happy birthday Plava!!

I just recovered from a little weep session. Okay, weeping is too strong a word. I shed a tear. Normally I wouldn't share this, because it's rather personal, but I just wanted to let you in on how amazed I am that a whole year has gone by already. Already....

People often remark that "time flies" and "you can't imagine how fast they grow". I've never really found that myself. It feels like it's been a long long long year, though now that it's at an end, I really am amazed at the speed at which this little girl has grown, developed and learned.

I know I'll sound like such an old granny when I say this, but it really feels like she was born yesterday. And yet I can hardly remember what she felt like to hold when she was a floppy newborn, sleeping most of the day.

Ryan and I were sitting in the living room this evening while she played (and crawled around!) on the carpet in front of us. She chattered away in her gibberish, grabbed a book and flipped the pages, pointing to the familiar objects (bird, baby, tree, bottle), she pulled up to standing on the couches we were lounging on, she pointed at toys and expressed to us that she wanted to be picked up. It's hard to remember how it is that she got to be so smart! It really feels like in the past 2 or 3 weeks even, she's changed so much!

I guess they constantly change, don't they? It seems that every baby I know is going through some drastic advancement in learning or development. And every parent is as proud and amazed as I am at their little one's growth.

Today, I made her first birthday cake. I tried my best, and it turned out....."cute". Haha. I kept thinking of my friend, Nancy, who is an extraordinary cake decorator (I wish I had a picture of the cake she made for my baby shower!!!), and laughed to myself as my cake looked more and more like it had gone through the wash! But here's the final product: (please note the tricky editing job!!)