Mira's First Birthday

Wow - it's been one whole year since Mira was born! How is it possible that so much time has passed already?? I swear it was just yesterday that I was pregnant with her, and it really can't have been a whole year since I was in the hospital having her! Time really does fly, and they really do change so much. :(

Just for nostalgia's sake, here are all the numbers from when Mira was born:

Saturday, February 19th, 2011 at LDS Hospital, SLC
12:12 PM
6 lbs 0 oz
20 inches long

A picture of the clock in the delivery room at the time Mira was born

The first picture of Mira

Welcome to the world, little girl!

I liked it much better where I was before, people!

Look how tiny she was!!

The other cool thing about when she was born: it started snowing right after we got to the hospital, and last night it started snowing. So for both "birthdays" there's been snow on the ground. We're not even that lucky for Christmas around here! I don't believe in signs and such, but that's still a pretty neat coincidence.

It's so weird for me to think that I technically don't have a baby anymore. I mean, of course she'll always be my little baby, but people are going to stop looking at her and saying she's a baby. I spent so much time anticipating a baby and getting ready for a baby, and when you're in the baby stage it feels like you're going to be there forever, but it's so easy to forget that babies are only babies for one year. And we just finished that year. For the past almost 2 years, it's been a habit for me to walk through the baby section of the store to look at clothes and toys and stuff. I'm almost at the point where I don't have a need to walk through there anymore.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about all this. In some ways, it's really exciting. Let's face it, newborns are pretty dull. They can do the following things: 1) Sleep 2) Eat with a lot of assistance 3) Cry 4) Mess their diapers 5) Move their limbs randomly. And that's about it. Little babies are so sweet and cuddly, but it was a rough time for me. I knew it was going to be physically exhausting but I hadn't been prepared for the emotional exhaustion, and it hadn't even occurred to me that I'd be doing all this stuff for one tiny little blob that didn't even acknowledge my existence. Or if she did, it was because I was food. The thought of going through the newborn period again makes me glad we have no plans to go through it again!

But on the other hand, it makes me so sad to think that I don't have a baby anymore. I'm not sure why most of the time, because Mira is SO much fun now. I just love watching her figure stuff out and seeing what her little personality is like (seeing that she really is a person and not a blob). I love that she's getting more independent, which gives me more independence. I love that she interacts with me and Mark and I get a ton of acknowledgement from her that yes, I exist and yes, I am the center of her little universe. That is so special and that certainly won't last forever. But for some reason it's so hard for me to admit that my baby is growing up and we've pretty much gone through the major "firsts." I think this must be a problem moms have more than dads and I'd like to know why fathers don't seem to get so cut up about this. I asked Mark a couple days ago what I was going to do with myself without a baby anymore. His reply was to enjoy my toddler. For him it's so simple. I'm a bit jealous.

Well anyway, a birthday means a birthday party. I had been planning on doing something a bit more elaborate but with the trip to Disneyland and the fact that this birthday is more for us than for Mira, we scaled back. We had our families over at our house so Mira could open presents and do a smash cake, and of course cake and ice cream for everyone else.

This is a picture of Mira's cake and her little smash cake. Before you ask, no I did not make this - I'm nowhere near that talented. Someone I used to work with in the PICU made this for me. Her website is linked on the right side of the page, or you can follow this link.

Mira with my dad

I wish this wasn't out of focus, it's a good picture

Helping Mira open presents

As expected, she was more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual presents

Every little kid needs one of these!

Ooh, a hammer! This will be fun!

Mommy's little girl has gotten so big!

The next couple of pictures need some explanation. Mira is making her "angry face" on purpose because she's figured out it makes us laugh. She grits her teeth, clenches her fists, and tenses so much she shakes - it is so funny! She's such a little ham! And then when she sees us laughing at her she starts laughing and starts doing it all over again. The worst part is that when she does get angry for real, she does the same thing so we can't help laughing at her, and that makes her angrier. But we can't help it!

Angry face!

More angry face!

Mira's smash cake and her first candle!

Hmm, what could this be?

Mmmmmm sugar

Yay! I'm 1!!

 The smash cake was the same as the one we did for our professional pictures last month. She broke tiny little pieces off to eat but she didn't get very wild with it. The messiest she got was when she rubbed her eye with the hand covered in frosting:

Another angry face

 Isn't she so cute and funny? She makes me so happy. It's crazy to think how much more she can do now than a year ago. The list of things she can do is a lot longer than it was last year! And it'll keep getting longer and longer every year. I can't wait to see how she grows up! I'm one proud mama!