Rogers Adventures: South East Asia Edition!: Ellie's First Birthday!!!

Our Ellie baby ~~will be one year old tomorrow~~! ~~is one year old today~~! was one year old last week! I can hardly believe it! And time is flying by so fast I can't even get a birthday blog post out on time.

On Saturday, September 20 we had a party for Ellie's first birthday. We spent all day decorating and prepping. Grandma, Grandpa, Babka, Popco, and even Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Bob were able to video-conference in for the event! I couldn't come up with any creative games or activities that a one year old would enjoy, so we just let the kids play and ate cake. Judging by the mess in the playroom at the end of the day I'd say everyone had a great time!

Ellie, being at the disadvantage that comes with being the second child, doesn't have neat portraits with signs for every month she was born. Partly because we were busy traveling all over the world during her first year of life! She's been to Germany, Bahrain, the Maldives, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Singapore, and Doha all in about 10 months. It has been fun to be able to pinpoint her milestones based on what she was doing before and after a trip. While I kept a much better record of what Lucy did and when she did it, it's been fun noticing what Ellie could and couldn't do before and after a big trip. For example, before we went to Singapore she couldn't figure out how to climb up the two stairs in our sunken living room. The day we got home she tried to climb the entire flight up to the second story! And it's not like she practiced in Singapore--the friends we stayed with live in one story condo in a highrise!

Tonight as I was snuggling with her before bedtime I reflected on some of the memories I will treasure from her babyhood as she gets older. Memories like when she sweetly kissed me on the lips moments after she was born. How when I nursed her during her first week of life I could hold her in one arm, with her head resting in my elbow crook and her bottom cupped in my hand. She went through a sweet period a few weeks ago where she would snuggle up in my neck after our evening nursing session and let me sing lullabies to her as she fell asleep. Now she still cuddles, but not quite like that. If I try to put her on my shoulder she wants to sit up and play. I love seeing her face light up when Lucy walks in a room. And recently she's started interacting with her--if Lucy makes a loud noise, Ellie will copy it! Adorable. I also thought about how when she was itty bitty I could take her to yoga, bible study, or smocking class, and as long as I brought the bouncer she would nap!

I'll post pictures from her birthday party soon, but for now here are some of our favorites from the last year. I attempted to post them in chronological order... but that's not how they showed up... and I have a lot more blog posts to write so I'm not going to bother fixing it. Sorry to all you Type A readers.