Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

I know in the last post I said I'd be writing next time about expectations, frustration, gratitude and such. I'm not. Well, I suppose I am a little bit, because you expected that post but now you'll just have to deal with the frustration and be grateful that I am posting at all. Seriously, though, I do have a long, thoughtful post bouncing around in my brain, but not much of it has made it anywhere else yet. Things have been a bit hectic- not only have I started back to work this week (part-time) but I've also been gearing up for Little Sister's birthday. My little baby is one! Can you believe it?! I figured since she won't stop growing up so fast, I'd just embrace it and treat her like a big kid- starting with breakfast:

By the way, I thought this would be a good indicator as to how she would do with her birthday cake. I seriously underestimated her. Hang on, those pictures are coming.

First, we decided to celebrate by having a fun day out as a family, starting out with a visit to the zoo. Big Sister still had never been to the zoo, and since Daddy was off work it was the perfect time to go. We had a wonderful time. After we saw all of the animals, the girls rode on the carousel. Big Sister rode all by herself on a tiger that moved up & down- she was quite proud of herself. Little Sister sat in this little Panda seat on the floor. I sat right next to her because I was worried she'd try to crawl out, but she sat so still, just holding on to its leg. At one point she just looked at me and grinned, and I could tell she thought she was BIG STUFF.

After the zoo, we had lunch downtown and walked around in a few shops. I wanted to get Little Sister a towel like Big Sister has- a big thirsty hooded towel that she could use for several years. Big Sister's came from YikesTwins as a baby gift from my great aunt Teddy. I had heard that one of the shops near the river carried these towels, and I wanted to let Little Sis choose one. They are pretty expensive, but Big Sister's is so thick and thirsty and snuggly, and it has held up really well. As it turned out, we didn't find exactly what we were looking for, but we ended up in a cute boutique where they had a funky butterfly towel. At first I wasn't convinced, but when Little Sister giggled upon first sight of it, I warmed up pretty quickly. The best part? It was on sale! We snatched it up, along with a new Folkmanis butterfly finger puppet for Hannah (if you don't know why I'm mentioning that, check out the previous post. How weird that it was on display right next to the register in a store we just happened into today?) and then we headed home. Both girls were asleep before we merged onto the highway!

After naptime and some final preparations, we had our own little family birthday party, complete with Little Sister's birthday cake experience:

Is that not the best? Definitely my favorite moment of the evening! But she wasn't finished yet...

She made a MESS! After her tummy was full and the cake-squeezing glee had died down, she actually started to fuss because she didn't like being covered in cream cheese frosting and sitting in cake crumbs. Daddy carted her upstairs to the bathtub while I enlisted some help with the cleanup:

Yes, I really did let the dogs lick the high chair tray. But don't worry, I scrubbed it afterward.

Now that the mess is all cleaned up, the girls are in bed, and the cake pictures are edited and posted, I'm going to go through a few other photos. I'm going to take a few minutes to try and figure out what happened to the last year. It seems like just yesterday I was doing handstands in the YMCA pool, wearing my tent-like maternity bathing suit, trying to get that little stinker to flip. Surely it was not a year ago that Little Sister (who never did flip and came into the world breech, via c-section) made her grand entrance into our lives. I can still see her tiny, perfect face peeking out of that perfectly wrapped baby-cocoon as she laid in the incubator next to my bed. A little later, maybe tomorrow, I'll post my birthday letter for her. This year has been a whirlwind, and I want to be sure to savor the sweetness of it all- even more than my Little Sister and that cake!

Oh yeah, one more thing. I just wanted to say that if I don't get my birthday reflections posted soon, if it takes me three or four more days to get to that previously mentioned post about frustration (which, to give you a teaser, will include my thoughts on a very popular reality show premier I saw recently) please forgive me. With trying to catch up on housework after being out of town, birthday preparations, adjusting to work/camp schedules, etc. I'm worn out and may need a few days to just hang out. Kind of like this guy we saw at the zoo!

No, this was not mid-flip or anything. This guy, whom I was later told is named Bandit, pretty much laid like this, soaking up the sun, for the entire time we walked through his and neighboring exhibits. He was so still, in fact, that I asked someone if he was ok. They assured me that he was, that it was actually a good thing because he is getting older and having a hard time and isn't often found enjoying the sunshine, and I sensed in their voice the same sort of envy I was beginning to feel... Move over, Bandit!