Birthday girl

Anne's first birthday is today, April 26. We did our celebrating over the weekend. It was eventful, though most of those events did not go as planned.

First, Anne came down with a stomach virus and was feeling very poorly all weekend (she even got sick in church on Easter Sunday, poor kiddo). Then, her Gram Sheri and Grandpa Dan got grounded by the tornado in Missouri and couldn't come visit. Then mom and Grandma Gloria came down with the stomach bug, too!

Of course, we know all about things not going as planned. We never planned to have a baby five weeks early, and we never planned for her to weigh only three pounds when she arrived. We never planned for our baby's first weeks and months to be so challenging. But we made it! And today Anne is a happy, laughing, healthy little girl.

Here are some pictures from her birthday celebration. We kept it low-key, with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Gloria; Anne's nanny, Lucia; and our neighbors, Roxie, Annika and Paul. Anne was just feeling crummy, although her big-girl friend Annika was pretty good at cheering her up.


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One of Anne's gifts was a play kitchen from Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Tom. Anne helped Grandpa put it together before her party.


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And don't feel too badly that Anne couldn't really enjoy cake for her birthday -- she had some cupcake beforehand, for Grandpa Tom's birthday on Thursday. She went right for the icing and loved the whole thing.

Our cherry blossom tree

Last time the pink cherry blossom tree outside our house bloomed, Anne had just arrived and was still in the hospital. This year, she got to see and taste it!



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Anne times eleven

Anne's getting ready for her big birthday weekend, with grandparents galore and a cake to celebrate. Unfortunately, she seems to have come down with a little tummy bug, so she may not get to have cake when Mom and Dad had planned on Saturday evening. (Confession: We know Anne likes cake, because we let her have some for her Grandpa Tom's birthday on Thursday. Photos to come!)

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Eleven months!

Anne's Denver man

Anne had a playmate for an entire weekend last month -- Cooper, who came to visit with his parents, Kate and Bryan, from Denver. Cooper is only a couple of months older than Anne, but he's very big for his age, and Anne is very small for her age. So Mom was worried Anne might get steamrolled. Nope! Anne crawled on Cooper, pulled his hair, licked him and tried to take his toys away. Cooper is used to pushy girls and took it all in stride. It was fun that even though Cooper is learning to walk, he still crawls a lot, so he and Anne had a lot in common (they both wanted to go wherever Cooper wanted to go). (click to enlarge)