twinkle, twinkle

The weekend prior to Elia's first birthday, we were blessed to celebrate her first year with our family and some of our closest friends.

We chose a "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" theme for the party.

And decided to keep things pretty simple, with just some snacks and of course, a cake.

I was particularly concerned about the cake since Elia, up to that point, had never had anything sweeter than a mango and, absolutely no added sugar, and I'm pretty committed to keeping it that way for a while. I spent more hours than I should admit looking for the perfect cake recipe for her party. I finally settled on a carrot cake recipe with cream cheese frosting, which seemed to go over pretty well.

When I was a girl, my dad made my(and my siblings') birthday cakes every year and they were always magical. We never knew the theme ahead of time, and we couldn't wait to see our cake on our birthday morning, they never disappointed. Keeping with that tradition, my dad came over early to help with Elia's cake. A fun tradition to keep up, and an added blessing, as I'm terrible at frosting cakes.

To be honest, we weren't entirely sure what to do for a first birthday party. We've only been to one before, and that was on a beautiful summer day so we all visited outside and watched the kids play together. Turns out, that's all you need to do, even on a rainy spring day. All of the kids who were there got along swimmingly, and it was really fun to see them all interacting.

As an added bonus, I had not only my sister visiting but, my little brother walked through our door the night before the party, in town to help us celebrate and help my sister move cross-country. What a blessing and what a surprise!

 All in all, Bug was so happy to have her friends and family over to play.

What a joy. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate and sent birthday wishes!

egn: first birthday

Last year, at this time, Todd and I were awaiting the arrival of our baby girl. At 10:49 PM on this day, Ms. Elia Grey came into our lives. From that moment on, she has brought us so much joy, and my heart is so full as I reflect back on the moments following her birth.

Since that day, I have learned what it means to love with abandon. I am learning more patience by the day. I am learning what it means to be the kind of mother I want to be. This little, bitty person keeps teaching me so much about myself - my weaknesses and my strengths.

What a remarkable year. 

Watching Elia grow, watching her learn, watching her take life in, I couldn't imagine anything better than being the mother of this precious bambino.

To all of our loved ones who have helped us get the hang of this in some way during this first year, thank you. We are endlessly grateful for all of you exceptional human beings.

Smiling, curious, joyful little lover girl, Happy Birthday.  I couldn't possibly love you any more than I do.

eleven months

At eleven months, I am in disbelief that our daughter is close to a year-old already. I've found myself becoming emotional as I remember the day she was born -  the emotions that arrived with the culmination of forty weeks of anticipation, the love that overwhelmed us the minute she was born, the exhaustion after laboring for 20 hours, and the wonder at the little person whose parents we got to become.

Since day one, that wonder has not let up and it continues to fill our days as Elia's first birthday draws near.

Her personality is starting to form and we are so thankful for a happy, content, curious daughter. She is independent at times, refusing help when she eats and playing on her own.

To my delight, her newborn love for snuggling seems to have returned.

She loves to explore her world, which we couldn't be happier about.

Eleven months is pretty remarkable so far.

Todd and I recently realized that we're no longer new parents. I've recently realized that I can no longer say that I just had a baby. We have much left to experience and learn but, we've hit a good groove. I have to give credit where it's due, Ms. Elia is just a dream.

We really hit a home run with this one. (Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.)

We love you!

sunday with the butterflies

Just like everyone else in Michigan, we've had it with winter and are looking for every way possible to get out of the house and soak up every little bit of warm weather and sun that we can. Yesterday, with temperatures that felt almost like a heatwave at 50 degrees, we walked to the grocery store and did our shopping. It was so fabulous to stretch our legs and take in some fresh air.

Sunday was still a bit cooler so, we headed to the Meijer Gardens after church to see the butterflies.

"Mariposa!"

"People!"

"Mariposas seem nice, Mom, but...a leaf!"

"Mariposa!"

"Hand."

Oh, but what fun we had.

elia - ten months

Ten months have come (and nearly gone) since Elia was born and she continues to enchant us every day.  She is almost a toddler and her baby-ness is starting to fade.

In celebration of ten magical months, here are ten things about Elia lately:

1. Elia is a crawling machine.  She's fast and whips up and down the house following either of us wherever we go.
2. She loves standing a scooting around the furniture.  This has resulted in a few bumps to the head already.  We're battling against hardwood floors through the house - they might be winning.
3. She knows the sign for "more", and uses it often while eating.
4. Favorite foods include: Puffs, strawberries, Greek yogurt, anything from a packet, toast (especially off of mom's plate), black beans, and baby chili.
5. We are pretty sure she knows the chorus to "Old McDonald", whenever we sing it she chimes in with something like... "E-yi-eyi-uh" right before the chorus begins.
6. Old McDonald aside, she loves when we sing both "The Wheels On the Bus" (she does the motion for 'round and round' - too cute), and "La Araña Pequeñita" (The Itsy Bitsy Spider).
7. She weighed a whopping 20 pounds at her last doctor's appointment, just a few weeks ago.
8. I think she misses warmer days just like the rest of us - she's been so happy whenever we've been able to get outside on sunny days.
9. Bath time is the best time. Splash, splash, splash!
10. Her hair is starting to move past the pure fluff stage - in no time we'll be at her first haircut.

This post is very late so, if all goes according to plan, we'll have an eleven (11!) month post in about a week!