In one week

In a week from today, our baby is one. One seems little, like a baby, until you say something to her and she looks immediately back at you and responds. She is a little human with a mind of her own, she understands, reacts, and even speaks cat. Ha - She will ramble something off and our cat will run over to her; she'll giggle, squeal and crawl away. What is happening?! How do twelve months go by when you can clearly remember your very first moments together like it was yesterday? Well, it did, just like my dad told me it would. 

When she was first teething and my dad could sense my exhaustion, he said to me "it will feel never ending, tiring, and out of your control, but try to enjoy it. I wish I could go back in time with you and your brother, it goes by too fast. So try to enjoy her, even when it's hard." Now I can confidently say I would like to go back in time, snuggle her and ease her achy teeth with mama's touch again. 

Now dad, as much as I appreciate your advice, your choice in shorts....not so much. Are you sure you want to go back? :)

Just kidding, you know I love you! 

 

Back to Pen turning one. Michael thinks I've lost my mind. I am throwing a party that some may say is a little over the top for a first birthday but I am going to try to justify it here, so hang with me. Anyone who knew my mom, knows she was an entertainer. She loved big birthdays, big holidays, and just a darn good, big dinner. She just enjoyed it and so did the neighborhood kids. Supper at our house was always different, she would out of nowhere, make a full Chinese dinner. From scratch. I have no idea how or why other than she just loved doing it. As a kid I never really appreciated it but I did notice that it was unusual from going to other friend's houses. More often than not, my friends wanted to come to my house in hopes that my mom would do a build your own pizza night or just for the delicious, over abundance of food as usual. As for me, I wanted to order takeout because we seldom got to and my mom's cooking was just the norm for me. 

Ok I kind of rambled there. Let's talk about holidays and parties. She was always the organizer, chef, decorator and really the one that just brought everyone together. She would spend hours wrapping presents which meant I would spend hours handing her tape. If it didn't turn out how she wanted it, she would rip it open and restart, no kidding. For my birthday party while in kindergarten, she invited all 3 classes of 5 & 6 year olds and turned our basement into a carnival with games, prizes and as much fun as you could have in the middle of winter. 

So although I recognize that throwing a "huge" party for a one year old is unnecessary and maybe hard to understand for most, it is simply in my blood and seems completely normal to my family. 

While I do believe this is a large factor as to why I am doing so, I also realized something else today. It is a huge distraction. If I'm busy picking a 10x30 "wedding" tent to host our guests in, I don't have to come to terms with the fact that of all the things that I can control, time is not one of them. Well here it is, I know it, I realize it and I'm even trying to be ok with it. I'm spending more and more of my day just taking in how much Penelope has grown and randomly catching her notice new things she can do. Some are naughty things! But mostly she is gaining independence, being sweet, eating all my food, and chasing her animals around one bump to the face at a time.  

Being a big girl in her pool

Digging out every cord she can find like every baby should be doing, not.

Hiding from me under the coffee table 

Pretty proud of herself, as usual :)

Showing off her ouchie from falling down

Very happily eating all my chicken

Being a sweet little lady

Or is it a crazy little lady? You decide!

I've got a lot to do for the party and at the end of the day I just want everyone to enjoy themselves and to make some memories with our baby girl. For in the end, good times and sweet memories are what truly matter.