We celebrated Layla's first birthday last Saturday. She turned one on Friday and I was surprised at how emotional I was all day. I had been busy last week preparing for her birthday party and needed to leave her at school to get work for MSE and the party done. I wanted to drop her off after 10:30 so I could be with her at the exact moment she was born (10:25 am August 20th), but I ended up taking her at 10:00 because I was overwhelmed with how much I needed to get done. It was really conflicting, I cried as I left her day care. It punctuated a year of emotionally mangled living. It's so hard being a mom. I don't regret one moment of it though. Such a small price to pay for all the wonderfulness that Layla is.
Today was her 1 year doctor's appointment. She is 21 lbs and 4 1/2 ounces and 30 1/4 inches tall. She was 7 lbs 8 ounces when she was born and 21 inches long, but she's changed in so many more ways then just weight and height. She can stand and has taken a few steps without holding on to anything, she says "uh-oh" and sort of says "happy". If you ask her what a lion says, she'll growl, what a dog says, she gives a really short high-pitched bark, and ask what a monkey says, she makes a similar, though distinctly different yap that sounds like one of her monkey dolls. She waves at everyone that walks by, and gets a lot of positive attention from strangers, which she loves. She shakes her head, no, which makes her little curls bounce. She high-fives, in English and Spanish (chocale cinco!). She can blow kisses (also in two languagues- bous bedeh!), and will pretend to answer a toy phone by holding it up to her ear. She plays peek-a-boo. She has officially graduated to adult foods, no more purees. She is going to get weened off of formula and go to straight whole milk.
Cary, Layla, and I went to Morrels at the Grove and Layla ordered off the kids menu for the first time. Grilled cheese and sliced apples. We were both so excited. It's so funny to experience the excitement of the little, simple things like ordering off a menu for the first time for her. You don't expect to be excited, but it's so much fun when you are. She also had whole milk for the first time, and drank it out of a straw. Drinking out of a straw is another new trick.
Yesterday was Cary and my 3 year wedding anniversary. He's been working really late these last few weeks, leaving at 7:30 am and coming home at 9 or 10pm, so we haven't seen much of each other and I've been exhausted taking care of baby alone. So we're hoping to get to do something tomorrow night, but who knows if it will happen. It's been rough. We want to try to find a house to buy, but there is no time and between Cary wanting to leave his job and me not sure how I'm going to raise two kids some day with a commute to Pasadena and pay for 2 day cares or get a nanny (both of which not sure how to pay for a with a mortgage and a 2nd car payment we plan to take on at some point), we really don't know how we're going to swing it. I'm writing all this so in a year when I've figured it all out and I'm sitting in our new house with the situation worked out, and either pregnant or with a newborn (fingers crossed, trying to visualize what I want) I'll have gained some sort of retrospective problem solving/decision making wisdom. I hope.
It's 10 till midnight on Thursday. Cary's asleep, so is Layla. I should be too, but I felt like staying up and enjoying some alone time doing nothing in particular.
I still haven't blogged about our trip to Europe. I don't think. I can't remember. That's pretty bad. I'll have to go back and remind myself what I've blogged about.
Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures from her birthday. It was a lollipop themed party because we were celebrating our Layla-pop...get it?
Mom got the giant lollipop cake. It was really tasty, I'm still eating leftovers. This was the first time in almost a year that I got to exercise any creative juices. It felt good. But I was exhausted. I'm used to taking my time, but for this party I had to be decisive and efficient. Not quite what I'm used to, but it was good for me. The party was at Roxbury park and it was a smashing success. Hopefully next year it will be in our new home. Visualizing it and making it happen....
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