Kaiya's First Birthday

Yesterday was Kaiya's birthday!! I still can't believe she's one; it seems like she should still be a little baby. We had a lot of fun yesterday doing activities that Kaiya loves. We wanted the day to be all for her, so instead of having a party we decided to plan a whole day of fun. Here are some pictures of what we did:

Patrick and I got her a ball pit because she loves balls (putting the balls in a baby pool was a compromise; I wanted a real ball pit and he wanted a cardboard box), so we had it all set up for her after breakfast to play.

Here's the living room all decorated and the ball pit (before Kai got her hands on everything)

Kaiya loving her balloon

She opened presents throughout the day. We wanted her to enjoy it, so we tried not to make her open the presents when she wasn't interested

Playing with some of the toys Grandma got her

We took her on a picnic for lunch at the park and let her play. Here she is with daddy holding her sippy cup (which is a rare occasion these days. She seems to think she's above holding her own cup now that she's one)

Actually the wood chips on the ground were her favorite part

Ta da! Here's the birthday cake I made for her. I used apple juice concentrate instead of sugar and made a carrot cake. It turned out surprisingly well and it's pretty good too.

Kaiya actually tried to blow out her candle, but her little blow wasn't strong enough to make it go out, so we helped her

Yummy!

After the cake we took her in the hot tub to play. She loves to splash around in there!

And for dinner we had Kaiya's favorite food from Japan, Chahan!

We had a really fun day and I know Kaiya loved every minute of it. It's bittersweet to have her turn one; I of course want her to grow up and experience life, but at the same time I can't help wishing she could stay a baby a little longer. At the end of the day we were exhausted, but it was well worth it to see her have so much fun.

First Steps!!

Kaiya took her very first steps Friday night. We had been thinking she was ready but she never wanted to do it herself until she was absolutely sure she could. These videos are from just after she started doing it, probably her third or fourth attempt. She's pretty good at it already! We are so proud of our sweet baby girl!

Spaghetti Face!!

Our Internet has been down for a few days, and now that it's back up I'm so excited to post pictures of Kai's first experience with Spaghetti! The other night we stripped her down to her diaper and let her try it, and she loved it so much! She kept shoving the noodles into her mouth even though most of them just fell back out again. I think she ended up with more on her belly and in her lap than in her stomach. She did eventually figure out that it was falling on her belly and began to eat it off of her own tummy. We put her in the bath afterward and ended up with a bright orange ring around the tub when she was done. It was a lot of fun to watch her eat it, but it's so messy I don't think we'll do it all the time!

Isn't she cute?

Lately Kaiya has been falling asleep like this. I put her down for naps and bedtime awake, and I can hear her playing for usually at least 15 minutes, and then everything goes quiet. I go in to check on her and she's fallen asleep on her giraffe again. She loves this giraffe so much and holds him sitting up until she is too tired and lays down right on top of him. I usually try to move her into a more comfortable position, but always leave the giraffe right next to her. I don't think I could sleep in this position, but it seems to be a favorite for Kai!

Our Family Tree

One day a few weeks ago we made a trip to Costco and saw that they had cherry trees, and I had to have one. The sentimental value in this tree is that last year Kaiya was born during the cherry blossom festival in Japan, which is a huge deal and symbolic of new life and all that, so cherry blossoms remind me of my baby girl and I now love them. So we bought this tree, even though we have no land to plant it in and will possibly be renting for the next several years, so we also bought a large pot to put it in. The tree is small now, but eventually it will be huge (it grows to about 25ft tall) and will be filled with beautiful blossoms. I have to say that my husband was very kind to indulge me in this, since it wasn't the most practical of purchases (and anyone who knows my husband knows that practicality is everything to him). So last Saturday the weather was finally nice enough to go outside and plant our tree as a family. Okay, it was mostly Patrick planting the tree and me taking pictures (and Kaiya trying to eat rocks), but we were together and it was a lot of fun. And for the record Kai only got a few rocks into her mouth and I promptly made her spit them out.