1st birthday!

Today Lily is officially no longer a baby, but a toddler.  Although that's the official age group that she has graduated from, she will always be my baby and nothing will ever change that.  She is now a tall 78cm, precisely 30cm longer than she was at birth, and she weighs a petite 9.22kg, 3 times as much as she did a year ago.  Although these statistics are concrete evidence of how she is growing, I still cannot believe that she isn't the tiny little baby that I gave birth to exactly a year ago today.  I'm going to be that stuck record again and say that I really and truly cannot believe how the time has flown... I honestly wish life came with an optional "pause" button.

So today was Lily's birthday and we woke up at 7am to a very happy, wide eyed little angel.  We came downstairs, had our bottle, waited for Granny and Grampa (Hertz) to come downstairs and for daddy to finish his conference call for work.  We then sat on the floor with all the presents and had a great time opening them.  Lily was very spoiled and absolutely loved everything from the trike Granny and Grampa bought her and the swing from mom and dad (her jungle gym is on its way) to the huge teddy bear from Great Granny and the wooden puzzle, blocks and farm toys from Aunty Lou and Uncle Rollie.  So very spoiled!

My lovely new trike!

 After her morning nap, we had some errands to run, followed by a lunch at Mugg & Bean with Granny, Grampa and Aunty Lou so Lily could play at the playground next door.  She loves it there and had fun riding the wooden horses and getting very dirty on the grass, in the mud, on the paving and touching bird droppings (much to my and my mom's delight!).  After lunch, Lily decided that she was having too much of a lovely birthday and she didn't want to waste any time having a silly afternoon nap.  I didn't feel like fighting with her either so the nap was forfeited and more time was spent playing before Lily's annual peadiatrician check-up.

The paediatrician check-up wasn't the greatest as Lily had to have blood drawn for the first time.  It was awful and Aunty Lou and Granny were besides themselves.  They were crying so very hard hearing Lily's screams from the waiting room.  I was a little bit braver but shed a few tears as well.  It's horrible hearing your child in pain and you cannot do anything to help her.  But we needed to have the bloods drawn as Lily had been fighting a fever 5 days ago and ended up with a rash which she still has.  We needed to get down to what caused the fever.  It turns out that she had a viral infection which her little body was fighting and the rash was a result of this.

Other than the horrible part of the doctor's visit, we were very proud to hear that Lily is doing brilliantly developmentally.  She is reaching all the necessary milestones and is a very happy, good and strong baby...erm, I mean toddler.  She is doing the cutest things these days from copying mom's ridiculous facial expressions to pretending to answer the phone when she hears one ringing (even saying her own version of "hello").  She also has a teddy bear that sings and speaks when you push its paws so now she thinks that all teddy bears do this and she goes about pushing their paws, not quite understanding why it doesn't produce the same silly sounds.  My heart can just melt at how precious she is.

The last year has truly been the most amazing of my life.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Lily has brought so much joy and happiness into our home and is the center of our universe, and always will be.  I love her more than I can ever express and am so looking forward to watching her grow and develop into the truly amazing person I know she will become.

Finally, our 1st tooth!

For the past few months, I have had "tooth envy", watching as all Lily's friends sprout teeth left, right and center, while my baby's gummy smile remains.  I was starting to get a little perturbed at the lack of teeth and was ready to google whether there has ever been a documented case of a toothless child! 

Luckily, I didn't have to resort to that as 8 days before Lily's 1st birthday (20th April 2011), I felt the sharp little edge of her first tooth.  The bottom left tooth to be precise!  I couldn't quite believe what I was feeling so I took a silver teaspoon and gently tapped it against her gums and "tadaa", a resounding "tinging" sound was heard.  So Lily is now officially no longer toothless and I can't wait to see what she is going to look like without her gummy smile.

Now to organise some pancakes to celebrate!

1st birthday parties

April is definitely a busy month!  It is the month when many of Lily's little friends celebrate their 1st birthdays so our diaries are full.  I think we have parties every single weekend, with us having to be at 2 parties on some of those days as well!  I'm going to have to limit Lily's food intake as all they seem to do at these parties is eat! 

Yesterday we celebrated little April's Mini Mouse birthday party and it truly melts my heart seeing all these little people sitting so nicely at their party table together.  Just yesterday they were tiny little helpless babies and now look at them...

Lily's first birthday party is being held at home so hopefully the weather is kind to us.  Having a big group of people along with their 1 year old babies all cooped inside due to bad weather is not going to be ideal.  I have decided on the theme and bought quite a few of the decor items so we are on track.  I have placed the cake order, have bought 90% of the party pack surprises and just have to think about a few minor details.  I'm looking forward to celebrating our little angel's first birthday party - a celebration of, without a doubt, the best year of my life!