Birthday

I made Natalie's cake on Sunday from scratch. It's actually the first cake I've ever made not from a box. I did use a can of icing, though. Mainly because it was there and I was short on time. Also because it was the end of baking day and I was tired of washing dishes.
I spread my can of cream cheese icing over it, then made a little bit of powdered sugar icing for the decorating. I actually have a pastry bag thing with tips, but like I said, I was really tired of washing things, so I used my fancy plastic bag with tiny hole. Hee hee.

The goal was not for it to be magnificent. I wanted it to be sweet. I think it was.

I made a contraption to keep it covered for a day:

The morning of her first birthday, Natalie was given a cup of cow's milk to drink. She liked it okay, I think, and made a big mess. Sadly, I forgot to pick up whole milk so it was 1%. Shhh...

Then we all got bundled up to go to the doctor's office. Baby, it was cold outside! :)

I have to be careful about leaving her gloves on in the car. She cries if she can't get to her thumb.

Customary naked shot on the table. You can see her stats written in purple crayon next to her.

Poor thing did not like the whole doctor's visit experience. The strange people and things made her cry. She's been grumpy the past few days anyway. She cried like I was pinching her when I layed her on the table for shots. She only cried slightly harder when she got the injections, but stopped immediately when I picked her back up.

Back at home, she peeled her bandaids off, then tried to put them back on. It was cute.

She had an overall pretty cranky day, but did enjoy a little Wizard of Oz with her sister.

This is a terrible picture, but you can see Joanna glued to the TV, and Natalie sucking her thumb, also entranced by the singing and dancing.

We decided to keep it very simple this year, and invited some family over after dinner for cake and ice cream.

We put Natalie in this new cute dress from Nana and Popo.

Kissing Krispie the doggie.

Natalie sat up here for a few minutes, then thought, "Hey, can I grab this and eat it?" Or that's what it looked like she was thinking.

Waiting for cake.

She was a fan.

After cake, she got to open up some presents! Actually, let me rephrase, she got to watch Joanna open presents. :)

Here, Natalie is reading her card.

It was pretty cute -- Joanna brought all Natalie's presents, one by one, to Aunt Missy and Aunt Mindy to open up.

Finally, Joanna let go of some of the the presents so Natalie could play, too!

And Joanna's customary position by the door. She has to watch everybody out the window as they go.

The girls went to bed late last night and woke up early. Hopefully they can get back on track soon this week. Tuesday are usually no-nap days for Joanna and one-nap days for Natalie. Poor babies. :(

Stats

Natalie is 18lbs 14oz, 28 inches long/tall, with a head circumference of 18 1/8in
She's perfect. :)
And cranky.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Technically Natalie isn't one yet; I'm writing this Sunday evening. But it won't post until Monday at the time she was born, so when you're reading it, she's already ONE!!!
Ah, how time flies...
I hope to do a photo shoot tomorrow in the backyard or something, but it's going to be a busy day! Poor Natalie has to have her one year check up actually on her birthday! Okay, she doesn't actually HAVE to, but it's the best day this week for Mommy. :) She doesn't know. I'm really hoping she doesn't have any bad reactions from her immunizations, since she has a PARTY tomorrow night! We're not doing anything fancy, just cake and ice cream after dinner with some family. I think it will be nice. My house really needs a good cleaning. House fairy? Ohhhh, Houuuussseee Faaiiirrryy.... where aaarrreee youuuuuuuu?
No answer.
Oh, well. I'd better just do it myself. :) But first,
Natalie...
-can take a few steps in a row, but isn't really ready to walk far. She knows that crawling is faster.
-mostly just likes to take steps with her right foot, which may be why she knows that crawling is faster. :)

-loves to "clean." See the next couple of pictures. She saw me cleaning, grabbed a sock from the laundry pile, and went to town!

-likes climbing pretty much everywhere. I think I had to help her out of this box, but she was happy in it for awhile, with her view.
-has recently discovered "Joanna's" princess chair. She KNOWS she's a princess, too.

Did you see the little toe sticking up? She is so stinkin' cute.

-laughs like crazy when I curl my tongue.

-moves her tongue back and forth in her mouth to make a funny sound.

-still really loves driving the cozy coupe, and has fewer car accidents these days.

