WSDW: One Year

It came and it went and it’s over and she’s now A ONE-YEAR OLD! Ahhhh! I guess I mourned her infant days in the weeks leading up to her birthday/party, because her actual birthday (February 16th) I didn’t become a weeping mess of emotions.

Birthday Recap

Her party was on Valentine’s Day and we had a smallish get together with close family and a small handful of friends, nothing spectacularly huge or Pinterest-Pimped out. I crafted a couple banners (pictures below) that weren’t complicated, made her a no-sew tutu that lasted for a good (MAYBE) 1 hour before I decided to take it off since all it did was continue to get dragged down while she crawled from toy to toy and person to person, I made her a no-sugar added healthy smash cake that didn’t get smashed (was barely eaten at all), we had champagne-spiked raspberry/lemonade punch made by yours truly, and noshed on Lowcountry Boil made by my fabulous and sweet mom. The grown-ups had yummy raspberry-lemon cake (from Jeff’s Dad’s favorite yummy bakery) with Jia’s little face on it (which of course was the last piece to go, the next day) and a few little tots played around on the floor.

She received lots of fun gifts; lots of books and toys. She has a lot to keep her occupied and a lot for us to sort through during these bitter-cold “high of 18 degrees” winter days, thank goodness. I don’t even remember it being this frigid when she was born — being postpartum in the dead of winter really allows you to keep warm with your own heat-emitting body without needing to pile on the layers, down coats, wool socks, and uggs. I remember when Jia was 1 week old, we went to Old Town, Alexandria and while everyone wore coats and boots, I had on jeans, flip flops, and a short-sleeved cardigan. It felt like it was Spring and thought everyone was crazy for overdressing. Ha.

The Past Week for Jia

She is really walking fast with a push toy
Much more talkative
When I say “Whatcha got there?” she says, “shesha?” and hands me whatever she picked off from the ground
Her mimicry is getting much more articulate: bye-bye, good girl, kona, etc and when I say “great job!” She claps haha!
She got a wooden xylophone from her Gran for her birthday, and she knows that the mallet that comes with it is used for making music on the xylophone (it’s not attached to it)
She got this Playskool Elefun Busy Ball Popper from friends of ours for her birthday and she knows where the power button is to turn it on to get the fun started. When we sit with her and the toy, and say “Turn it on!” she punches the “on” button and it starts up! It’s pretty amazing for us to see how fast she learns what to do. Same goes with her sit-to-stand activity center – she knows how to play peek-a-boo with the swinging door and to put the phone up to her ear when it rings. So neat.
Getting really fast and efficient as she goes up the stairs (with us right behind her of course)
It took a few tries, but she loves fresh raspberries now!
I really think she is quite musical. She knows how to strum a ukulele if I have it right in front of her, she loves playing around on the organ and any musical keys on a toy, loves to play her new xylophone, and bang on her toy drum. I wonder if she’ll want to play an instrument in the future or if she’ll be a dancer, because she’s got little tiny dancer’s feet, points them really well (do all babies have this flexibility in their ankles? Probably), and she loves dancing to music already.
She was terrified of balloons at her birthday party and the next day and would cry when they got near her, but on her actual birthday she thought it was hilarious to punch them as long as daddy was laughing along with her.

Mom Thoughts:

I’m so glad she is getting her Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine now that she’s 1 year old but unfortunately we had about 5″ of snow the evening of her birthday and so our peds office closed (along with Fairfax County government offices). Boo! So we rescheduled for next week.
I’m still getting the hang of saying “my daughter,” I feel so old! Speaking of which, my 31st birthday is almost here. I’ll technically be “in my 30s” instead of JUST thirty. Yikes.

PICTURES!