Letters to Lila: Birthdays

Lila,

You are a whole year old today. To say that, it makes it seem like it has been much longer. It's only 365 days. That's not very long, in comparison. Your dad spent nearly three times that long deployed. I was pregnant for nearly twice that, including both of you. But how much we have learned about ourselves, and about you, in those short 365 days.

You are so very independent. You want to do everything on your own, with as little help from us as possible. We try to oblige that, when safety allows.

You love your sleep. This we appreciate probably the most. You like to go to bed when you're tired, not overtired. If we pay attention and put you down then, you like to sleep 12+ hours. On the weekends, you've been known to sleep 14. I suspect you get this from me.

You do not like to be restrained (see above, "independence"). You don't like to sit in the high chair a minute longer than necessary to eat (which means sometimes you share your food with the dogs to speed it up); you don't really care for the stroller and you only like to be held when you initiate it.

You. Love. To. EAT. Seriously. Fruits, vegetables, cereal, bars, biscuits...you love it all! You aren't a huge meat fan yet but you'll grow into that. I promise.

You love your momma. I'm not saying that to pride myself; you alone have chosen to prefer me (for now) over everyone else in our house. I don't know how long it will last, but I will take it as long as I can get it.

For kids, birthdays are about cake and presents, balloons and toys, and mostly feeling special. For moms, it's a day to reflect on the wondrous day in which they brought life into the world. I remember every detail about your birthday. I remember the anticipation, the pain, the fear, the impatience, the fear, the confusion, the fear, the love, and the relief. 365 days ago, I saw your face for the first time. I heard you cry, held you in my arms and promised to always take care of you. And in those 365 days, I promise I have tried my very best to love, protect and teach you. That's all moms can do. There will come a time when I can't protect you...from sadness, from heartache, from pain. But every day until then, I will do my very best. There will come a time when I can't teach you everything you need to know, but I will do my very best to find a way to help you learn what you need to learn. But there will never be a day that I won't know how to love you. Sometimes, that means telling you no because it's best for you. It means giving you rules and boundaries, because you need them. And that may mean you think I'm the meanest mom there is. And that's okay, because I won't love you any less for it.

In 365 days, you'll be a completely different person than you are today. I look forward to each and every day between the first 365 and the second. I am so grateful to be your mother, to have a daughter, my little Lila Bean. Happy birthday my girl, mommy loves you!

Lincoln's first fiesta

The day after Lila's birthday party, we had one to attend for our buddy Lincoln! He had a fiesta, with yummy mexican themed food and a pretty cool poncho and sombrero.

Lila had a great time in the ball pit, but didn't have much to do with the pinata. That's okay, maybe next year. But she loved the food, especially the cupcakes.

Happy birthday Link! We love sharing this with you!

Lila's birthday party

For Lila's birthday we had a "Winter Onederland" set up for her and her baby friends! I did a little bit from Pinterest, but honestly the first year flew by so fast that it left me a little rushed trying to put it all together. My motto is "we'll be better next year!".

I made a tulle wreath for the door that matched the colors of her invitations. We went minimal with decor, since she's one. No need to pull out all the stops for something she won't remember. What she does love right now are the things they hang from the ceiling at daycare, so I picked up a few foam snowflakes (on sale after Christmas!) and sprayed some glitter on them. She loved it!

We added some snowman garland, a few snowflake lights and we were ready to go! Our birthday girl slept right up until after guests started arriving, so she was nice and rested for her first birthday party.

I ordered her dress late (I'll be better next year, right?) and could not believe that it got here in time. She had a great time walking around with friends and playing. After awhile, it was time for some food! We kept it simple with goldfish and cupcakes, turkey pinwheels and macaroni salad. My favorite was the hot chocolate bar, with peppermint and chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate pretzels and whipped cream. Yum!

Lila opened her presents with some help from Hayden and mom and dad, and Hayden was super excited to have presents, too. We tried to make quick work of the presents so we could let Lila get down to the cake.

She got lots of sweet baby dolls and toys to play with, and some super cute clothes. Hayden was immediately distracted by the cool Playmobil Pirate toys from the Bakers, and made our guests get to work putting them together (Thanks Lizard!).

After a quick birthday song, Lila got to work on her cake. She didn't like it as much as the one the day before, for her pictures, but she ate a little bit. After that, it was a quick bath, outfit change and time to play with friends! I think she had a great birthday, and we are so grateful to all the friends that came to celebrate with us!

