted to get a good picture of her with it. Swapping out the toy with a party blowout thingy improved the pictures considerably.



Us! Not pictured: Grandpa!



Elise fidgeted impatiently in her high chair, either to sample her cake or simply get down and play. She perked up when we all started singing. When it came to blowing out the candle, she looked a bit clueless, so the bigger girls gave her some help. As did Daddy, who delivered the final blow and put the brave little flame out of its confused, flickering misery. 

[Side note: since then, I've a few times  asked Elise to "blow her nose" into a tissue I've held up for her. What does she do? She blows with her mouth! Cute!]

Elise got to choose which one
to open first!

Elise first dug into her cake more out of curiousity than anything else. A few gentle pats and pokes, though, led to some frosting in her mouth, which led to more squishy playtime and frosting on her nose and forehead. She surprised me only by how clean, relatively, she stayed. 

We timed things well enough that I was able to transfer the baby directly from the high chair into her bedtime bath, and put the exhausted little birthday baby down for bed shortly thereafter.

The next morning at 4:30, it was clear our baby had come down with a yucky cold, and that between Elise and I, only one of us would be sleeping the rest of the night. Being the birthday girl, she won.

But it was a birthday, at least, and once a normal hour rolled around we had fun playing, visiting the cat and, once everyone else was awake, digging into a couple presents.

We celebrated with an easy outing to the bison/elk preserve, as well as the bird sanctuary. From her carseat, Elise had trouble seeing more than treetops and a very cloudy sky. From the skylight in Grandpa's Vue, however, the view was grand (see picture). We wouldn't want her to miss the buffalo, would we? In addition, we also spotted elk, deer (and a fawn!) and wild turkeys, all of which were brave enough to be quite close to the car.

And then there were more presents, which Kalina was more than happy to help Elise figure out how to unwrap (and did a very nice job, too--letting Elise get a few fistfulls of paper alongside her own). Fortunately for Kalina, Elise soon became far more interested in the gifts than the unwrapping, so the bigger girl got to finish the job.

We also ate out at a real restaurant for dinner, where Elise enjoyed flipping through a few animal books, woofing at the dogs and mooing at everything else, before filling her mouth with apple chunks for the rest of the meal. Kalina ecstatically ordered a hot dog from the kids' menu, all by herself, and also wolfed down half of Grandpa's catfish. Yes, you read that right--we got to experience a relatively peaceful restaurant meal even with two kids. What a treat!



Kalina picked out some maracas for
Elise, who loved them!



And then the big day was over. I realize that when your nose is stuffy and you have to nap twice, against your will, it's probably not as exciting of a day as it should be to celebrate such a huge occasion. But I'm pretty sure even with all that, Elise got the picture that she's loved very much and the world has been a much better place ever since she was given to us. We love you, little one!

At one year old, here's what Elise can do:



-Walk halfway across the room. Holding a giant balloon.



A much-loved train from Grandpa
Les and Grandma!



-Crawl like the wind.

-Bop up and down to music.

-Shake her head no whenever I try to get her to eat meat, beans, and lots of other foods.

-Say: Mama, Dada, ball, dog, cat, duck, bowl, grapes, Grandpa, moo, bunny, bear, again, more, balloon, bird, back, bubbles, napkin, drink, milk, woof, doll, that, and more every day.

-Chase the cat.

-Brush her hair.

-Help me pack (and unpack!) my diaper bag.

-Understand and obey "no."

-Shape sort circles and the occasional star.

-Pick up a pine needle between her thumb and forefinger and transfer it into her mouth.



Elise got two new friends!

-Avoid putting sweetgum seeds into her mouth with only a few reminders.

-Put things into a bucket and carry it around.

-Push a toy grocery cart and ride a toy car.

-Bend in half and view the world upside down from between her ankles.

-Climb a slide.

-Hide. (Or, "hide.")

-Take small bites of a cracker or slice of cheese.

-Wipe up her own high-chair tray with a napkin. Sometimes before the meal has even begun.

-Cause mischief.

-Take the lid off a pot and put it back on. Over and over and over.

-Wake up with pretty incredible bedhead.

-Light up the room with her smile.

Burying her face in the nice,
soft "friends."

Most of all, we're excited to watch our littlest's personality develop and see her grow happy and healthy in our family. We are truly blessed. Happy first year, Elise!