Talia's First Birthday

My baby is ONE! ONE! Wow. It really is such a milestone...Now she is no longer considered an infant. Sometimes you get strange looks when you call your one year old your baby (luckily--I can avoid this since Talia has so little hair that she still looks like a bitty baby to me.) Toddler. That's the next phase. Cute, but trouble. Tearing everything a part. Climbing. Screaming. Clueless (not her--me). Pointing, mimicking, running, dancing, singing. Oh,yes--very cute. However, not quite as snuggly because they are so BUSY! so BUSY! and honestly you are so busy cleaning up behind them that you don't have much time for snuggles either. Whew! I am getting exhausted just thinking of the next phase. Well--perhaps I should just relay Talia's first B'day and ignore what is to come. Poor baby girl did not wake up happy on her birthday. She woke up early and cried. We weren't ready to get up. We were tired (probably from being up with kids in the middle of the night). Did I mention Alaina has been waking up every night screaming about her knee. The doc says it is growing pains--and I agree...the pains of her shrill screaming in the middle of the night is growing. And of course that wakes everyone else in the house and now it takes us forever to get everyone back to sleep...oops, I did it again--sidetracked. Back to Talia's b'day. We sang to her and she seemed to cheer up. Alaina however slept through all of our singing. (Probably exhausted from her middle of the night waking.) It was a school day so we had to hurry Ky off to school--however we had plans to pick him up for lunch. Red Robin has become a tradition with our kiddos on their birthdays. At lunch time we picked up Ky and met Daddy at Red Robin. It was a rainy day, which was a bummer, but Talia didn't mind. She enjoyed mooching fries and hamburger off of us--and by far her favorite part was the ice cream sundae. She just stared at the waitstaff as they sang to her--but that sundae she sure eyed up. Talia has a sweet tooth that is dedicated to ice cream--she is DEFINITELY my child. That evening we met with our Lifegroup (church group) at a park and celebrated Talia's b'day & Zac's (friend of Ky's). It had been so unusually warm--but of course on Talia's b'day it had been rainy in the morning and chilly. Despite the cold we enjoyed a picnic lunch and ladybug & spider cupcakes. We sang Happy Birthday to her and she just stared at the cupcake. We put her fingers in it and then she played for a bit. Finally I put some in her mouth and she smiled. She figured it out! The strange blob was YUMMY SUGARY FOOD! She quite enjoyed it after that. That evening we let her open some presents including a shopping cart from us. She loved pushing it around. I would say it was a successful birthday day! Then came the family party that weekend. We had tacos and of course a lady bug 2 tiered cake. The cake didn't quite come out how I would have liked--but she still enjoyed it. In fact, she got her fingers in it when I was trying to take her picture next to it. :) So why did I choose the lady bug theme? Well--at 6 months I got Talia some soft leather-soled shoes with Ladybugs on them. She wore them pretty much everywhere. We also had a cute ladybug hat that we would put on her (that was Alaina's). It just seemed to fit. Talia our little lady bug. I have packed away those shoes--and someday I know I will enjoy pulling them out and remembering her tiny toes and how they were the shoes she learned to walk in. *SIGH* Now I am getting sentimental. Boy--these kids sure grow up quick. I just can't keep up! So that is Talia's 1 year celebration. I have her official weight and stuff in her baby book--but I believe she was only around 18 lbs. My tiny girl (especially since KY & Laina were both 22+ lbs at 1 year). She sits around the 50% for height and weight (Ky & Laina have always been in the 70 - 80%). My prediction is that she will probably always be smaller than her siblings. I guess it just sort of fits--she will always be my baby, so somehow her being a little smaller is a bit comforting to me. Well that's all for now. I am working on catching up on my blog and I promise I will.