Hippo-hurray! Meme's one...like three days ago...

On the Sunday before Miriam's first birthday I still had no idea or plan for a party. Considering her birthday was the very next day this was kind of a sad thing. I decided to make her a stuffed hippo because I found a cute pattern and I knew she'd be getting mostly practical things for her birthday--a car seat and diaper covers from us, a snowsuit from Grandma and Grandpa. We had ordered her a magna doodle because she loves to draw but it hadn't come yet and I wanted her to have something fun to play with on her birthday.

So I spent all of Sunday evening crocheting a hippo and thinking about what to do for a cake. When I got up with one of the girls in the night, inspiration struck. I'd make a hippo cake and on it I'd write "Hippo-hurray! Meme's one today!" Unfortunately I hadn't finished I hadn't finished the blasted toy hippo yet so spent all day doing that. At four o'clock in the afternoon I finally got around to the cake. It was a bit of a rush job but turned out alright (minus all the icing on the hippo's ears).

We just had a small party with Naanii & Grandpa, Grandma & Grandpa, Auntie Em, and Uncle Patrick. And us, of course. Uncle David stopped by later in the evening and Auntie Sarah came over during the day to drop of a sweat suit. She stayed and played with the girls for a few hours as well which they really enjoyed.

Rachel helped wrap all the presents and was in charge of picking out which one Miriam should open next. She'd grab one from the pile and say, "Oh! Let's open the hippo next!" Luckily Miriam didn't mind having all her surprises spoiled. She had a lot of fun opening presents, anyway, and Rachel had a lot of fun commandeering everything and anything she found interesting.

 

 
 
 

Miriam needed some help getting started but once she realized she could rip the paper to her heart's content she was hooked. The first gift Rachel chose to have her open was the hippo and, as you can tell from the look on her face, she was not so sure about participating in such a forbidden activity. Ripping paper? What?

Diaper covers were up next and by this time Miriam had understood that she wasn't going to get reprimanded for ripping things, at least...not on her birthday.

Naanii and Grandpa Bruce gave her some books, all of which Rachel quickly took away from her and demanded that I read them to her (Rachel) immediately. When I had finished reading all the books to her she picked up the manual for the car seat and said, "Oh, we missed one! Read this to me, too!"

"I'm not going to read that one!" I said. 

"You really should," my mom said.

"Oh, I will," I answered, "Just not to her."

At least Miriam will be the sole enjoyer of her diaper covers, snowsuit, and sweatshirt because Rachel really took over everything else. The hippo has spent the past three nights on Rachel's bed.

Anyway, after presents we went into the kitchen for cake. I was hoping Miriam would blow out the candle because she's really pretty good at blowing. She was so transfixed by the flame, though, that she wouldn't take any cues. She was completely hypnotized.

My mom gave her a piece of cake with a fork and Miriam knew just what to do. She picked up the fork like she uses one everyday, stabbed her cake, and put it in her mouth.

Okay, so it was a little more involved and a little more messy and little less simple than that. Still, I was impressed that she was able to actually get the cake into her mouth via a fork.

She was pretty proud of herself, too!

Happy Birthday, Miriam!