ONE

One year ago today my life changed forever.

I no longer got to sleep late. Easy tasks were no longer easy. I was lucky if I had time to apply make up. My daily conversations include poop and feeding schedules. I often had spit up on my shirt. I no longer cared about me.

One year ago today my life changed forever.

I now wake up to a smiling face every morning. I experience every milestone with my child. I get kisses for no reason. I get to teach her new things. I created a life and now I get to watch her grow.

As I type this, I realize that a year ago exactly I was just about to have Carlee. She was born at 8:09pm. It seems like only yesterday. I can't believe its been a whole year. I get weekly emails that say "My Baby This Week, Your 11 month old: Week 4" or "Your 4 month old: week 1" etc. Today's email said "My Toddler This Week, Your 1 year old." My what? My toddler? When did that happen?

My baby is growing up so fast that I had to take the day off from work to just spend her birthday with her. Even if we stayed home all day, I just wanted to be with her.

The day got off to a good start...Carlee slept in (which was more of a birthday present for mommy).

This is how Carlee watched TV this morning. She didn't want to change clothes. Its her birthday...I let her roam naked for awhile.

Then we went to the mall to go shopping! (teaching her young) We bought some Pedipeds and clothes from Gymboree! Then we went to lunch with Uncle Dien. At lunch, Carlee learned to drink from a straw for the first time. She was quite proud of herself and she got the hang of it pretty quickly. After lunch, she had a good nap. When Daddy got home, the 3 of us went to Toys R Us. They gave Carlee a balloon and a crown and announced her biorthday over the intercom. It was quite comical especially since she was oblivious.

At Red Robin, pointing to the balloon.

Got it!

This was from later in the evening when Grandma Candi and Grandma Susie came to visit the birthday girl.

Side note: Carlee got a pumpkin! She went to the pumpkin patch last night with Grandma Candi and Great Aunt Lisa. 4th time's a charm but we got one. Now Daddy has to carve it!

Birthday party of the year!

We had been planning Carlee's party for a few months now. Although I refused to go over the top and spend a ton of money, I wanted it to be a nice party (and we were expecting close to 100 guests)! I didn't stress about the small details...I got to enjoy the party. The most stressful part was trying to control the chaos of the kids "helping" open Carlee's gifts. Overall, the party was a huge success. Carlee was a trooper for missing her afternoon nap. A lot of people saw our house for the first time so it was also a housewarming (sorta). Carlee got a ton of generous gifts. The last of the guests didn't leave until after 9pm (and the party started at noon!) I'd say that Carlee had a pretty good birthday party!

The backyard all set up.

Birthday girl!!! She loved crawling in the jumper!

that's one giant pinata

Carlee didn't dig into the cake like I thought she would. She put her fingers in the frosting then put her hand over to the side to get the frosting off. She tasted a little but wasn't really into it. maybe she won't like sweets! (I can't only hope.)

She played with this one toy while Mommy and everyone else opened up the other gifts.

I think its a sign you had too much candy/ toys in the pinata when the kids can pose, take a picture, fill up multiple bags, and walk away and come back and there's still candy on the ground.

The happy birthday girl. She may have been oblivious that all the commotion was for her, but she had fun. We are fortunate to have such great family and friends to share our daughter's birthday with!!

early birthday present

This birthday bash is in full swing. I have everything ready to go, everything's confirmed. Now if only Sunday could get here. Well, for the party we were going to buy a ball pit for the little kiddos. I decided to wrap it up so Carlee could upwrap it. It is a birthday present after all! Of course she was more intrigued by the wrapping paper...trying to eat it or put it back on the box that she just ripped it off of. She finally got all the wrapping paper off, we opened the box, I gave her a few balls, and then that was it....we starred at a deflated ball pit. (Carlee didn't know it was supposed to be inflated, she crawled all over it anyway).

party, party, party

The 2nd half of October is busy, busy, busy for us. This past Saturday we had cousin Austin's first birthday party! Carlee loved the ball pit and crawling around on the grass. She was the only girl (around the age of 1 anyway) and she was the only kid trying to eat grass! All the boys were playing with the ball pit while my daughter, in dress and all, just wants to get dirty and eat grass!

The birthday boy!

Then we had a 60th surprise birthday party (no kids)...maybe that's why I don't have pictures. Next weekend the partying continues with another 1st birthday and a house warming. Oh and this little get together we're throwing together for someone's birthday.

Take Three

I'm getting behind in my blogging. I usually haven't had a 2nd event happen that I was going to blog about before I was able to blog about the 1st. So let's go back a week or so...

Pumpkin patch, take three.

Carlee and her cousins went to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Papa. (That means mommy and daddy got a few free hours!) Carlee had fun as always with her cousins. She even got to go on rides.

...and still no pumpkin. Maybe Grandma Candi will take her to get a pumpkin so we can carve it. Only 11 days until Halloween!

new experience

Carlee has more and more "firsts" as she gets older. This "first" was her first bubble bath. She wasn't sure what to make of the bubbles...she couldn't see her toys and she kept trying to pull the bubbles off of her hand. Of course I get amusement out of this.

pumpkin patch, part deux

A week after going to Tanaka Farms, we decided to go to the pumpkin patch at Irvine Regional Park. With our weekends in October being limited, we wanted Daddy to experience the pumpkin patch also. At the Irvine Park, there's a train, hay ride, pony rides, zoo, maze, jumper, and face painting.

Oh and they have quite a few cut outs for photo op's and somehow the only picture we got was of Carlee's face on a pig. She makes a cute piglet I guess.

And we still walked away without a pumpkin.* Pumpkin patch visits 2, pumpkins 0.

*Our reasoning for not getting a pumpkin was in case Carlee makes a 3rd trip with her cousins. Hoefully we'll get a pumpkin this year!