A fall birthday...

This is a long time coming due to a missing, then non-working camera cable...but here we go finally!

 

Baby girl's first birthday party - obviously having a baby to celebrate in the month of October is going to be wonderful...for me at least, maybe not for her eventually. So I had to have a fall themed party - what else? And it was actually pretty stress free - I mean, the house is already decorated for fall/halloween, so I just had to add some things here and there...

 

Easy decoration - tissue paper pom poms

A book for guests to sign

The welcome wagon...

 

Caramel apple party favors - easy and delicious

More easy tissue paper pom poms...I think they are a little classier than balloons right?

 

Crafts to keep Jack and his friends occupied for a bit

The birthday girl...still deciding that she could crawl faster than walk at that point...although that has started to change this past week.

 

 

Marshmellow fondant leaves - this recipe is soooo easy and doesn't taste that bad!

 

Birthday girl could not understand why everyone was singing to and staring at her at that point

Hmmm, this feels interesting...

But I don't think I will actually taste it for a while...

  

The boys are over celebrating a one year old girl....

Family shot...Happy first birthday to my baby girl - I eagerly look forward to many more with you.

 

One year ago...

 

A year ago, a large team of NICU doctors stood in a delivery room with nothing to do, amazed that this month-early girl needed not one iota of help and was in fact healthier and bigger then many term babies. To my little chemo-sabe, my little buggy boodles, you gave me more strength than you will ever ever know and I look forward to many many more birthdays with you. Happy happy first birthday my girl.

 

 

 

 

I wish for you so many things I cannot even articulate them. I wish for you the world. I wish for you joy and pain and laughter and tears. I want to see you dance and sing and grow and learn. I want to hug you and kiss you a billion more times. I wish to see you follow your big brother to school. I wish to see you do wonderful things and get into trouble. I long to see those amazing blue eyes ingest everything they can. My big girl, I wish to see you grow up.

Thank you for this year.

Three years old.

Oh my baby boy, you are three today. You are 39 inches and 33 pounds, my tall string bean. I cannot believe what you have done in the past year. Last year you were only saying "that"...everything was that, that, that. Then, all of a sudden, about a month after your birthday, after we were set to enroll you in speech therapy but couldn't after mama got diagnosed, you started talking and didn't stop, speaking in sentences, using your pronouns correctly...amazing! It's like you knew I could use something off of my plate and you provided. You can do about any sport or athletic activity that you want to...you ride your scooter faster than the six year olds in the neighborhood. You are definitely mama's little daredevil. You love your books, you love Cars, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Toy Story. You master puzzles on the computer and you are on the verge of reading.

Oh my love, you will never be my cuddle bug, but you give hugs and kisses now, and when you say I love you too mama, my heart heals. You grab my hand and it's fits like Cinderella's slipper. You make sure to say "you are very welcome" when someone says thank you and people can't believe it. You love your little sister although you still can't quite figure out that she's not as strong as you. You are so handsome I sometimes wonder where you came from. You are most definitely your own person and I couldn't be more proud.

I know the year ahead will have challenges. You are most definitely entering your threes in a whirlwind of growing defiance, tantrums, testing of boundaries. We will face them as we have faced everything this year, with laughs, tears, probably some yelling and quizzical looks. But we will get through. I can't wait to see what this coming year brings with you holding my hand.