Neither
Josh nor I can believe we've had a whole year with our tiny baby. She's
such a big girl now that it's hard to reconcile our memories of her
first day with our experience of her first birthday.
We
had a great day with her -- she was at her prettiest and her sweetest.
In the morning, we took her for a walk and saw 1000 puppies, so that
made her very happy. We went circled around from the lake to Snyder
Park and played on the swing. She loved both of those activities (and I
was glad to get some Starbucks, just like we used to do).
When
we came back, she helped Grandpa make her birthday cake (really,
Grandma had made a yummy orange cake and Grandpa spelled her name and
Ana's in mandarin oranges).
In the afternoon, Heather had a party for her, Ana, and John.
Greg, Naomi, Danny, and David filled out Josh's side of the family, and my Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle Jack represented my side. We had burgers and great salads and, of course, cake.
Ivy's sleep was off the whole week, and she took an early nap. We knew that we had to get her a bit of a nap or she'd never manage her party. We walked her over to Heather's, and she finally
fell
asleep about 2 blocks from the party. Josh and I said down on the side
of the street and let her nap for about 30 minutes -- the guest of
honor was a little late!
She
loved the cake part. I didn't want her to have chocolate (or pink food
coloring), so she didn't get to eat Ana's cake. But she did plunge her
tiny hands into it during our singing, and ruined a little bit of its
beauty. I decided not to take a picture of that, but to substitute her
looking so pretty and playing with her Aunt MaryAnn.
Once there, Ivy had a ball playing with her cousins. She has so much fun with them, especially Brendan, since he's so close to her size. I was really proud of how well she went through this tunnel, and she also did a fantastic job standing on her own -- she'd get so busy playing that she'd forget she was supposed to hold on!
Then the kids opened presents. Brendan opened his rugby ball from France and spent the rest
of the time tossing it with his dad. Ana helped Ivy open presents (she had a lot), and let Ivy wear her new purple hat.
Ivy got great big girl books and CDs from Nini and Greg and Grandma and Grandpa, a great hat from Jack and MaryAnn, a super fun pop-up toy picked out by Ana and Brendan, and some animal toys from Mommy and Daddy.
Finally, WAY past her bedtime, Ivy fell into bed and slept the sleep of the best birthday girl in the world.
And many more!
