Angel in One-derland!!

Yes, my baby turned 1 year old on 14th June, 2013. She is not even a baby anymore, she has graduated to become a toddler! How time flies!

Now when I see her new-born snaps, I wonder how I must have handled her. It feels strange to think that last year, I didn’t know her properly and 1 day before that, I had not even seen her. A LOT has changed in this one year. She has become very vocal with her choices. I watch her point to things she wants, and vigorously nodding her head in denial, if that is not what she is asking for. I watch her wave and smile cheerfully at everyone when we go for our walk in the evenings. The other day, a lady came to us, greeted Angel and told me, "So you are Angel's mother." Apparently, she had met her during Angel's morning walks to which my father in law takes her. So my one year old already has a social life of her own, which I am not a part of. **Shudder** I watch her eat with her tiny hands, insisting that she will feed herself. I watch her and think that I love her with all my heart and my heart expands a little more to accommodate that much more love!

I want to write about her first birthday in great detail, as this is the only birthday where she had no say in anything and won't remember anything about it, yet is a very important milestone.

So once she got up, after her morning routine, we took her down for planting a tree in the garden of our apartment complex. We I look fondly at it every day. I then marked her height in the height chart. After having her breakfast, she slept off. We took her hand prints and foot prints while she was asleep. We did havan after that. She got up just in time when the havan was about to end. We then got busy in lunch and other preparations, tried to make her sleep in between but in vain. She slept at around 4:30 pm for an hour and got up at 5:30 pm which was precisely the time of our party.

My parents and brother had come to join her on this special day. We were planning for this party since more than a month. The party was held in the club house of our apartment as we thought it would be convenient and close to her comfort zone if she felt uneasy. The theme of the party was "Dora the Explorer". So the invitation cards, e-invites, decor, caps and cake were of Dora. I dressed her up in her pink frock with matching shoes, sandals and clip. She was looking real cute. Excuse the mother in me, I find her cute even when she is not wearing anything ;) She got unwell - had fever and cold since 12th June, but was almost okay till 14th. So she was enjoying all the attention and was enjoying her party. She even cut her cake and tasted it eagerly. She didn’t cry much and we were so proud of her. The game host kept the audience engaged for a good 1.5-2 hours. There were around 120 people who included our friends, colleagues, apartment people and a few relatives. I had ordered 2 collages one which depicted her journey for the first 6 months and the other one from 6 months to 1 year and pasted them in the party hall. We had also pasted a chart paper for everyone to write their wishes for Angel. I will show it to her once she grows up. The cake, decor and food were liked by all. After everyone left, came the task of transferring the heap of gifts to our apartment which was accomplished by everyone's help and were unwrapped later the next day. Angel was tired after a long day and slept off in no time.

And thus went her 1st birthday! Happy Birthday Baby. 

May this be the first of many many more beautiful birthdays to come!