Gifts for our guests...
Before everyone arrived...
Trying to take a family photo....
Lighting up Eliza's 1st birthday cake....gotta light up 13 candles! I thot she's only 1yr old?? ha...
Eliza clapping & 'performing' to the happy birthday song
I think she likes everyone's attention on her...
(she KO after the cake cutting, which was good cos she managed to stay un-cranky till naptime. then again, how can she fall asleep with so much fun going around)
After everyone's gone home, it's time to open presents!
Watching intently as daddy takes out the packaging....
The last and biggest present to open. By then she was quite tired of all the new things...so she didn't look too excited here.
Reflections on being a 1yr old...mum.
"She will fill our lives with sunshine.... And our hearts with love." ~anon
you never experienced pure delight and sunshine till you have a baby.
We've watched her grow, watched her sleep, watched her eat, watched her play.
At the same time we grew with her, slept with her, ate with her and played with her.
Eliza, our first born, will have that special advantage of being showered upon all that attention from mum, dad & her grandparents. When she was smaller we'll wonder if other babies are like her, especially when Ww's mum will comment that she's not like other babies she has taken care of before, not even her cousins. Still she's quite like most babies, but of course as parents (and very biased ones), we find her the cutest & funniest.
After being with her so much, how can we not know her, all her nuances and kuan4. Yet we're discovering new things of her each day, new fun things to learn and play. At the same time she's discovering herself and being delighted at what she can do. Even in this one year, so many phases have passed, from sleeping and feeding schedules, to being mature enough to manage her burps; from being immobile to rolling over, to crawling, to cruising...and soon walking.
What is she up to now?
The current fun thing she's up to is pushing her walker & getting up and down from her car. At first she needed our help to get up on her car, but now she can get on and off it on her own, and use it to move about. It's so funny to see her pleased at being able to do so.
Two days ago, at the chalet (our youth camp retreat) she started doing the "arms up" action, which she'll do on cue.
She loves to lift up our shirts and poke our belly button (and sometimes she does it on her own as well)....and then she'll break into pearls of laughter.
She is also an expert at attempting to wake daddy up if daddy is still snoozing in bed or if he falls asleep in the room watching her play. (i trained her since she was a few months old) let me find the pic....this is her when she was 4mths
she still goes to wake daddy up or 'ka chiao' him (ie tickle him..intentionally and unintenionally..because she always manages to get quite a reaction from him when she 'tickles' him)
What about me? What has Eliza taught me in this year?
I am learning patience. I am learning that there really is a time for everything and a time for a baby to find their time.
I am learning how to let go. I am learning to let go of the expectations i put (or sometimes force) on myself and/or Eliza, that sometimes things don't have to always go the way i want.
I am learning consistancy. The amazing thing about repetition for kids is they like it (how they can watch or read something over and over again) and they remember it (some things we show Eliza regularly, she imitates). I'm learning to be consitstant with my 'no's (cos sometimes i get so tired of saying no to this and that till i give up and let her play with the not-so-forbidden toy), to be consistant with what i say to her (ie not to say stuff that don't really mean anything, or cheat them saying we're going out but we're not...)
I am learning more songs. We sing the same old songs again and again to her...though sometimes i wonder how come i can't remember some songs i thought i knew. So time to refresh my memory!
I am learning that love knows no boundaries. How do I describe how much I love her? God reminds me that His love is like that. Just much much more. More than we could describe. I guess that's how God feels about us. He lets us parents know how deep His love is when He blessed us with kids. So that we know...
Thank you Lord for this lil blessing of yours... :)
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