A bouncing baby girl

Phoebe's birthday was pretty low-key. Over the course of six kids, I've learned that babies just really don't care about birthday parties. Especially that first one. 

They're too little to know how to blow out candles or rip open presents. They won't remember any of it. 

So, I while we did do cake—And, oh, you should have seen Phoebe staring at us while we sang the Happy Birthday song to her (she was like, "You guys are so weird... Please stop looking at me...")!—and I did buy a few presents for Phoebe, we didn't have her blow out her candle and I didn't even bother wrapping her presents. 

Andrew just took her out of the room and I set down her gifts and then he brought her in. And she was super excited about discovering these new things! Here she is making her way toward her presents:

We got her a little bouncy rhino and some bouncy balls to use outside (because she likes to roll balls back and forth with people, but all we have are, like, basketballs and things and those are just so hard).

She wasn't quite sure what to do with the rhino at first, but it seemed like a good thing to pull herself up on:

Daddy helped her onto the rhino:

And then he and Alexander showed her how to bounce on it:

And that was pretty fun. And then everyone threw balls around (until Mommy shrieked something about "outside" and "you're going to break things"). And that was pretty silly.

So far Phoebe has enjoyed the rhino, as have her older siblings who are perhaps even more likely to romp around the house on it than she is (because she can't really make it move very far yet). But it was a huge hit.

She also got, of course, a dress (homemade) from Miriam and a sweater (homemade) from Rachel, as well as an outfit from Auntie K.

Our neighbour had a garage sale on Saturday and I—being the mean mom that I am—didn't let my children go and spend all their money there. Zoë and Alexander did, however, each pick out a stuffed animal (after the garage sale was over), which I was kind of annoyed about because...we have a billion stuffed animals...and I didn't really want our house filling up with the cast-off stuffed animals from other places, especially such big stuffed animals. 

But then Zoë brought out the bear she'd chosen on Sunday morning and put it in Phoebe's gift pile. She'd just been thinking about Phoebe all along!

Alexander then went to find the stuffed penguin he'd picked out and gave it to Phoebe as well, claiming that he also had been thinking of her...but...that stuffed penguin has been spending 100% of its time tucked into Alexander's bed, so I'm not exactly sure that part is true. 

At any rate, it's the thought that counts. And even if he gave it to her for just a few minutes on her birthday, that was still a sweet sacrifice.

This little baby is just about as loved as could be!