The Big One!

I haven't written in a while. I seem to have lost my night-owl self and it's really too bad. For the past few months we kind of fell into a routine: Daphne would go to bed, Dave and I would get a few hours together until he hit the sack and then I'd get a few hours of my own time until I decided to go to bed sometime in the wee hours of the morning. It worked out well because Dave would take the early morning shift with Daphne, then when it was time for him to go to work Daphne would come to bed with me for her morning nap, and once her morning nap was over I'd be up for the day. Then we went to Toronto and as any of you who've travelled with babies know, routines kinda go out the window. I was sure that once we returned I'd get back into the swing of things, but it just hasn't happened. The main reason is that I've gone back to work. I'm not working full time, but even still, I just can't stay up as late as I did before I went back. The other big reason that I haven't written is that Daphne turned one on Thursday! Yup, that's right, my little girl's growing up! I can't believe we made it and I can't believe how much a baby can change in such a relatively short amount of time. She went from being a useless blob to being a still useless, but super cute and entertaining toddler in just fifty-two weeks...insane!

Panini bar

To celebrate Daphne's big day, Dave and I decided to throw a little party for her. We invited a few friends over for some food and to hang out. For lunch we had a panini bar set up (thanks Martha Stewart for the awesome suggestion). I highly recommend busting one of these out at your next party, they're fairly easy to set up and make for some killer sandwiches! Daphne was super cute, and surprisingly un-cranky even though she cut her morning nap super short. The only time she really fussed was whenever I would try to put her party hat on her. She hated that thing with a passion! For those of you who've seen the 'peapod' video, she had a similar reaction to the party hat. We think it's 'cause of the ghetto elastic strap that those things come with, but it also could have been its extravagance, who really knows.

Trying out her birthday present.

Anyway, other than that, she did great. And by great I mean she was a super cute wallflower. She didn't really socialize, she just stood at the coffee table watching everyone. And by watching everyone, I mean she did an awesome job of eating her cardboard nesting blocks. She had no interest in opening presents, but really loved eating all her cards. Once all her presents were opened we moved onto the obligatory cake eating segment of the party. I'd made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting that spelled out "Happy 1st Daphne" and I also made some cupcakes in the shape of ducks (Daphne is our Daphne Duck after all).  We gave her the chocolate frosted cupcake as we thought it would make for better pictures. She mowed down on the cupcake and then she was more chill than we've every seen her before. Total sugar coma. She just sat there in her high chair, not wanting for anything. The bad mom in me wants to put her on a diet of cupcakes for the foreseeable future, but the more reasonable mom in me is going to make a goal of reserving cake and cupcakes for special occasions only. All in all, I think Daphne had a great first birthday. It would have been nice to have our families and close friends in town, but we are really thankful for the friends who were able to share her special day with us. Thanks, guys!