ANNIE'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Happy First Birthday, Annie! This picture says it all! : ) [And for those who want the whole story, read on.]

Annie chooses her very first gift to open, the special Leia present of Cherry Chat Chat the Cat! (To match Leia's Perri Pat Pat!)

Ah, was there any doubt that some of Annie's favorite items were the bows?
Such a special picture, this one! It's truly representative of how wonderful Leia Rose was today as Annie's older sibling. What a big sister! She was never jealous about anything! She helped Annie open all of her gifts, but wasn't in-the-way about helping, and generally added to the joy of the day. There was just lots of obvious sister love today. With the exception of the one thing that happened a bit later (see below), Leia was a model of graciousness today, . . . so very happy for her sister!
Annie was particularly interested in the ladybugs of this book from the Faulkners (thanks Faulkners!), . . . but I think Annie thought they were buttons! : )

Here is Annie with one of her special "Mamma Presents." It's a lapsitter doll from the early 1970's named "Audrey." I heard about this doll and made it a goal of mine to get her for Annie for a couple of reasons. 1. It looks just like her! 2. One of Annie's pet names is "Aubwey." Actually, Annie has another lapsitter doll already named Mary, who was one of my favorite dolls as a child.

Another one of the bigger hits today was a toy I found called "Hide & Squeak Eggs" that did fascinate both Annie and Leia! You remove the egg shell and press on the chicks to hear them peep. It's also a shape sorter in that that each egg fits only in one spot because of the shape on the bottom.

This one should be titled, "Getting Ready for Thanksgiving."
Such a cute bit of imaginative play here. Annie immediately picked up the bunny and made it hop around!
Here Annie finds the card box and the treasure box I made for her. I do a decoupage collage of pertinent things in her one-year-old life that I've found in magazines and mix them with actual photos of Annie, then I go over the whole thing with polyurethane. (Lots of Annie's revolve around food. Ha!) I made a treasure box for Leia Rose as well when she was one. (I read about doing that in Growing Child.) With Leia Rose, I used to put a new familiar "treasure" in it every day. I found out very soon that it wasn't realistic, so it became a true treasure box holding Leia's postcards from Great Grandma Betty, that Leia could look at any time. : ) Needless to say, Leia's is pretty beat up now. : ) So for Annie, I thought I would go ahead and make an actual card box for her special cards and postcards (like that special "Walking on Sunshine" card from Oma and Papa has to go in there!) and then a separate treasure box for something else.
If I had to pick the biggest hit of the day, I would say it was the box of "Annie's Bows" from Auntie April. (She gave the same type of gift to Leia on her first birthday, and it was the biggest hit then, too.) In addition to being fascinated with the actual bows themselves, Annie created a new game of "open & close" with the box, . . . repeating the actions dozens of times!

Annie was also fascinated by the simple balloon Leia picked out for her.
And here is a special gift from Great Grandma Betty! It's a really fun set of the Three Little Pigs! Each little pig has his own house, and the wolf really "blows" air if you squeeze him!
Squiggly Wiggly's Surprise was always a favorite book of Auntie April's when she was young, so I searched online and found a used one for Annie because I know how much she has been enjoying finger puppet books these days. When I looked at all of the words on each page, my first thought was, "Oh no, she'll never sit for this!" Honestly, though, she LOVED it! She listened to it twice, making it the longest book (and the one with the most words) that Annie has ever enjoyed.

And Leia loved her new "Cowie" which was the big present from Oma and Papa!
She really loved pressing Cowie's belly "button," (oh how she's SO into the push-button phase!)
. . . and she even gave him a real kiss!
Another hit was a gift from Miss Laurie: a chunky wood puzzles full of shapes.
This walking/talking Pooh from Oma & Papa was a big hit today. I love Annie's expression looking at the silly puzzle piece on his head!

And yet another instance of Annie's real favorite toy: the bows. : )

Annie receives her own Nativity set! (It's just like Leia's, except Leia said that her camel only had one hump.) I'm thinking of tying the pieces together until she's a bit older. We'll see. This sparked a conversation between Leia Rose and I about why it's called a "Nativity" set. And, you know what? I had no idea!!! I told her that the beautiful scene where Jesus is in the manger with Mary and Joseph and all the animals around him is traditionally referred to as the Nativity, but I really didn't know why, . . . until Brian clued me in that it means "birth" just like in our own word "natal" or "neo-natal." Oh!!!
Funny story behind this one, Brian put this block (one of the passed-down gifts) on Annie's head and saying what he always said when he did the same thing to Leia Rose which was, "Russian Premier Rose." This is because he thinks that this block looks just like one of those warm hats that they wear in Russia. It was doing this on his own head that caused Leia Rose to take her first steps.