-is VERY picky when it comes to finger foods. Anybody got suggestions?

-follows Joanna around everywhere.

-is not happy unless Joanna is around.

-likes emptying and filling things (e.g. a bucket of toys or books)

-is wearing size 12 month and size 18 month clothes. Everything fits pretty well in the waist (actually haven't tried 18 month jeans yet), but the 18 month stuff is long yet.

-wears size 3 diapers.

-may have eczema like her sister.

-is quite a climber.

-amazingly, didn't really mess with the Christmas trees.

-"talks" a lot.

-signs "more," "clean up," and "all done." More is her favorite. She uses it for lots of things, including "milk," "no thank you, I'd like something else please," and "I need something, but I'm not sure what it is."

-LOVES to do Pat-a-cake. She "asks" for it all the time. It's very cute.

-isn't as great a sleeper as her big sis... yet, anyway. Part of this is sabotage by me. Early on, I responded pretty fast when she cried so as not to wake Joanna. She knows this. She goes down pretty well at night but is up early, at unpredictable times between about 5am and 6:45am. I really like the latter. She sleeps by the wall next to the bathroom Matt gets ready in; I think she can hear him. I wish she slept a little more soundly. I'm hoping that weaning will bring a little change in the morning routine. It did with Joanna. We'll see.

-takes two naps, usually only 30-45 minutes each.

-has 6 teeth: 4 in the middle on top, 2 in the middle on bottom.

-will likely get her first taste of cow's milk tomorrow.

-needs to start drinking out of a cup well... soon. We just need to work on it more.

-very gently, without drawing too much attention to herself, drops food on the floor that she doesn't want to eat. These include: all vegetables, eggs, cheese.

-does like any kind of fruit, crackers, rice cakes, waffles, pancakes, toast (sometimes), grilled cheese (sometimes), and anything pureed and mixed up. Yum. :)

-is just so stinkin' cute.

-knows she's just so stinkin' cute. :)

-is very well loved by her Momma, Daddy, and big sister.

-is ONE today!

01-11-10

I just realized today's date is a palindrome. It's the same forwards and backwards.

Joanna's cuteness

Do you think Joanna needs some metal bakeware? I guess she could just keep using mine. :)Friday I took the girls to the salon to get Joanna's hair cut. I hadn't been able to see her face for several days. :) Our stylist, Stacy, was running late due to having one of those terrible kinds of mornings where you just want to go back to bed! Anyway, it was no problem for us; we waited patiently, and somebody gave Joanna a sucker so she was happy. Then Stacy had time, so she styled Joanna's hair! Joanna LOVES to have her hair blow-dryed, and I'm very glad she did this day since it was so cold outside!

Then she did pigtails!

Here's my best attempt later to get a picture of the hair-do. She wanted them out before nap, but she kept them in for awhile!

I'm very glad I can see her face again. :) It's a cute one.

Baking Day

We got home from church around 12:30, and I spent pretty much the rest of the day in the kitchen. I am pooped! But I made 12 tortillas, 2 loaves of bread, and 1 birthday cake.
I won't post pictures of the cake today, but you'll see it in the birthday pictures in the next couple of days. My bread didn't rise again, so I think I'll try a different recipe next time. I think it will still be tasty, though!
The cake was cooling, the bread was baking, and the children were sleeping (or not), and something posessed me to make tortillas from scratch. I did an internet search and clicked on this website. There are written directions then a video underneath. The recipes are actually different, and I used the one in the video. It was really simple, but pretty time consuming, rolling all those little tortillas out and cooking each one on the skillet. A giant griddle would be helpful for this, I think. Sadly, I did not take a picture of my tortillas. They sure weren't round, but they were yummy! The recipe called for 4 cups of all purpose flour; I used about 1 cup whole wheat (it was laying around after the bread making) and the rest all purpose. I think I could increase the whole wheat amount next time.
Here's my little helper rolling out the tortillas.

I made a pot of rice and beans yesterday so we ate these filled with rice and beans, cheese, and salsa (Matt, anyway). Some spinach or something would've been good, but that would have required a trip to the store. I was covered in flour and I didn't feel like it! They were very tasty and very filling.

That's just cute.

My mom just sent me this picture she took back in November.