Geez, what have I been doing all year?

No blog updates in 2013 yet? Whoops. January is sort of a crazy time, with my job being hectic and the weather being crazy. Lila turns one in five days and I can't quite wrap my mind around it. I have tons of pictures at home to post on here and things to say, but that will likely happen after her two birthday parties. I'm looking forward to seeing her smash a cake and to seeing my friends but I have a lot to do before Saturday!

We joined the Y and I went for the first time in ages to the gym yesterday. It felt good to sweat and stretch and get my heart rate up. It's nice that it's so close to work, I can even go at lunch (which I'm packed to do today).

I haven't really made any new recipes, and we don't do a whole lot of "fun stuff" this time of year. So it's work, home, dinner, hang out, kids to bed, wine club, a dinner or movie out and just life! February picks up with a lot of Salem stuff, so let's hope I get through all that!

My sweet boy

It's weird. Hayden is four. He's been around for four whole years. Four years of diapers, then pull ups, then potty training and now big boy underwear. Breastfeeding and bottle feeding and solids and messes and now real silverware and taking his plate to the kitchen. Laying and rolling and crawling and walking and running and now dancing and skipping.

But it still strikes me just how much I can love him. Just when you think you've reached the limit of how much you can love someone, he does or says something else and my heart grows a little more. He is so intelligent and curious and oh-so-talkative. Question after question after question. And we try to feed that curiosity by answering all of them and teaching him as much as we can. I just love him to pieces, even after the 100th question, after reprimanding him for the same thing times ten, even with his stubborn streak.

It's hopelessly optimistic, but I hope he always loves his sister like he does now. He loves her without fail. Every day, when we go get her out of the crib he is SO excited to see her and talk to her and start her day. I love the way he runs into my room, tells me "I love you more than the moon mom" and runs back out. And how he stalls me at daycare every. single. day. for 'one more hug', 'one giant hug'. I love the way he begs for one more story at bedtime, and always wants some of my coffee.

It's hard to remember him as a baby, it seems like he's always been able to walk and talk and use a fork. But I love to remember his baby stories, and tell them to him so he can see we were just as excited about his baby milestones as we are about Lila's. I hope he always wants to hug and kiss his mom.

Christmas bits and pieces...

Lila's first ornament, for our "hungry lil' elephant", as Hayden calls her.

Hayden's ornament, the 4th in the series. They discontinued them last year, so I had to get 3, 4, and 5. Except, there was no 5 in the greater triad area. Dandy to the rescue, who found one in Texas, and has approximately 11 months to mail it to me :-)

Christmas Eve-Eve, in the jamas Miss Haile sent her! These are nearly identical to the ones Hayden wore for his first Christmas, when he was almost six weeks old.

Lila's new stocking! We loved the embroidered Pottery Barn one we got for Hayden so Lila got one too, the doll.

I was a total grinch this year and just not in the mood for Christmas. But I have a husband that loves his children and dammit, he wanted a tree on December 1st. So we went after work to the Christmas tree "shop" and looked around until we found the perfect one. And by "perfect", I mean 9+ feet tall and untagged, sold to us by a kid who just wanted trees off the lot, so we got it for a steal.

And is there Christmas without Home Moravian and Church Street and Salem? I think not.

Merry Christmas!

Hayden and Lila picked Christmas day to sleep in! But we didn't mind :-)

Hayden got right to work on the presents and helped Lila with hers. He was very excited for all the toys under the tree, the presents from Santa and even for Lila! I love my little Elf and Santa's little helper!

Hayden got games and toys and he asked Santa for "a ninja costume, a ninja toy, a scary castle and candy corn"...and he delivered! He also got some games for his new Leap Pad that Nana & Papaw got him.

Lila was very excited for her Little People Princesses (that went straight to her mouth), her play table and lots of fun new clothes!

After we opened presents, Hayden showed Lila how to do her stocking. He's a professional!

We made breakfast, opened toys, played games and spent the whole day together as a family of four. It was nice, not having anywhere to be or anything to do except be together the whole day. I think we'll try to keep it that way from now on!

I've also learned that there's no such thing as a perfect picture with two kids at these respective ages. So we take what we can get, the real ones, that show an excited and distracted big brother and a little sister content as long as she has something in each hand and something in her mouth.

Merry First Christmas little girl!