One year and one day

We survived Lilli's first birthday: the party, the nostalgia, the emotional roller coaster. She was completely oblivious of course, being rather unaware of our calendar system, but I *think* she enjoyed the attention. :) Thanks to everyone who came and of course, to all those who brought food! Patty brought some lovely cucumber sandwiches (which I LOVE) and bean dip, my mom brought seventy seven (!) pieces of inari sushi and a cabbage salad, and Cindy brought two huge trays of sandwiches and a fruit and cheese tray. I am my mother's child, and thus I am under the impression that each person will need to eat their weight in food. Therefore, I was worried we wouldn't have enough food (what was I thinking??) so I also had my dad get a veggie tray and we had cheese and crackers and such too. Needless to say, we had some leftovers.

What did I make you may ask?? I attempted to make some pumpkin and cream cheese frosting cupcakes. I had never made them before but I wanted something semi healthy for Lilli's first cupcake. To make a long story short (kinda), I used the wrong kind of salt and some of the cupcakes had little bursts of saltiness. Schuyler kindly likened it to eating chocolate covered pretzels. Salty! and sweet! at the same time! In any case, some of them were better than others but I have been left with about twenty cupcakes. If anyone wants some, please stop on by. The non salty parts of the cupcakes are delicious and the frosting is lovely. I also made an eggless chocolate cake for the non egg eaters. Have some of that left over too. Oh and I forgot to mention Andrew's pumpkin pie. See? Soooo much food! At least we won't starve over the course of the next week. Then Thanksgiving should hold us over for awhile longer. Geez.

So, anyway, we ate and drank and were merry. And THEN. My dad broke out his big surprise. A retrospective DVD of Lilli's first year. And where did he begin? At her conception! That's right. My Dad put it out there in front of my whole family and Bob's whole family the biological fact that WE HAD SEX to make Lilli. That's right internet! Now I'm putting it out there for you too! Now, we all knew it, but certain of us don't want to think about it, and certain of us (ME) didn't want to think about other people thinking about it. Very traumatizing. THEN. He included a little segue scene that, ahem, SHOWED ME ACTUALLY GIVING BIRTH. That's right, my dad, without asking my permission, put my butt and thighs on screen for all to view and then everyone saw a baby come out of my cooter which was just around the corner. My Uncle Randy, ever the optimist and quick to see the silver lining, tried to cheer me up by mentioning that I'll be glad to have that DVD when my thighs are twice the size. Thanks. But I'm not done. No. Then my dad PASSED OUT COPIES as party favors. Now everyone in our families can see Lilli come out of my vagina anytime they please. However, I must state here that what came after the birthing scene was very lovely. My dad put photos together in choronological order from Lilli's first days to just a few days ago, in slide show format, and it was so cool to see how much she has changed over the course of a year. There were some videos thrown in there too, and I know for a fact that there were a few tears shed out there. Bob for one (ha ha ha! I told!). So, although I suffered personal humiliation, the video itself was incredible and I know my dad put a lot of time and effort into it. I guess I'm willing to make the personal sacrifice for an overall very cute video of Lilli. Anything for the cuteness. :) Anyway, thanks Dad.

Then Lilli ate her cupcake. We knew Patty was all excited for Lilli's first taste of sugar so we let her do the honors. She got a big dollop of frosting on her finger and scooped it into Lilli's mouth. Lilli kind of mouthed it and swallowed it, but didn't seem particularly excited. Patty was skeptical. "Did you actually put sugar in this frosting?" she asked. I don't think she could believe that Lilli wasn't more excited about actual sugar. Bob then tried to give her a bit more and I heard health food tyrant Randy cough "child abuse" under his breath. I just wanted to mention that because he was wondering when he would get mentioned on this blog. (Actually that's twice!) She ate a bit of cupcake too but overall I don't think it agreed with her. She smelled very pukey later, and although I didn't see her throw up, she must have spit up a bit into her sleeve when no one was looking. I'm kind of glad she wasn't that into it. I was scared the cupcake would spoil all my hard work getting her to like vegetables.

Finally, we opened the presents. And boy were there presents! Actually there were more because certain family members have been sneaking her early presents. Bob declared that I would not need to shop on eBay anymore, and she has enough toys to last her at least until Christmas I think. I kid, I kid. If we get anything more at Christmas, I don't know where we'll put it. Seriously. Anyway, it was fun for me to open up all her presents for her and I can't wait for her to wear some of the cute things she got. Don't worry. I'll take pictures.