I discovered through a friend's blog this morning that it is National Blog Posting Month, in which you are supposed to blog every day. So will this motivation scheme work on someone like me, who allows a blog to sit, unchanged, for months? Probably not. But hey, it's worth a shot! I will probably be taking a leaf out of my friend's book and post recipes and such. Somehow, even though I'm staying home with Iris (or maybe because of that), I seem to lose the time to blog very easily. But let's see what happens!
First order of business, the birthday party! Yes, it's hard to believe, but my baby girl turned one two weeks ago. If she wasn't constantly asserting her toddlerhood, I probably wouldn't believe it myself. But she's walking and talking (at least in her own cute language), and definitely showing that she is as opinionated as her parents. My mom thinks it's all very funny, the way she keeps us on our toes; apparently she's just the way I was. But despite the growing independence, she's good-natured, constantly smiling, and extremely outgoing. I've never heard of a baby that gets as much attention as Iris does, and I think it's all because she's such a ham and will do anything for smiles. =)
So, anyway, back to the party. We had a pirate party (sorry, no cutesy stuff for us!), and it was lots of fun. Most of our family was there (which makes for a rather crowded house), and we barbequed to the sounds of the pirate music in the background. We had delicious cake while Iris opened her gifts (she really got into the unwrapping--loved to tear the paper the way she's not allowed to at home!), and even showed her first signs of true selfishness around other kids (uh oh!). When she unwrapped the ride-on car that my parents got her, my cousin's son, Bo, wanted to play with it too. Normally, Iris tends to stand aside if other kids want what she has. Not so here. Instead, she pushed Bo away and repositioned herself so that he couldn't get to her toy. Ah, the fun that is ahead!
Iris also got her first taste of cake. Now, many of you may know how strange I am about my food--I do as much organic and whole grain as I can afford to, and now I've even gone to making my own breads and (soon!) pastas so as to avoid store bought. Well, having Iris has only made this worse. I won't even use generic meat or any other animal products anymore for the hormones, a fact which I think drives my mom nuts. =) The entire day before the party, while I was making the cake, I was sick with stress about her eating so many things we had been told to avoid up until now, and all at once--milk, eggs, and sugar. So, paranoid that I am, I made an organic cake to put under that unbelievably sweet decorator's frosting. She barely even touched the cake. Once she discovered icing, that was it. For some reason, she was most attracted to the black flag in the middle of the cake, and rapidly gave herself what looked like pirate stubble. (Oh, and just a note, we didn't make her eat with a spoon the way it looks in the picture. We just gave her one because she likes them.) I was worrying about sugar headaches, sleepless nights, and bad reactions, but she was having a blast. And after all that, she slept through the night, no negative side effects.
After giving Iris a bath and cleaning up my parent's house, we left with more toys than we really will ever need, utterly exhausted. Iris won't remember it, but we'll have great pictures!
As it is election day, I do have to put in a plug to go vote. I am jaded, and don't believe my vote will really count except in local elections, but I still am a firm believer that if you don't vote, you can't complain. So if you're an Oregonian, drop off your ballot (if you haven't already done so--I finally got mine in yesterday--it took us over two hours to go through all the measures and politicians and everything!), and if you live elsewhere, go vote! Okay, so there's my duty done. =)
