The start of tantrums?

As of the last couple of days, Lily has been doing the "dying swan", a movement where she sits and just literally drops her head to the floor in utter displeasure.  She is starting to, in no uncertain terms, communicate what she does or doesn't want to happen.  If she wants to be up on my lap and not on the floor, she screeches and protests until I lift her up.  If she is up on my lap and wants to be on the floor, she does the same thing.  It is made very clear when she is unhappy with any situation.

So now begins the joyous repetition of the word "no".  No to her wanting to touch buttons she shouldn't be touching, to her opening cupboards containing dangerous toxic materials, to her trying to climb up the stairs, to her trying to drink water out of the dogs' bowls, to wriggling about when I'm trying to change her nappy or get her dressed... The list is endless and I sometimes worry that Lily is going to think that her actual name is "No"!

Yesterday while trying to get Lily's nappy changed, she was wriggling about so much that I shouted out "no!", only for her to look right at me, point her finger and shout "Doh" (sounds like "no" with a "d").  I was horrified!  Is my 12 month old talking back already?  She really is a little independent thing with a mind of her own - something I really have to get used to.

Although we are dealing with a few difficult moments, as all mommies do, Lily is still the cutest, sweetest little girl.  She has just learned how to blow kisses and I could just melt when she does it.  She also randomly decides that she wants kisses from mommy or daddy and will lean forward, purse her little lips and make a "mwah" sound and come in for a nice slobbery kiss.  It's honestly the most heart melting gesture and I could just burst with pride.  So bring on the "doh's" with pointed finger as the cute moments far outweigh the difficult ones.

Professional birthday photo's

I was in 2 minds whether to get a professional photographer to capture Lily's birthday or not.  Was I going "OTT" or was it a lovely way to capture Lily's first birthday celebration?  After chatting to my confidants,  I decided that this was to be a very special day spent with very special family and friends and I wanted to capture all the moments I possibly could.

So on recommendation from a friend, I decided to book Tiffany Lumley from Shots of Tots and I am more than thrilled with how the photographs turned out.  See a few below:

Before I was a mom...

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. 
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. 
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never been puked on. 
Pooped on. 
Chewed on. 
Peed on. 
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. 
I slept all night.

Before I was a mom,

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. 
Or give shots. 
I never looked into teary eyes and cried. 
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. 
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep. 

Before I was a mom,

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. 
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. 
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. 
I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. 
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. 
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy. 

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. 
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. 
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom...

Sleep changes... again!

The last 2 days have seen Lily refusing to go down for her morning nap.  It appears that she believes that a morning sleep is now no longer required.  So instead of fighting each other this morning - me fighting Lily to go to sleep and Lily fighting me to stay awake - I decided to let her stay awake and off we went to the shops.  She seemed happy enough and not quite ready for a nap...

On our way home from the shops was a different story though.  She started getting a little miserable so I gave her her dummy.  No sooner was the dummy in her mouth and her eyes started to close.  Now the last thing I wanted Lily to do was fall asleep in the car as once her eyes are closed, for no matter what length of time, she believes she has had her nap!  So even a 10 second stint of eye closing equals the belief that she has had ample sleep.  So we quickly headed home with mommy's window wide open and the music volume much higher and luckily we managed to keep Lily awake.

Once we were home, I made her a bottle and prayed for a little bit of a nap... And wow, she went down beautifully at midday and only woke up again at 2:15pm.  I'm rather happy with this arrangement - more time to do things in the morning and a full 2 hour break in the afternoon.  Finally, time for me to enjoy my lunch and have a bit more "me" time as well as more mommy and daughter time in the mornings.  I quite like this arrangement actually...  The next few days will tell whether this is the new routine or whether it's just a passing phase.  Yet another change in the life of mommy and Lily!

Toddler's Rules

I just LOVE this and had to share it.  Something us moms need to remember while going through the toddler stages... It requires much patience I'm sure!

TODDLER’S RULES
1- If I want it, it's mine
2- If it's in my hand, it's mine
3- If I can take it away from you, it's mine
4- If I had it a little while ago, it's mine
5- If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way
6- If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine
7- If it just looks like mine, it's mine
8- If I think it's mine, it's mine
9- If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine
10- Once it's mine it will never belong to anyone else, no matter what

Butterfly 1st birthday party

On Saturday, 30th April at 2:30pm, we celebrated Lily's 1st birthday party.  It was a really special day spent with family and friends and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.  We were also blessed with superb weather, especially for this time of year and thankfully for this OCD mom, most of the babies spent their time walking and crawling outside instead of inside the house!

I braved myself for a chaotic day as we invited 18 of Lily's little friends.  Obviously it isn't only babies who attend 1st birthday parties so we catered for 18 x 3 (for the parents as well).  So our house was very festive indeed!  The only downside to having so many invites was that I felt rather guilty not being able to speak to everyone there, but I'm sure they understand having gone through the same feeling when their little ones celebrated their big day.

So Lily's theme was butterflies - very girly and very pink!  Lily was dressed in pink to match the theme as well as wearing little butterfly wings which she wasn't too fond of so they didn't last too long.  She looked too adorable even if I say so myself.  Here's a picture of her with her daddy before the guests started arriving:

We set up tables and chairs for all the babies along with butterfly themed cups, plates, party packs and blowouts.  The poor little boys just had to deal with all the girlishness!  I am still amazed at how these little people manage to sit so nicely at their little seats and gobble down what's on their plates (as well as throw carefully selected contents onto the floor).

Lily's cake and cupcakes turned out magnificently - I was so pleased.  I ordered 50 cupcakes as well as a large butterfly cake which everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy, but as usual, I over catered so now we have a freezer full of cake!  Oh well, I don't have to worry for the next few tea parties I host - we will all just be eating leftover cupcakes.

Everyone started leaving after 5pm which was a good indicator of how well everyone enjoyed themselves as the party was supposed to end at 4:30pm.  My mom did an excellent job helping with the cleaning up, as did Lulu who had come in for the day to help us along.  After all was tidied up, Lily opened up a few presents, but was so very tired, that we decided to leave the opening of presents to mom and dad a little later.  Lily had a quick bath and then, to my utter astonishment, she fell asleep while I was putting her pyjamas on!  She has never just fallen asleep like that!  She was truly and utterly exhausted from her big day!  Bless, it was really so very special.

Lily was very spoilt and received so many lovely gifts ranging from beautiful clothes, building blocks and puzzles to beauty sets, hair accessories and books.  I have put some of them away for a later stage so she can enjoy each and every one of her presents individually.

So all-in-all Lily had a wonderful, special and amazing birthday celebration.  I am so very proud of our little angel, she is truly the light of our lives and I look forward to throwing her many, many more happy birthdays in future.

Some more pictures of her special day: