Disclaimer: Lily did not sit in the snow all day, I promise. The above pictures were taken this morning before we had much on the ground. The following pictures were taken this afternoon while the neighbor boys were outside playing (she was squealing watching them out the window, so Benjamin insisted on taking her out to play):
But I did gasp a little when I saw this picture (Benjamin took these):
Poor little cold exposed neck! :(
Some Christmas decoration failures and frustrations. Lily is starting to take some steps. She is surprisingly cautious and deliberate so she's not really just taking off, more like slowly and carefully taking little steps and then freaking out and wanting to be held because she's not sure what's going on. Ah, changes...
Don't let the picture fool you (because she really looks like a walking girl!), she mostly just stands there, maybe takes one step, and then either gets down and crawls away as fast as she can or clings to my legs until I pick her up.
And I've been busy, busy, busy with more projects than I can handle right now. Here is a sweater vest for a friend's 4 1/2 year old daughter (i.e. huge and making me arthritic):
This is my first time knitting a cable pattern though so that part is fun. :) And some baby shoes! I've started making slippers out of old wool sweaters. I finished these the other day and they are super thick and squishy soft, with a nice black suede bottom:
And I may have made a little red pair for a certain someone:
Stay tuned for snow pics! We're in the middle of a mini-blizzard right now so once it settles down a bit we'll probably take Lily out for her first big snow experience.
Fortunately the wonderful kjk took Lily in for the evening and Benjamin and I were able to spend a couple hours at the party where I compulsively checked my phone for Lily updates, but still not as often as I thought I would.
Benjamin was mostly excited that they had sushi this year. Dave gave Kurt, Benjamin and I a tour of the new building. The highlight is definitely the conference room, complete with artwork projected onto the (textured) wall, lots of comfy lounge seating, awesome lighting, and some fancy high-dollar boxes in the floor that Benjamin would need to describe for you because I would just call them "outlets". Ha!
Anyway, none of the pictures quite do it justice because they were taken with our phones, but an update's an update, right? :) And Peanut played with Kelly, Joe, and Mama K all evening until she was absolutely wiped out. She was so zonked out on the car ride home that her sleepy face almost looked newborn to me again.
Sleepy Peanut...
I tried to hang some Lily-safe ornaments at the bottom of the tree. And thank you Gogo and Grandpa for the adorable nativity set. Baby Jesus had already gone missing for a few days and I was starting to get nervous. Fortunately I found him tonight in a drawer while Benjamin was giving Lily a bath. And I always appreciate an oppurtunity to yell "I found Jesus!"
Owen loves Lily's toys, and Lily really loves Owen.
She treats him a lot like she treats our cats. Meaning she gets so excited around him that she just kind of wiggles and squeals, and then tries to tackle him. Having him in the walker helped because she wasn't able to bop him on the head like she sometimes does.
But there was an awful lot of mouth-touching going on.
Nana and Zoe came early to help get ready for the big party. We cleaned the house and Nana took Lily outside to rake while I baked the cake.
Thank you Aunt Elizabeth for the awesome cake pan. :) We chopped and cooked and I iced the cake while Lily napped in the afternoon. Unfortunately this is the best picture we got of the final cake:
I had made the tablecloth with fabric Lily picked out at Joann's. :) Benjamin and Zoe picked up the balloons and decorated during naptime. When Lily woke I put on her party dress and brought her downstairs to this:
She was in awe. :) About 20 people came for the party. We had delicious Indonesian food (chicken satay, yellow rice, etc) courtesy of Nana. The cake was a banana cake with buttercream icing. Lily cried when we sang happy birthday to her. Otherwise she had a fabulous time.
She got lots of new toys. She was great at opening her presents herself, though Maya insisted on unwrapping most of them. Here she is eyeing up some delicious cardboard:
And Chuck the Talking Tonka Truck was a big hit. Thank you again, Aunt Elizabeth!
The other little girls got worn out and had to go home (crying), but Lily just kept playing. Grandpa and Gogo sent lots of books that Lily has been enjoying. 
Eventually Lily got tired too.
And then suddenly had a second wind and wanted to play with the trash:
And this is an awful picture but it's a good sign of what's to come...
I had some dishes fall out of the kitchen cupboard and make a racket, so Benjamin ran to my rescue. Unfortunately in the less than one minute she was unsupervised, Lily managed to pull the little chair out from this table and climb up:
So I walked into the dining room to find her on the little table, waited for Benjamin to snap the picture, and immediately took the wild child up to bed. And then I'm such a sap that I had tears in my eyes as I rocked her to sleep because I can't believe that my baby is one. It was a wonderful day and she was sweet and happy and made just the right amount of trouble. :)
I didn't want to let the day end though without saying how overwhelmed I feel by Lily turning one. We are so blessed. She is an amazing little girl and such fun to have around. She still doesn't sleep through the night, still sometimes hates riding in the car, and keeps us on our toes every second, but I cannot imagine life without her. So happy birthday baby girl. We love you more than you will ever know. :)
That was me on November 1 last year. Lily was due November 2. Please forgive the sad face (those were dark days!)
