Alice Virgina, One Year Old

 

Alice turned ONE on Thursday! It was a festive day, and even though Alice won’t remember it, I hope she’ll see the pictures someday and know how happy we were to celebrate with her.

We had a perfect late summer day. I hung the bunting and brought in oodles of flowers from the garden. When Alice was one week old I made a chocolate zucchini cake to celebrate, so it seemed right that her birthday cake should be the same. I frosted it with raspberry cream cheese frosting, because of course a little girl should have a pink cake. There were cupcakes for her party with friends, and a little cake for the family to eat later.

All of her little baby friends came over at 10 a.m. and did their usual baby things. One of her friends brought her a little hand-scribbled card, and another brought a tiny loaf of cinnamon bread and jar of flowers. We lit one candle on a cupcake and sang before Alice was allowed to demolish her cupcake. She had no trouble putting away a whole cupcake by herself, though that wasn’t a huge surprise. In the first photo above you can see that Alice loves food and is not a fan of waiting.

Later, after the friends had gone home and Alice had taken her nap, Philip and I helped her open her gifts from us and from family. I wasn’t sure if she would get the whole present thing, but she enjoyed her gifts both in package form and in their unwrapped state. She seemed to understand that she was supposed to be excited.

She got some great books and clothes- a little pair of corduroy overalls and a red dress with tights- and she was particularly thrilled by her toys. Her grandparents sent a little red car, and Philip and I gave her a pushcart and a polar bear. She waited impatiently for his tag to be removed, grabbed him, crawled over to the little cart and dumped him in, obviously pleased with herself. She’s been dragging him around the house ever since. In retrospect perhaps we should have chosen a brown bear over the white one? But he has such a sweet face…

After Alice went to bed Philip and I had roast chicken, champagne, and cake to celebrate the first year with our little girl. What a good one it has been!