Our little birthday carnival

My little sweeties.

I don't know if I can put into words how humbled I am by the responses of my children to their birthday parties.  

 Alright, so Livvy gets a pass this year.  But look at Logan's face when he came downstairs after nap time to see his birthday party for the first time!

That kid.  His enthusiasm is palpable.  Everything about life is SO! EXCITING!  And that face right there?  Yeah, it makes every second of party planning so very worth it. 

So, welcome to our birthday carnival!

If I'm being really honest, this is one I've been planning for the last two years.  We were going to do a birthday carnival for Logan's first... but he awoke with croup on the morning of his first birthday.

 So we put it off a year.  But... well, for his second birthday, I kinda had a baby 3 weeks beforehand and wasn't exactly up to very much.

Fortunately, a carnival is exactly the right thing to satisfy a 5, 3 and 1 year old!

Leah and Logan's friends range in age from about 7 to 3, and of course we also have a wonderful array of little ones.

The carnival was perfect for all ages!

The highlight for my birthday boy was getting his face painted.

Because, um... Spiderman is like, better than Jesus.  Yes.  He will tell you this if you are foolhardy enough to ask him who he likes better.  

Leah told me adamantly for two weeks beforehand that she was going to get a unicorn and a fairy on her face.

And then...

...I learned that five year olds are notoriously unreliable and flighty.

Being the sophisticated little lady that she is, Olivia elected not to get her face painted.  Have to keep things classy when you're one.

The kids had a great time taking photos.

The adults had some fun, too...

I love that the kids are big enough to actually do things at birthday parties.  You know, besides making messes and drooling on things.  We really have come a long way.

Although, of course they did a lot of running around like wild maniacs, because, well, that's pretty much a constant state of being when you're a kid.

We had some old fashioned carnival games.  The first was a water balloon race.  

They had to carry a balloon on a spoon and pass it off to their partner.

Which of course they all totally cheated at.

But it was super cute and fun all the same. 

We also had a potato sack race.

Trying to get seven 3-7 year olds to all put on those sacks, line up and start at the same time was a task and a half.  I think we finally just let them go because we couldn't wrangle them all!

And can I just tell you how very much I love this photo?  Yes, that would be my kid - the super all-for-justice, always-do-the-right-thing kid - totally cheating and literally jumping the line like a crazed, potato sack maniac.

Fortunately, karma - and the big kids - caught up to her.

We also did the ping pong ball fish game.  Which really just turned into splashing around in the cups of water, but everybody had fun taking home a little fish. 

Olivia loved watching all the kids from the safe distance of Mommy's arms.

Although, for posterity's sake, she did let someone else hold her.

Yep, it's true.  And she was exactly as happy about it as she looks in that photo.  Regardless, that was maybe the first time ever she's let someone else hold her for more than about 4.8 seconds.

We managed to corral the little ones for cake time, and it was really fun.

Logan's exuberant faces are so cute!

Unfortunately, the wind was blowing so strongly that I couldn't keep the candles lit for anybody to blow out.  So we let him do it directly from the lighter.  You have to blow out a candle on your birthday, right?

Olivia was thoroughly unimpressed with Mom's hard work.  

Logan wanted a blue cake (of course), so that's exactly what he got.  I also got brave and made a chocolate cake entirely from scratch, so this year we had one blue french vanilla and one chocolate, both with an Oreo-whipped cream filling that was so stinkin good.

Why are kids eating cake photos so darn cute?

We had such a wonderful time.  I just adore those kids.  All of them!  We're pretty lucky and blessed to have such a fun crowd to celebrate with.  

Three and one.  I can't even believe it.  

This may have been your first real birthday party, my big boy, but I hope you feel special and loved each and every day of your life!  

It happens when it happens. Sometimes, on the couch.

It happened so very suddenly and smoothly that I haven't even paused to write about it.

In fact, it's downright shameful.  I've completely failed to mention: our family got a wonderful new addition.  

 My mom is one lucky lady; she has two children and has gotten four grandchildren in almost exactly 4 years.

Logan in 2012, Greyson in 2013, Olivia in 2014 and most recently...

 sweet baby Jackson Theo.

And the story of his birth?  Holy. Moly.

Remember my experience with Logan?

Yeah, this was nothing like that.   

Jackson was born at home.  Yes, you can add to the cloth diapering and the homeschooling that a member of our family also had a home birth.  I heard it.  Crunch.

 His mother had about three hours of labor.  Yes, you read that right.  Three.  From start to finish.

Oh yeah, and I mentioned that her friend Hillary delivered him, right?  Because he literally came out about 10 minutes before the midwife arrived.

 It was crazy.  CRAZY.  AMAZING.  All of the above.

I can't show you any of the photos from the all of about 30 minutes I was there before Mr. Jackson came out.  Partly because there was, like, NO time to snap any photos.  Also, partly because when you have a baby that quickly, it's intense.  Super intense.  It's really not worth scaring anybody.

Momma didn't even actually push the baby out.  Not in the way I'm accustomed to, anyway.  The classic hold-your-knees, chin-to-chest, ugly-squishy-tons-of-effort-pushing-face that I experienced and that I've seen others do.

No.

Jackson basically came out, all on his own, as we all tried to tell her to STOP!!! PUSHING!!!!

Ummm... yeah.  It turns out, you can't stop it from happening.  Even if the midwife isn't there yet.  Even if you're on the couch in your bonus room.  Even if your "crack support team" is running around like crazy folk trying to boil water like it's 1899.

Whew.

But, all's well that ends well.

Thankfully, Jackson came out perfectly and started breathing all on his own.  It could not have been a more textbook delivery.  Kelsey didn't even tear.

