The big number 1

Anya turned 1 a few weeks ago. It is quite a milestone to celebrate as parents with your first child. Not only is the kid still alive, but we have survived a year of sleep deprivation and constant change. It gets easier from here right?

In all honesty, Anya has been a fairly easy baby. She slept pretty well, has a good disposition, and generally laughs and smiles easily. Aside from our ER visit and 911 call the past year has been somewhat uneventful given the monumental change Anya has brought to our little family.

For her birthday we celebrated with family and she invited one friend- Harry. She had a scrumptious berry crisp complete with soy whip cream so it would be extra messy. Instead of traditional presents we asked everyone to bring a gift/token that was representative of who Anya will be when she grows up or their hopes for her future. We based this loosely off of the Korean first birthday celebration- Chut-tol. Everyone had interesting gifts and Anya was drawn to many of them. I have written down who gave what gift, the meaning behind the token, and plan to give her the "time capsule" when she graduates from High School. It will be pretty cool I think. Some items were- a necklace with the letter "A" to remind her who she is, a stepping stone to imprint her small foot print in so she will be able to see how small she was and far she has come, a compass hoping she chooses her own path, a cell phone predicting her chatty nature, and much more.

As for her stats- she is off the charts-literally. She is so light she doesn't even measure on the weight chart they use- she is under 0% if that is possible. Healthy as an ox though so no worries there. The child can EAT. She puts down a serious amount of food. I joke and say she has her dad's metabolism, but I really think she does. Thank god for that! She might eat us out of house and home one day though when she hits her teenage years if she keeps this up.

She uses sign language for many things now and it is really cool to be able to communicate with her that way. She loves her bath and signs bath all day long but only gets that request granted after dinner. Reading has all of sudden become an interest of hers. She now wants to sit on your lap and read book after book- but she doesn't let you finish one before she wants a new one- short attention span I guess.

We plan to play outside a lot this summer once the weather improves and hopefully get her out on the boat soon!