Best Part of the Day

Homemade Carrot Cake - voila!

"Whaaaat? Yes, I already got all the frosting off, but half of it's on my bib...

yes, I have my party hat on."

Daddy, Mami, Claire - August 1st, 2010

August 1st, we celebrated Claire's first birthday! We had family and close friends over for burgers on the grill and cheesy potatoes, among other sides. For dessert, Omi made chocolate cake, Grandma made salted nut roll bars, and Mami made carrot cake, including a little Claire sized cake for our birthday girl. I have to say that my carrot cake was delicious and all from scratch (Yes, Onkel Alex, I even peeled and shredded the carrots. No, I did not grind the flour.). I was impressed by the presentation and will surely make it again! A few people played bags outdoors, but most just stayed in the AC and chatted. We did the traditional birthday song, as well as "Zum Geburtstag viel Glueck!" and everyone watched Claire eat her cake. She didn't smash into it nearly as much this weekend as last weekend, when we had a faux party with Aunt Chris. It was a busyyyyy afternoon, but we had a great time and are happy that many important family members and friends made it to celebrate with us!

The best part of the day was in the evening. Matt, Claire and I were all hanging out in the family room, which was decorated with streamers and balloons and "happy birthday" signs. Claire was so fascinated by each of our party decorations and we had the longest simple conversation about balloons and streamers. We kept pointing them out, Claire leading the conversation by pointing at different things and Mami narrating. "Yes, those are balloons! What colors are the balloons? Green, and purple, and pink. That's right! ... Yes, that's another balloon. That's a big pink balloon. ... Yes, those are streamers! Streamers are fun!" Daddy thought this was silly and told us so, but it didn't bother us. We were enamored with the balloons and streamers. :)

Some things Claire is up to at a year:

• She's totally excited to see Matt whenever he gets home from work! We hear the door rattling and she stops whatever she's doing to pay attention to who's coming. She gets a big smile on her face for Daddy. This has pretty much been all summer! Mami must get a little boring to her all day, every day.
• Claire signs more, milk, and dog. That's thanks to lots of exposure to dogs at Omi and Opa's house! :) Amber and Sage played with Claire yesterday while I worked in my classroom for half a day and said that Claire combined two signs, more and milk! Godmother Amber confirmed that this is possible at 12 months. What a smart girl we have!
• We're still working on the signs eat, please, thank you, bath, outside, inside, and look. We added these later, but I don't think it will take a long time for her to pick them up because she just started signing milk back on her birthday and she's already a pro. Now she asks for milk all the time...hmmm.
• Outside, kisses, no, etc. (I'll fill this in later when I remember more.) Claire understands these words. When I say "outside" she looks right out the window. When I ask for kisses, she sometimes gives them, depending on her mood.
• Matt pointed out this week that Claire has grown particularly fond of her 'Schmusetuch' which she sleeps with. She always grabs for it now and is holding it when she's standing in the crib waiting for us to get her.
• Claire points now all the time! I think she loves this newfound control. She points and we go over to the object and talk about it. This is really neat! I like this especially because it tells me exactly what she's looking at and I'm learning new vocabulary as we go. ("Air snake" is streamer in German, how cool is that! "Colored band" is ribbon. Sometimes German makes so much sense, and then other times the language balances itself out.)
• It's fun to see her personality emerging more and more. She is an excellent talker! When we get together with other friends and their babies who are about the same age, she clearly likes to talk more than most. She also likes to scream to get her point across. This should get interesting as she gets older. ;)
• Claire's entering into the stage of knowing what she wants and this includes letting us know she isn't happy if she doesn't get what she wants. She arches her back and whines or tries to roll over and get away during diaper changes. This has been within the last couple of months.
• She stood up in the high chair for the first time today. I was only three feet away, but was busy trying to get the cheese package closed (complicated I know). I glance up and there she is standing. I firmly told her no and that "we only sit down in our high chair," but she seemed to think this was funny and tried it a couple more times. Lunchtime was over at this point!
• At other times, she is starting to follow directions. For example, she found a pea on the floor and was bringing it to her mouth today, but when I told her no, she stopped and went on to a different activity.
• She loves stairs! At our house, we only have the one step to go up and down, because we don't let her play on the hard basement stairs. The first time she went upstairs was playing at the mall in June, in the kids' section. Then in July, she had fun going up and down at Omi and Opa's and Grandma and Grandpa's. Everytime I've walked with her today (taken her hands while she walks), she's gone straight for OUR stairs too. It doesn't hurt the knees when Mami is holding her hands so you can stand upright.
• There are lots more things I'm forgetting I'm sure, I'll get to those later. :)

Reflecting on this past year, we have so much to be thankful for!

God, thank you for blessing us with a daughter. Thank you for using her to teach me more about how a parent loves his/her child. This has helped me to better understand how you love us. It makes me think about the Bible story when one son returns and they feast on a fattened calf because he's back. The other son doesn't understand why they're celebrating so much for his brother, when he's been there all along. I get it now God. It's like the father is overwhelmed with happiness that the son has returned. I can't really explain it well though, but I realize how a parents loves his/her child. Thank you Lord for making the simple things in life the best - for walks on a summer evening, for trips to the grocery store, for Claire's excitement whenever Matt returns from work, for wet open mouth baby kisses and hugs and loving each other. I ask for your continued guidance in raising Claire. Give us wisdom when making decisions and help us to know when to let go and not worry about the little things. Thank you for deepening our marriage and making us a better wife and husband this past year. Bless us with another joyful year. Help us grow deeper in our relationship with you. We know this is not in our control, but is in your plans for us - plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. I love you Lord. Be with us, protect us. Amen.