Birthday week

Annie and I celebrated our 1st and 29th birthdays this week, respectively. This is the first year of MANY to come where we celebrated Father's Day and two birthdays in five days! All in all, it meant many calories were consumed and lots of fun was had.

We just finished up Annie's not-party. (Not a party because the official party will be shared by Annie and Nellie in July. Okay, it was kind of a party.) Unfortunately, she's been sick all week with a high fever, little appetite, and no desire to sleep. Coincidentally, Nellie was sick the days before her 1st birthday party, and my mom tells me I was sick on my first birthday! Anyway, today was the first day she perked up enough to play again, and play we did! That is, we played around Annie's two three-hour naps.

The thing about being the younger sister on your 1st birthday is that your older sibling gets to pick what you do. Lucky for Annie, Nellie picked the splash pad. It was awesome. I had taken Nellie before; in fact, we were there the day I went into labor with Annie. But Nellie is older and braver now, and Annie has never been. It was hot enough that the water felt good, and while it's fun to go with friends, it was nice to be just the three of us. Nellie's favorite was hiding under the "umbrellas," Annie's favorite was probably the water! She's a little water baby. There was a moment where I held Annie up, and she had a brilliant grin on her face with the blue sky and fluffy white clouds as the backdrop, and it was like a little piece of heaven. There were no tantrums, no injuries. Wonderful.

While the girls napped later, I baked lemon cupcakes (round two--the first batch from last night burned) and made lasagna and mopped the kitchen floor. Erin and Xander came for dinner, then mom and dad stopped by for cupcakes and presents. Of course, Nellie had a hard time with the whole thing and opened all of Annie's presents. Oh well, it worked for this year!

It's hard to get as much attention when you're the second child (ahem--we know from experience--ahem) so it was nice to celebrate Annie today! It's been a great year with her. She's so easy-going and sweet, very thoughtful and happy. She's finally crawling--well, doing a version of a hermit crab walk--and one of these days she's bound to start sleeping through the night. Annie adores Nellie and it's been interesting to watch them meet and get to know each other this year.

Happy birthday, Annie. We love you!