And, after a thorough examination by the midwife and a little relocation from the bonus room couch, things looked like this:

And Auntie got to work snapping some photos that are a little less memorable, though perhaps more "frame-friendly."

Eventually, once mom and dad had gotten a chance to admire their precious little one (and because labor makes us tired and hungry), I had a chance to steal the little guy.

Ooofta.  Newborns are a very special brand of awesome.

Congratulations, Kelsey and Garrett, on your second beautiful miracle.  And my darling sister: WOW.  You are really good at that labor thing.

Livvy 1.0

She turned one.  

I mean, I knew she would.  They all do, those little stinky kids.  Even when you beg them to stay babies, they do that ornery growing thing that seems to afflict their species.  

Yes, that tiny baby lady grew.  She grew and she grew and she grew.  She grew until she was big enough to stand and eat and babble and crawl.  Big enough to do all those things that big - not baby - girls do.

1 year stats:

Height: 29in (45th percentile)

Weight:  17.12 lbs (20th percentile)

Head circumference: 46.4cm (87th percentile - and the first of our children to be under 95th!)

She was our smallest baby at birth, and at one she's still the littlest yet.

Some things about Miss Livvy at one year:

She is not walking yet.  She takes after her sister on this one, and does not like to fall down.  She does love to stand, however.  And she is still my barnacle, which sortakinda gets in the way of the whole 

walking process.

She loves to get into things.  The pantry.  The school drawers.  The dishwasher.  It doesn't really matter.  We put her toys in a bucket just so she can pull them out. 

She splits the difference between sister, who had exactly zero teeth, and brother, who had 6 teeth.  She comes in with two on the bottom and no sign of any on top.  Though the massive amount of drool causes me to think they are coming... eventually.

She has recently graduated from the on-your-belly army crawl to the hands and knees version.  And you can't stop that kid these days!

She is such a good little eater.  Although by some miracle, she does not care for avocado or pears (which my other two absolutely adored).  I don't know that she has a favorite, but I can say that her favorite part of meal time is when she tells us she's done.  By giving us "the stare" and throwing food off her tray piece by piece.  She will eventually sign all done, but only after she's had her fill of chucking food off. 

She also loves to share her food, and will grin as she offers each of us a bite in turn. 

She is still pretty stone-faced much of the time.  I love her little expressions.

The kid loves to splash.  She splashes like a madwoman in the bathtub, and the times we've been to the pool I literally have to hold her to keep her from putting her face all the way under the water.  I think her favorite are those little fountains - the small ones - that squirt up from the ground.  She will sit with those between her legs so that she can splash and put her head in them.  She's hilarious.

Another funny Livvy-ism: she points to pictures of herself, and then to herself, acknowledging that it's her in the photo.  Love that kid. 

She speaks only a few words: good girl, hi, yes/yeah and I think mama is in there too.  She signs "more" and "all done."  It's not a lot for our family of big speakers, but I adore all the signs of intelligence she shows.  She mimics noises and matches pitch, and she's at that point where she is beginning to point out pictures in books when you ask her to find things.  She follows directions.  She can put things "IN" when you ask her to, and take them "OUT!" again.  I love, love, love this phase.  I cannot wait to hear her little voice begin to come out! 

We gave up nursing just a few days ago, and the transition has been pretty smooth.  

She wears size 2 diapers (disposables), her cloths are snapped on the last snap, size 2/3 shoes and still wears mostly 9 month clothing.  I can put her in the 12 mo, but she's got room to grow.  

And there you have it.  Sweet little Livvy Lou, WE LOVE YOU!!!  

I am so happy, lucky and blessed by each of these wonderful little one year olds.  

For reference, because I can: 

Leah 1.0

Logan 1.0

A letter to my baby girl

My precious one,

There are a few mind-boggling facts I've come to realize I'll simply never get used to.  Chief among them: I can grow humans right in my body.  It still seems like magic; too good to be true and certainly something that will prove wishful thinking when my eyes flutter open.

It's a miracle, this gift of bearing such intimate witness to something so wondrous.

It has been one year since you last lived inside me.  Since I felt your flutters and stretches, your hiccups and wiggles.  Since I wondered what you would look and sound like, and since I blessed that giant belly that housed you.

But the miracle of it all remains.  The gift of you, just as you are, is the greatest of all my life's gifts.  For the record, that does not mean I'm playing favorites.  It simply means that a mother's heart is capable of holding all her greatest loves and being lifted, rather than broken, by their weight.

My tiny treasure, you bring with you such joy.  It radiates out of you, bright and shiny, blessing all who are near.  You only care to gift them with this joy from afar; you are definitely a momma's girl.  Though you have finally begun to branch out, enjoying daddy, tolerating strangers and even going to the church nursery for the first time, you still spend the vast majority of your day attached to my hip.  We call you my little barnacle.

Can I tell you a secret?

I love it.

You have been less precocious about meeting your first-year milestones.  Where your big brother and sister could not wait to charge down that road and conquer every adventure, you are entirely content  to wander slowly through your babyhood, taking your time and enjoying each phase.

I love that, too.

You have delighted in being a baby, and I am contented by your sweet touches, shy smiles and even by how very much you still need me.  I am stretched more thinly now than ever before, but the wonder of it all is that I have never been happier or better at this difficult and uncertain job of mothering.

I think it's you who brings that out in me.

You round out our family so very perfectly.  God gave us exactly what we needed, before we ever dreamed that we needed it.  His hand and perfect timing are so evident to me each time I look at you, I sometimes wonder how I could ever have second guessed them in the past.

Thank you, my beautiful girl, for every second of joy you have brought this family over the last year.  You are a wonderful, BIG miracle.

I love you.  I love being your mommy.

With love and gratitude,

Mommy
xoxo