Lillian is 1!!!

My baby is officially one!!! Everyone keeps asking me if I had a party for her. Ummmm, I still haven't had a proper birthday party for Andrew, so I can't exactly skip him and give her a great party, right? So it was the typical...grandparents travel hundreds of miles, we eat cake, try to do something that the birthday person likes to do and open presents.

That's what we did for Lily! She woke up to Grandma and Grandpa in her house, with Memere and Pepere quickly coming over from the hotel. She was showered with lots of attention and showed off all her latest tricks (pretending to talk on the phone, patting the floor to get the dog to bring her the ball, trying to cover her eyes to play peek-a-boo, saying all her words, crawling like a mad-woman). She even tried out a few new and terribly cute skills. She now comes up to you and opens and closes her fist saying, "gig-le, tri-gle, igle" saying "tickle tickle tickle" in her own words as she tickles you. So stinkin' cute!!! It kind of sounds like the Islamic call to prayer, but whatever. To us it sounds like tickle tickle...who cares if some Pakistani thinks she's praising Allah. She also now knows how to blow a kiss. Oh, melt my heart right now. If you blow her a kiss, she puts her hand up to her mouth and says ,"Mmmmmmm-ah" as she moves it away from her mouth. So sweet.

I digress. She woke up from her morning nap and we packed up a lunch and went to a state park. Lily loves being outdoors and walking around in her backpack. It was in the upper 80s, but nice and breezy...especially under the trees. And it was apparently horse-riding day, so she got lots of excitement over watching the horses stroll by on the trails and of course all the dogs out for a walk. We were right by a creek, and she even got to watch dogs swimming and horses fording the water. I'm telling you, she was in heaven. Andrew was having his own kind of fun catching toads and collecting HUGE leaves. Gotta love fall...even if it was a bit hot.

Came home and watched her mutilate a cupcake. Actually, she didn't know what to do with it, so we asked Andrew to show her. I was expecting him to take a bite to show her how...but instead he tried to put it in her mouth. So cute...it looks like a wedding video. ;) After that one taste, she totally got the idea and was covered from eyebrows to chin in pink icing. After nap, she opened the mountains of presents from her grandparents. After 3 birthdays with Andrew, I've learned to buy virtually nothing...and my children will still receive more than their fair share! Don't worry, I'll have to pay it back when my in-laws move in with us because they've spent all their retirement on baby clothes and toys. ;) Andrew did very well watching Lily open gifts and kept his "helping" to a minimum. This was helped by Memere buying him an Eagles football...he was in heaven. But after watching Lily open her gifts...many of which were fall clothes...he told his grandma, "For my birthday, I want toys, not clothes." Just in case she needed to know ;)

Very nice day. Sweet sweet baby. I can't believe that it's been a year since my most humiliating day ever. She was worth all the puking and back pain and ripping/tearing birthing pain. Such a special girl.