Because two is a sweet, sweet age to be

It's probably about time for that "how we celebrated Anni's birthday" post, right?  Well, here it is!  It's a bit of a combination as we actually celebrated her birthday twice - once on the actual day in Colorado and once with my family in Wichita the following weekend.

On her actual birthday, we woke her up singing Happy Birthday, and she very excitedly discovered that we had put balloons in her room in the middle of the night.  (She started out calling them "balls," but quickly switched to "boons!")  

Breakfast was whole wheat raspberry waffles with chocolate chips on top.  This girl was excited!  The chocolate chips were an after thought after Daddy got a waffle without very much raspberry in it... and after melting into little puddles in the waffle squares, Anni took to just dipping her finger into them and licking it off.  Girl after my own heart, she is.

Her birthday dinner was small - we wanted to celebrate her special day, but knew we were having a big party with my family, so we kept it pretty low key... or as low key as something with chocolate cupcakes and presents can be with a two year old.

Anni's Nonna and Papa came down, bearing all kinds of lovely gifts and our favorite neighbors hopped over to join us.

A pre-dinner cupcake was necessary to combat the crankies from getting overly hot and tired at the park that afternoon.  It perked her right up for birthday dinner: Annie's Mac&Cheese, pizza and fruit.  Anni kept declaring, "I eat piz-za!  I eat mac on cheese!  I eat keeeweee!"

And, oh goodness, the gifts.  Our dear girl was quite spoiled.  Am I allowed to admit that I loved her gifts; though?  Her Papa made the below table and chairs by hand (seriously, he is amazing!), she got the cutest little grocery cart, books, puzzles, a step stool... just a whole lot of fun.

Last year, I really struggled with the memories of how Miss Anni's birth and first few months weren't exactly ideal.  This year, there was so much to focus on in her little personality and how much she has grown, changed and amazes us every day, that while I told her all about her very first birth-day, there wasn't a pang to be had, just immense joy that she is ours and that we are truly blessed to have her sweet little person with us.

She also broke a rather nasty streak we had going on of being hospitalized and cancelling trips around her birthday.  Good work, baby girl!

Anni's "big" birthday party was a joint one with her cousin "Q"... a joint effort between my sister and I between two states.  When Anni and I need a little pick-me-up, we call "Aunt Kaekee" and recently we talk through our plans to celebrate our babies. 

We settled on an animal theme because it was the easiest way to encapsulate these two personalities.  Mostly, we just went for a lot of fun and enough food to make sure everyone was well fed.

The daddies finished off our decorations with some awesome streamers.  They definitely deserve props for those.  Then we had some zebra balloons in the window, french doors covered in pictures of the littles (Anni on the left and Q on the right), some animal masks on the wall (the opposite wall), more pictures on the table and, of course, our food.

I'm glad I remembered to grab a picture of the food before things got crazy... we have animal cupcakes on top and below: Safari Snacks (carmel popcorn/rice squares), Rabbit Food, drinks in adorable milk bottles and zebra stripe pudding.  We also feasted on pizza... because what better way to feed our family (nearly 20 people) and keep everyone happy?

Katie and I made the animal cupcakes the day before the party... I'm pretty excited by how cute they turned out!  We had some monkies, fishies, butterflies, lambs (or... polar bears), frogs, zebra striped and a couple plain ones for good measure.  The cuteness factor is mostly due to my sister's skills... I mostly just spread frosting and ate extra twizzlers.

And don't worry, we had sweet favors.  Everyone (including the adults obviously), spent the party trading and trying on all of the different animals.

We, of course, had some post dinner coloring.  It wasn't planned, but the best things aren't.

When it came to singing, all three triplets got in on the action.  The adults surrounding are doing a mixture of holding up the candles (they didn't want to stick into the frosting all that well) and making sure no one burned themselves trying to blow out said candles.

Q totally rocked his blowing out, Nugget was very intent, but didn't quite have the wind power.

It was so good to be with our family!  I love getting to see the babies grow and know that Anni will grow up familiar with her cousins even if they aren't in the same state.  (She has been making up songs about her Aunt Hannah with frequency since we got back, and tonight she made sure to pray for each uncle by name... I love it!)

And see, I even grabbed one picture with the birthday girl.

I hope all of your celebrations are as sweet as can be.  I'm so grateful for family and friends that love us and cherish our little one as much as we do.

100th Post: Short and Sweet

 I've kind of held out on posting, I mean, I should do something epic for my 100th post, right?  Well, it's epic, alright... just short and sweet at the same time.  I know it seems like something small to many people, but Nugget walking is a closing of a chapter of worry for her.  We are so proud of her!

That's it, nothing fancy, just pure, unadulterated joy at my sweet one's triumph.

She's Walking!

Wohoo!  Look who has it all figuredout!  In true Anni style, she had to perfect her next skill before revealing it... and she's off!  She took her first step about three days ago, took three steps the next day (right when mommy needed some happiness after she got put back on weight check at her 15 month appt) and seems to be adding a step or so each time.  We are so excited for her new mobility!  She is so proud of herself: every time she walks and we all cheer for her, she grins and giggles.  I love milestones :).

And, as a side-note, Miss Anni was officially 21.1 lbs and 30.5 inches long... so not a whole lot of growth, hence the weight-check. 

But that's not the important thing.  The important thing is that she's walking!  

Is this real life?

There must be something about her birthday that makes her feel the need to be in the hospital scaring the spit out of mommy and daddy.

Cuz, that's what she did.

Okay, to be fair it was the day after her birthday.  We went to the doctor to have her rather nasty sounding cough checked out.  I've done this a few times this winter and expected the same answer as before (that she's fine and we just need to wait it out).  No such luck.  7 hours in the hospital later, we were back on oxygen with a very tired little sickie.

