The Ladybug and her Party!

My baby is a little baby no more.  I can hardly believe that she turned one year old a week ago.  Overnight she became a more "mature" kid.  It seems odd to say "mature" about a one year old.  However, if social graces, charm and composure are signs of maturity, she has them in spades.

She thoroughly enjoyed her party.  We had a ladybug theme and it came together famously, if I do say so myself. It's really amazing how many things you can find when you have a theme, time, access to the internet and a credit card.  (And a sister named Jeryn who LOVES a themed party!!!) We outdid ourselves, really.  We had a banner, streamers, lots of balloons (even polka dotted ones) and little ladybugs all around.  We were completely out of control.  I used the ladybug party that Tori Spelling threw for her daughter Stella as my guide.  At some point during the planning my mother pointed out that we're not millionaires like Tori Spelling.  I absolutely did not understand her point. :-)

The baby LOVED her party.  She did not cry. She did not stop to eat.  She was too busy greeting all of her guests and checking out all of the ladybug decorations. As luck would have it, I had received a ladybug costume for my unborn baby from a friend at one of my showers. When she put on the costume it was as if she became the ladybug! As my uncle said, it was like she decided that it was her party and she would crawl, laugh, and play if she wanted to. And she did!

As you can see below, she really liked her cake!  Fortunately, the baker brought her her own little smash cake.  I won't even tell you how much it costs to get ladybug shaped cake that is even better than the Tori Spelling cake. (It really was better, no joke.)  Even though I got a great deal from Nazra at www.icandicakes.com/ the ladybug cake cost too much to let the birthday girl smash her face in it! Nazra is brilliant though, she brought the baby her a sunflower smash cake of her very own that she could destroy and she did!

I enjoyed the party too.  However, it wasn't lost on me that as we were celebrating her life we were saying good by to the "baby days".  Any day now she'll be walking.  Each day her gibberish seems to become more understandable.  And, every day she seems much more interested in doing what she wants and less interested in doing what we would like her to do.  She's got her own mind and she is learning how to use it!


The little baby who realized that she needed her mommy for everything is being transformed into a toddler. Now she thinks that she can do lots of things on her own, but actually still needs her mommy for most everything.  Giving her what she needs and balancing her newfound independence is a challenge. 


I understand why everyone told us "it goes so fast" when we brought her home from the hospital.  It seems like we just brought her home yesterday.  However, even though I loved those baby days I wouldn't go back.  They were filled with lots of confusion and little sleep.  Also, I am really proud that Andre and I learned so much about how to take care of the baby without having a manual.  We may not be baby experts, but we learned a lot about how to take care of ours. 


Like always, I'll be sharing what I have learned with all of you.  Until next time, long live the ladybug!