First let me say that after coming out of the fog of sickness and realizing what has happened in Haiti I feel such sadness. It seems impossible to blog about the wonderful celebration of my darling daughter's first birthday without mentioning some way to support families that are grieving so much right now. We have decided to give to Doctor's Without Borders, but there are many other aid organizations accepting donations as well. Please give what you can.

The little party with no real planning kind of turned into a last minute mama push to finish all the little details I suddenly felt were necessary. 

 

Greeting our guests was this little thing I whipped up the night (or early morning actually) before the party. I had wanted to go with a alphabet theme, I don't know why I always come up with themes for things in my mind as I never stick to them anyway.

 

Also extremely last minute ("Hey thanks for coming early Sciarrino, get sewing!") was this felt garland based of the one over on purl bee. I have this up still, and never want to take it down so hopefully I'll get some better pictures of it soon. 

 

I put Sciarrino's man Ethan to work as well. Since this is an awkward shaped gift we decided not to wrap it but have it waiting for Miss Sparkle Pants when she came down. 

 

Nice job Ethan! You may recognize this as a major re-gift. I bought it at an estate sale for my god-daughter a few years ago. It was loved and given back to me. We did buy some new people for it. Tuesday and the other babies loved playing with it and all of the other goodies she got.

 

While we do love everything (so much so I'm going to do another post on the wonderful handmade things she got) it is a bit overwhelming around her after this bash plus Christmas. This weekend we are going to work on a toy plan.

 

Of course I couldn't bare to give Tutu any store bought sugary treats. So in my obsessive state I had Bj make homemade teething biscuits (her favorite) plus yam based frosting (oh and he also made all the appetizers, and Sciarrino made the cookies so really I was more of a coordinator). I used a natural food coloring and some safe sprinkles to decorate them and served it all on a plate with organic whip cream around it.

 

(can you see her sparkly pants?!?! I didn't get a good picture of these crazy silver leggings)

 

Mmm she loves it! She wore her hat most of the day.

 

other side:

 

Just a copy really of the one I made V. When I run out of this making memories paper from six years ago I'll be sad. 

 

While I was at the flower making I made extras and threw them on the table. When it's one AM I start to get all kinds of great ideas. 
 
 

Of course the best part is celebrating with wonderful family and friends. Big thanks to my wonderful step-dad for taking lots of extra pictures! Oh and I made her shirt too, totally last minute so it might only be worn this once (sharpies do not equal fabric markers FYI). I looked at a tutorial that I can't find a the link to (then of course did not follow any of the directions).

Is there any interested in a first year baby wrap up post? Things we used, did, books we read etc? I want to do one for my pregnant friends anyway, but if there is a lot of interest I'd be happy to take questions and compile it all extra nicely 🙂

Thanks for all well wishes. We are on the mend, all the messy sick laundry is done and we ate today, whoo hoo! Tutu was cared for yesterday by my mom who brought her back a few times for me to nurse her (and we gave her frozen milk, I was afraid I would have nothing being so dehydrated). I’ll just look at the bright side – that was a quick way to loose four pounds!
And now the winner of my Box of Amber (which I can not wait to make and will share):

Suzanne that means it’s you! I’m going to email you soon to ask you some questions about your craftiness (and possibly any dietary concerns :)! FYI I started it on 2 because Bj was 1 and like he said, he doesn’t need the box since he has the real thing!
And a post I can’t believe came so quickly – Tutu year one, a pictorial recap:

Four days old – the closest thing I got to “newborn shots” as Tuesday usually looked like this:

Two weeks old – fighting sleep, this will become a theme.

1.25 months – for scale.

2 months – pretty much the only way she will sleep (she still does this arms straight down thing when she rests).

2.5 months – finally able to take her in the car for a bit.

almost 3 months – new skills… these hands do something!

3 months – being adorable.

3.5 months – fitting into the one baby thing we had in the house during the remodel finally.

4 months – loving handknits.

4.5 months – swimming!

5 months – visiting friends.

6 months – bouncing

6.25 months – enjoying the porch.

7 months – first plane ride, Alaska! and

first time swinging, loves it!

7.25 months – first solids, takes a long while to catch on to this weird stuff, until now it had been all milky all the time (and it still is)!

7.5 months – first time at the fair.

8.5 months – handling the little cup like a pro.

9 months – at Kathy’s pumpkin patch.

9.25 months – pissed at the TSA third flight (and 4th, 5th, 6th…) to Vermont to visit Ceara!

9.75 months – Halloween.

10.25 months – watching the big girls swing with grandma.

almost 11 months – flights 7 and 8 to Hawaii and back. First hike (though I did most of the work…)

11.5 months – “talking” to mama on Christmas morning

1 year old!!! Party – details to come.
How fast it goes indeed.