Yeah, that tank is huge.  When she came home on oxygen last year, we only had the small tanks... which worked because she was only on a tiny little whiff.  She's on a bit more now, so this baby is now sitting in our hallway with tubing rolled all over the apartment (it's kind of sweet not to have to carry a tank every time we move her).

Luckily, we've got a tough little girl that will be healthy again soon and some amazing friends who brought us food so we can easily avoid the whole "oxygen in the kitchen" thing.  (The rule 6-8 feet away from the stove is tough when that part of your your apartment isn't much bigger than that.)

The parallels to last year are kind of funny.  We'll laugh about it someday.

Unexpected hospital visit?  Check
Oxygen?  Check
Anni cancelling a big trip?  Check

Ah... life.  And I'm going to end on a non-canula'd face, because hopefully we'll be back there soon.

Celebrations

Tomorrow morning, we'll all get up just as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, because that's how our Nugget likes it recently.  We'll load all kinds of party things into our cars, and spend the morning getting girly haircuts (um, for the girls) and baking cakes and cupcakes and setting out pretty little favor boxes.

And the thing is, I know she won't remember this day.  But I will, and I'm so ready to party and celebrate the fact that we made it a year... that this little girl is so not letting the word "premature" define her and that we, as her parents, have survived the sleepless nights and reveled in the baby chuckles. 

Plus, it's an excuse to eat yummy treats and watch a baby destroy a piece of cake.

 
She is so loved.  (And I LOVE this photo - thank you to Jenny Hanlon Photography for our family pictures!)

Growing and Changing

 As of Monday, Daniel started working in a whole new way.  As in, not just around the corner anymore.  As in, in a gorgeous new building... that is at least 35 minutes away.  No more little lunches at home and no more seeing Daddy five minutes after he gets off work.  Other than the fact that the building is absolutely amazing and perfect for the company he works, I'll admit to being a little bummed out.  Luckily, when we move in July we'll be quite a bit closer.

In the meantime, Little Nugget is ever-nearing her birthday and I've learning to revel even more in her growth.  Sometimes she just snuggles into my shoulder and I realize what a beautiful gift I've been given and the stress of running a business from home while raising a baby just melts away.

Her birthday party is on Saturday, and I've been gathering all the supplies for it.  I hope it's lovely.  I know she won't remember it, but I do think a little bit of this party is for Daniel and I... to breathe a little sigh of relief that we survived the first year.  We've got a long way to go, but by golly, we're going to celebrate every chance we've got.

We've started to get creative with food, and I love it!  As you can see, she adores rice... but the kid makes a ginormous mess with it, so maybe not every night.  I love watching her try new foods.  She surprised me by thinking kiwi is the greatest gift she's ever been given and tonight ate pasta and shredded chicken with cautious excitement (meaning she's the slowest eater ever with finger food, but we just give her the time and let her eat what she wants in between spoon feeding). 

 

Possibly the highlight of my week was Anni creating her own hide-and-go-seek.  One of us hides behind the door (which she will swing so you can't see her) and then when you peek out she stares, cackles like crazy, flops on her tummy and runs (er... crawls really fast) away.  I love, love, love hearing her laugh.  It makes me want to scoop her up and kiss her a thousand times just so I can remember these moments.  I want her to always know she's loved.

 

We're also working on standing a lot.  She can't pull herself up, but this girl can hold her own against a wall!  I know she's behind on walking, but I'm really not worried at all.  She'll get there in her own little way just like she's done everything else.  Because, as much as I'm raising her, she's teaching me a whole lot about slowing down and taking time to grow.  We're going to get there together, this girl and I.   

Tucking things away

I've been thinking about this post for a long time.  I didn't think it would make me cry.  I thought it was going to just be about the fact that I was done pumping after 11 months, but visiting the NICU to return the pump today... I realized it's more than that.  (Not that that wasn't both a victory and difficult at the same time.  Our lack of a breastfeeding relationship will always be difficult for me.  However, the fact that she received breast milk for so long is something I am proud of.)  Returning that pump and making possibly our last trip to that NICU ever, made me realize that it's time to tuck some things away.  It's time that our life begin to be just a little more separated from the beginning.  That maybe I go a day or two and not think about your little body caving in which each breath and sobbing because the nurses couldn't get your IV in and you were screaming in your teeny, tiny quiet voice and I couldn't do anything about it.  So, these last few weeks before you turn one, I'm going to get it out of my system.  I'm going to cry for all the times I was scared and couldn't cry, for every time I saw a friend have a normal birth and take their babies home like normal parents when I couldn't, because I was so happy for them, but also, jealous.  Or every time I saw a friend have their own complications, maybe different from ours, and knew the mixed bittersweet feeling of such a birth. 

When we went to the NICU, we found out our favorite nurse had moved on, and that life there had moved on without us.  I don't know why it made me cry, I don't want to go back to you being in the NICU and being worried and scared on top of being exhausted all of the time... but I think that place has been such a big part of our identity as parents, that it was hard to see that they didn't need us to go on.  As happy as they were to see us and see how big and beautiful our baby has grown, I knew we would be off their mind quickly, because there were new babies being born that needed their attention and their reassuring words.  And we don't need them anymore.  Not that we don't need help, because we always will.  I don't think we'll ever stop praying or calling our parents and sisters in the middle of the night because we simply don't know what we're doing.

I feel a little funny pouring all of this out.  I didn't realize I had that much left inside about it.  I know we are fortunate, that our NICU experience was nearly as trauma free as they come.  Still, it was our experience, and I'm going to own it.  And then I'm going to move on.  I'll never forget it, because it did shape who we are as parents, but it's time to let new experiences take it's place in the forefront of my memories.