5 Little Peppers (or kittens)

We're still the proud owners of 5 little kittens :) I love seeing them all lined up like this. I moved them out from under Susannah's dresser and right now they are in our room, but I think I will move them out into the main part of the house eventually. Kittens like to play and I don't think I want them playing in my room while I'm trying to sleep :)

Better Than Hate Mail!

You know how sometimes you just put something somewhere and tell yourself you'll move it later? I found one of those things today. It's been right under my nose for over a month now... and I've just gotten used to it and haven't paid any attention to it.

We had company over on Saturday. Today I was walking through the dining room and right at eye level I saw this:


The Valentine's Day card I gave Daniel and that he put on our china hutch. LOL! At least if any of the company saw it they know that Daniel is all mine. And that I don't send him hate mail ;)

Susannah's 1st Birthday Party

This past Saturday, a week and 1 day after her real birthday, we had some friends over and celebrated Susannah's birthday with "style". Since we would've been rather squeezed to all fit around our dining room table IN or dining room, we borrowed a folding table from Daniel's parents and we ate out in what will be the new living room.

It was a fun little party. Daniel's mom was here (his dad had to work), and 2 families from church who are like family to us were here, too. Betsy is my "church-mom" and I've decided that Alyssa gets the fun role of being my "church-sister" :)


I made 2 big pizzas - 1 "Meat Lover's Supreme" with hamburger, sausage, bacon, pepperoni, onions, peppers and black olives (and of course sauce and lots of cheese!), and 1 Chicken and Shrimp (with homemade alfredo sauce), and then we also had fruit on the side.

I decided to keep Susannah's birthday cake simple this year, and I made her a cat cake. If you know how much she likes cats, you'll know this was perfect for her :)


Fitting with the "cat theme" (lol), I brought our in-house cat family out from under Susannah's dresser for people to see. I'd originally only brought out the kittens, but they were protesting quite loudly and the Mama cat came and climbed right into the basket with her babies and they shushed right up! She is such a good mama cat! We joked that the kittens were the party favors :)
After the party, Susannah was tired but wired. She had a hard time going down for her nap Saturday afternoon. I was plumb tuckered out from a crazy, crazy week and too many short nights so I was in sore need of an afternoon nap. Daniel was wonderful and took care of Susannah's needs while I rested. It was a good, fun day. I know Susannah won't remember it aside from pictures, but we wanted to do something fun for her first birthday :)

*****

On another note, fitting with Susannah's first birthday, would be the "stats" from her 1 year checkup. She is:

20lbs. 11oz. (50th percentile)
30" tall (75th percentile)

The Dr. strongly hinted at wanting her core motor skills to improve by her 15 month visit, since she isn't crawling (she scoots - which IS normal), walking, cruising furniture or pulling up. Since then she has sat up by herself once (one moment she was on her tummy and the next time I turned around she was sitting!), and after showing her how to pull up on a (very heavy) portable file box, she loves to do that! She is still very unstable on her feet if she's not being supported, but she's making progress. She hasn't figured out how to pull up from being on her tummy, but she has it down pat going from sitting to pulling up.

After the checkup I was a little anxious about "what if she doesn't improve like he wants?" but in all reality, I am positive that she is just doing it her way. She is SOOOO laid back, just like her Daddy (and I'm not high-strung, either), and has taken her good time in everything she's learned so far. She's just now starting to sign "all done" with some consistency. She was "late" in learning how to roll over, and in learning how to scoot forwards on her tummy. She's VERY smart. She has great dexterity - she can take her finger and poke it straight up my nose and not miss! - and I just don't think that her core motor skills being "behind the normal" is unusual for HER. We'll just have to show that Dr. a thing or two when we go back :)

Happy Birthday, Susannah!

It is hard to believe that an entire year has gone by! These past few days I've been remembering the weeks and days before Susannah was born. My anxiousness... how we didn't get her room painted until the weekend before she was born... how we didn't know if we were going to have a boy or a girl... wondering what life would be like with a baby in our family...

And I wouldn't have it any other way!! I would most definitely do it all over again, every single part of it.




Now I am Mama to a one year old. Wow. It's a whole different ball game than being Mama to a one month old :) But I still love it!!

This morning Susannah woke up happy, and had a happy day. That was very welcome after a couple days of her being out of sorts.

Late this afternoon I mixed up some cupcakes for her birthday, and she got to lick her first beater when she woke up from her nap. She wasn't too sure about the beater at first, but I licked one so she could watch, then gave her a taste of hers and she went right at it! She didn't want to give it back, either :)


For a little specialness, I found some balloons and hung them from the kitchen ceiling fan, low enough that she could bat at them.


We had a fun little party with just the three of us. It was fun to watch her looking at her cake and candle, and then eating her cake :)


She didn't make too much of a mess, either!


Gifts will happen next week when we have a couple friends over and celebrate with more formality, but we wanted to make this day special, too.

Just for fun, tonight I measured her and with all her squirming, wiggling and wanting to grab the measuring tape, she measured 30" tall. I might try and get a weight tomorrow. She just barely has 8 teeth! Her 8th tooth cut through between yesterday and today.

She is well aware of what "no" means, and is usually quite happy to not obey :P Her favorite things to do that she's not supposed to is play in the cat's water and food, dig in the kitchen trash, and open the cupboards underneath the sink. We have plenty of teachable moments every day! She is so cute, though, when she will look at us while she's contemplating the crime, and then shake her head "no".

She has finally figured out how to "walk" if we are holding her hands, similar to how she walks in her walker. But she won't hold her arms up and hold our hands, she holds her arms by her sides and bent at the elbow. Awkward for us, but cute :) That is not her normal mode of getting around, but we do it sometimes for fun.

She is our Ladybug and Sunshine, so very special to us. It is an honor to be her Mama, and I pray that we'll teach and raise her to be a wonderful, lovely, Godly, young lady.