This was her reaction. Basically, she was humoring us.
She had a good time during the rest of the day being dressed up and playing. Some fun new toys arrived so she played with those, and then that night she had her 1-year pictures. She was pretty ready for a nap by the time we got to the photo studio, so they aren't the best pictures of her, but she's a cutie regardless.
Getting dressed up, just for fun
Checking out the new toy from Aunt Jill
Here are some pics from her professional shoot:
She had a good first birthday, I think.
On Friday we left to go to Memphis. It had been almost 2 months since Evie had seen Grannadaddy, so I think there was mutual excitement when we got to Memphis. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, played, and then she went to bed because Saturday was her big party.
Now, I'm not being judgmental, but big birthday parties for small babies are not my cup of tea. I don't think turning one requires any themed extravaganzas with ponies and clowns and slot machines. So, we just had a simple family get-together for her party (though, there were 26 people there, so I don't know if you could call that simple). We were sad that Evie's cousins Addie and Will (and their parents, of course) didn't get to come, but she enjoyed seeing so many people and playing with her second cousins (my cousin's girls).
Cake was a big hit with Evie. A BIG hit. This video is 4 minutes long, so I apologize for the length, but I thought that those of you who couldn't be there might enjoy seeing her reaction to cake:
And some pictures:
We had a yellow cake with chocolate icing (which is what I had at my first birthday), some yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla icing, and then a carrot cake (which is what Seth had at his first birthday)
This was my attempt at Evie having a "1" cake. It's yellow cake with chocolate icing. She also got served a small piece of carrot cake so she could have both kinds.
Before dinner, playing with her cousins (well, first-cousins-once-removed) Aiden and Lydia
Pre-cake uncertainty
Wide-eyed wonder at the deliciousness
Trying cake as leave-in conditioner
Wondering why the cake is gone
Playing in the kitchen with Aiden and her second cousin Nyla
These blocks are ones that all my cousins and I played with at our Pappaw and Memmaw's house. Since they are now gone, the family is in the process of trying to decide what to do with all of the things left in the house, and the things that we didn't want to get damaged somehow are at my parents' house. I don't know who spelled Evie's name in the blocks, but it really got me when I walked around the corner and saw it.
Evie with her Tia (my cousin Olivia) and second cousin Naomi
Playtime (my friend Cristaldawn is playing with Naomi)
Cousinly love
Half of the Whitehorn great-grandchildren
Nyla was being encouraged to try to climb into the exersaucer. Also note, baseball is on TV. Which is typical.
She was completely zonked after the party.
We had a great time, and we were sad to leave on Sunday. We ended up taking 5 hours to get home instead of the usual 3 and a half because of a bad wreck that made us get off of I-40 before the Tennessee River and take Hwy 70 almost all the way home. Evie did pretty well with the delay so long as we kept handing her new toys and the occasional cheese puff.
On Monday, we got a very nice surprise from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Aimee, Addie, and Will: Evie's very own Hippo John. Well, it's Raffi Giraffe, but close enough. See, this riding toy comes in a dragon version which my niece and nephew see as more of a hippo than a dragon. And at one point, my brother asked Will what the hippo's name was, and Will responded, "Hippo, John." Or maybe it was "Hippo John"; I'm not really sure of the punctuation. Regardless, it's pretty funny, and now Evie has her own Hippo John.
Also on Monday, Tia drove up and spent the night with us on Monday and hung out on Tuesday. They had a great time together, and Tia even came with us to Evie's check up. Here we are waiting for the doctor to come in:
Evie was being quite a ham.
Stat check:
Weight at Birth: 7 lbs 2 oz - 37th percentile
Weight at 1 Year: 22 lbs 6 oz - 72nd percentile (+15 lbs 4 oz, or 3 times her birth weight)
Height at Birth: 18 inches - 6th percentile
Height at 1 Year: 29.25 inches - 54th percentile (+11.25 in)
Head circumference at 2 weeks: 35 cm - 26th percentile
Head circumference at 1 Year: 47 cm - 93rd percentile (+12 cm)
So, basically, average size body, BIG HEAD.
She also got three shots and did so great with them. She cried for a split second and then got more interested in the hot pink band-aids than in fussing, and stayed happy all evening, especially after a good post-vax nap.
Some people have asked how I am doing with my baby being one. I am 100% excited about it. I don't miss the newborn phase at all. And I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy lots of it, and that it wasn't worth the work, because it absolutely was. I wouldn't have traded this past year for anything, because I think we all learned a lot about each other and ourselves, and because we have some very precious memories. I will definitely treasure those.
But something has changed about the way that I handle Evie now. I think I've been very, very protective of her in a way that I'm not as inclined to do now. I'm not worried so much about her eating, her sleeping, her schedule, because I know that she'll be okay. As my cousin put it when I was talking about it to her, it's a lot less stressful now that I don't have to worry about being her only source of nutrition or about her dying in the middle of the night. I love that Evie can interact with me, that she loves to read books, that she points to me when someone asks her where her mama is, that she finds things interesting and is starting to try to talk. It's so much better! Yay for toddlers!
that cake thing was pretty damn cute, but my favorite is still (and will always be) her reaction to peanut butter. xoxo to all your three
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