Annie concentrated so hard on this toy today! As she was concentrating, she made what could only be described as her I'm-doing-the-peg-board sound, . . . very similar to that day where she was commenting on every picture of the screen saver. She loved doing one of two things with the pegs. 1. Here she is picking a peg out of the box and putting it on the board, but for her "putting it on the board" simply meant dropping it there. However, it seemed (in her mind, at least) that she was really doing it properly, and she took lots of time choosing colors and spots. : ) 2. Annie also loved pulling pegs out of the board. My one beef with this toy? The pegs don't go in and out easily, so the parent has to hold the board down. I have half a mind to make these holes just one millimeter bigger.
And here is the big joint present this time: a power wheels Barbie Jeep! (Actually, it came for free from Bailey next door. All we had to do was by the battery!) And here is where Mamma realized that it was a day of highs and lows for Leia Rose. The first ride on the Jeep was a fiasco. This was because Leia couldn't figure out how to steer. I think she wanted it to steer itself, . . . and when she began running into grass, rocks, etc. she would get frustrated. After a few minutes, she was so frustrated that she absolutely refused to do any more, got out of the car, and walked to the house. [This marked the first time that Mamma made the fatal mistake of calling Leia an "ungrateful brat" . . . which I don't think she actually heard (as it was under my breath) and I didn't mean it, of course. I just got angry. I apologized, profusely later.] I'm happy to say that she was willing to try again later and as soon as I had her sit in the car as it was still and showed her how she had to turn the steering wheel fairly hard to make the tires shift from left to right, she was fine, . . . In fact, she loved it!

I learned a lot about Leia Rose today. First off, I learned that Leia is absolutely a perfectionist. If she feels like she can't do something (like reading a word or steering this car) and especially if she is being watched, she quits immediately and walks away. Being a perfectionist is something I consider to be a good quality, but quitting? Well, we just can't have that! I told her about the expression, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." [To which she came back with, "I have an expression too, 'Don't dry the nuts!' I laughed and asked her if that was really an expression, to which she replied, "Yes, it's my expression." Ha!]

We haven't even had the cake yet, and we're already this messy?!? I guess that's because I made Annie's favorite dinner tonight: ravioli with tomato sauce, banana, and broccoli. (Yes, broccoli! I figured out the secret tonight. You want to know what it is? Don't undercook it, . . . and add butter. Lots of butter!) Ironically, because Annie had so much dinner, she didn't have a lot of room for cake. I'm sure she was eventually frustrated that she couldn't eat more. : )
Leia and I are both holding Annie's hands because she really wanted to touch that candle flame! [And if you look closely, you'll see our phone laying on the table. That's because Lara called during dinner! Lara, our doula who was at the birth! She called to wish Annie a happy birthday and just catch up on what the girls were doing. It was wonderful to hear from her, even if it was during dinner!]

I thought it would be really fun to show the progression of Annie's cake eating. . .

This one should be entitled "Total Carnage." Ha! There was cake everywhere. There was cake in places that cake should never be: on all the walls in the dining room, on chair legs, in waste baskets, on my shoes (hence my shoe is in the picture), not to mention on the

Annie's first finger painting! Ha!
And this is what happens when your older daughter chooses the ladybug head, made with the jet black frosting. : )

And after dinner we all gathered in the family room to watch Annie's birth. I think we might make that a tradition on her birthday. And ironically, since Annie was too busy crawling around still looking at toys, it was Leia who sat on my lap! This viewing really gave Leia and I some bonding time. I was watching Leia's face very closely when I said (in the video), "Come on Annie! I want to hold you! I want Leia to hold you too! . . . I love you big sister!" The smile on Leia's face was the same smile as that of Annie when I tell her "And I love YOU" as a part of our "Dinner Claps" song. Isn't it so wonderful to know that you're loved!?! : )

I must have sung "Happy Birthday" a hundred times to Annie today! I just loved her reaction every time I would sing it! I'm so lucky Brian captured this! It's a perfect way to end Annie's birthday blog. : )