And Then She Was One

   Noel at her party on Sunday, wearing the same dress that Lane wore to her first birthday party.

My baby girl turned one a week ago today. We kept it low-key on her actual birthday, since it was a weekday. Noel woke up before Lane, so we got her up, I nursed her and then let her eat a banana while I started making pancakes. We woke Lane up so she could take part in the singing. We helped Noel open a few gifts and then it was onto a weekday as usual.


    Birthday pancake. It was in the shape of a "1". (Forgive the bad lighting...it's rather dark around here until about 8:30.)


    Helping daddy open a present from Mimi and Papa.


    Lane helping Noel open the present from her.


    Daddy bought roses, one for each of his girls, on Noel's birthday.

This past Sunday we had Noel's birthday party. I spent last week baking cakes and freezing them (one per day for four days), and then Saturday night it took me three hours to put the cake together. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. Here's the recipe I used for the white-cake-from-scratch. If you need a white cake recipe, this is a pretty good one. It's a bit more dense than a cake-mix-cake, but it was good nonetheless.


    N, O, E, and L on the sides, 1 on the top.


    And different colored layers!

Sunday morning we put up a few balloons and streamers and after lunch with friends, we all sang Happy Birthday and ate cake and ice cream.




    What is with my girls not liking their first birthday cakes? She actually cried when we put some in her mouth.


    But yesterday she was all over it. 

While I'm in just as much unbelief over Noel turning one as I was when Lane turned one, I do have to say that I didn't cry this year, and not because it's not a little bit sad to me that my baby is already growing up. But as I think of three good friends who have lost newborns in the past year or so and then about Sandy Hook and twenty children dead, I have nothing to cry over (in my own life). One whole year with another beautiful daughter. It went by quickly, yes. But I'm grateful for every single day. 373 of them so far.


    So grateful for my family!