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Today is Katherine’s Birthday. She has had a great day. Today we had her first of two birthday parties. This was her friend party. We are in two playgroups and attendance in both has been averaging 5 kids and moms. So, I decided to go ahead and invite everyone in both groups. Well, Katherine is apparently very popular because we had 13 kids come and there were 4 others who were supposed to come but either kiddo or mama got sick. Most kids were between 8 and 18 months, but the youngest was Evie, born on Christmas Eve and the oldest was Andrew, having just turned 2. So, it was a little crazy at our house today!

The kids played and we all ate lunch. Then my friend Jenn led a music program.

From Katherine’s B…

She has a music academy that has just started having baby classes similar to kindermusik called “Joyful Noises “.

From Katherine’s B…

From Katherine’s B…

The kids really enjoyed it and I was so surprised that the kids all sat and participated so well.

From Katherine’s B…

From Katherine’s B…

Then, it was cupcake time. Katherine had refused a morning nap (no surprise here) so she was not in the best mood when I put her in her high chair again. When I gave her the cupcake, she just looked at it, not knowing what to do at first.

From Katherine’s B…

It was purple, not the usual color of her food! Jen fed her a bite and she decided that she liked it!

From Katherine’s B…

From Katherine’s B…

Last, we opened presents. Katherine received a lot of books. She is going to be such a smart girl. She loves to read and play with her books.

From Katherine’s B…

Katherine, I hope you had a great day. I know you have no reason that all the fun was celebrating your birthday, but you seemed to enjoy the festivities.

From February 2007

I can’t believe that in one hour it will be my baby girl’s first birthday. Today has been a busy day preparing for the festivities. I know that she has no clue that tomorrow is special and there is really no reason for me to celebrate the day, but I can’t help myself. Hospitalty is my spiritual gift and it means that I am having not one, but two birthday parties for Katherine. So, right now my fingers are stained with food coloring as I type.

Where has the year gone? This year has been incredible. As I sit here, there are a flood of emotions. It has been a challenging year in many ways as I have functioned on little sleep many nights, questioned my parenting many times and wondered if I am doing things “right”. As a researcher I have learned that no matter what you do, there is an “expert” out there to support you and another one to ridicule you. So from this I have learned to look at all of the options and make a decision based on what is best for my daughter. None of those experts is Katherine’s mommy, only me.

This year has been a joyful one. It is so amazing to see my precious little girl as she has grown from a tiny helpless infant that did nothing but eat, sleep, poop and cry to a wonderful toddler who is able to communicate her wishes at times, who is able to go where she wants and who has acquired so many skills. Daily I am amazed by what she is learning.

I have learned a lot about love this year. I have learned to unconditionally love my daughter. There are certainly many times I do not like her behavior, but there has never been a time that I did not love her. It is such a wonderful examply of God’s love. I have also learned to have a new kind of love for my husband as I have watched him be a wonderful father.

I have also learned a new appreciation for my own parents. I think of all of the crazy things I did and all of the times I was less than angelic. I know I put my parents through some grief and worry - and I was a good kid. This year has been one where I have grown closer to my parents than any other I can think of. It has been fun to watch them as they have enjoyed becoming grandparents and it has been special to grow closer to them as friends. I also really enjoy hearing all of the stories about when I was a baby.

I have learned to pray and trust God. There are so many things that I am responsible for regarding Katherine, yet there are so many things that I cannot control. It is God who is in control of her life. I pray daily that she would be healthy, safe and happy. I pray that she would grow in Godly character and come to know him at a young age. I pray that I would be wise as I parent her.  

On a lighter side and as a mom who is a math person I figured some things out about this year. I estimate that I have nursed Katherine approximately 2500 times (still nursing!). I have changed about 2000 diapers. Since we use cloth diapers, I have done about 125 loads of diaper laundry. As a mom and baby on the go, we have strapped into the car seat about 500 times. Katherine has been on 6 airplane rides, a boat, and a subway as well. BUT, she still has no stamp in her passport. She does plan to get that before her second birthday.

was my due date.  It came and went with nothing happening. I remember that last week of pregnancy just crawling along. I was so excited and so ready to have a baby and nothing was happening. All my plans were tentative. Every night I went to bed wondering if I would be woken up in the middle of night with contractions. On our due date we went to church in the morning and that evening we went to a going away dinner for some friends. I was so sad when the day passed and Katherine was still not here. Little did I know it would be THREE MORE DAYS of waiting! Because she was breech (which we did not know) there never were any contractions, my body was not going to go into labor on its own any time soon.

 This is a picture of me one year ago today. I look a lot thinner now thank goodness!

From Sophia

My cousin Sophia Marie was born this morning at 7:01am in California. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. That is a lot bigger than me. You can see that we look nothing alike. She has dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin. She is so cute! I cannot wait to meet my new cousin.

From Sophia

From Sophia

From Sophia

From Feb 07 portraits

I cannot believe that my baby girl will be turning one in only one week. Be on the lookout for some sappy, nostalgic posts coming up. We went to have her one year portraits done at JC Penney. They do a fine job for studio prints. This weekend we are going to have my friend Heather take some family portraits at a park. I love photography and really hope to learn how to take these great shots of Katherine myself.

From Feb 07 portraits

Anyway, Katherine was a trooper with her portraits. We did three sets of clothes. The red dress was actually my first birthday dress. I will scan a photo of me to post along side it later. You can see how much she loves her Pooh.

From Feb 07 portraits

You can see all 18 shots by clicking on any of the pictures to go to the web album.

From February 2007

We are still working on Katherine’s sleep. She is doing great at night and still working on naps. Last night when I went in to check on her she was so cute. She had her arms back behind her head all relaxed. I decided to chance waking her up by taking a picture. Luckily she did not wake up.

  Today I left her at my mom’s (Nana’s) house while I went to get a haircut. Nana tried to get her to take a nap in her crib but had no luck. When I got there to pick her up, I found them both asleep on the chair.

From February 2007

Katherine is so much fun. We went to her cousin Emily’s birthday dinner. Somehow I did not get many pictures and no pictures of the birthday girl. She was busy playing with her friends. Katherine really enjoyed playing with one of her balloons though.

From February 2007

She also enjoyed the tiny rocking horse. She is getting to where she is able to climb on and off things on her own pretty well. She has yet to take a bad fall though there have been several times that she would have fallen if I was not there to prevent it. They know no fear at this age.

From February 2007

She is also working on her walking skills. We thought for sure she would be walking early because she was pulling up at 8 months and cruising the furniture at 8 and a half months. She has improved in her cruising skills but still does not let go often. Sam did see her this morning standing in the middle of the kitchen though so I guess she is getting better at her balance. I am not in a hurry for her to walk though. It is a whole new level of fun.

From February 2007