one year of mae

Happy birthday, Mae!

It's hard to believe you are already a year old! Here's a look back on Mae's first year "by the numbers."

Diapers dirtied: about 2400 (200 newborn, 1000 size 1, 1200 size 2)
Weight gained: 9 lbs 3 oz (that puts her at 17 lbs!)
Teeth: 12 (3 more molars this month)
Ounces of formula consumed: about 2500 oz in the past 3.5 months (about $500 worth)
Flights taken: 4
Actual words spoken: 0
Almost words spoken: 2 (dada, mama)
Miles walked: 0
Miles crawled: lots!
Doctor visits: 15
Lactation consultant visits: 7
Urgent care visits: 1
States visited: 9
Number of times I've listened to "The Happy Apple" song: 6, maybe 7 billion?

We had Mae's birthday party last Saturday. I had way too much fun planning the Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. I made a birthday banner and caterpillar cake, and we ate all the food items from the book with little signs to identify each item on the table.

I am super proud of the cake. This is the first time that I've decorated a cake that hasn't looked like a complete disaster (Dan can attest to this). The caterpillar body is made from a Bundt cake cut into sections (idea found on Pinterest), and I made a small cake for the head as a "smash cake" for Mae.

Mom had a biopsy surgery on Friday, so we moved the party from our house to theirs so she wouldn't have to travel. Fortunately, that meant that several of my cousins and their families were able to come! The kids had fun playing hide-and-go-seek around the house. So adorable!

I loved watching their faces when we offered Mae her "smash cake." They look simultaneously jealous and horrified. (Don't worry, there was plenty of decapitated caterpillar body and tons of mini cupcakes for the party guests).

Mae started dessert by daintily poking the caterpillar in the eye. After I put a blob of frosting on her tongue, she got more into it. She was double-fisting cake by the end!

She had fun showing her frosting-covered fingers to Uncle Tim and David on FaceTime. She even offered them a bite of cake from her hand!

Batman happily helped Mae finish off some of the cake. She thought it was pretty fun to feed him globs of frosting off her fingers.

Mae got lots of new books, cute clothes, and some fun toys for her birthday. She has already played in her sandbox from GranE and Batman and is looking forward to coloring with her crayons at her little table from Grandma and Grandpa! Today we built block towers and drove her plastic truck all over the family room.

She wasn't interested in tearing the wrapping paper, but she loved playing in the piles of paper and bows. On the other hand, Oliver was thrilled to help with the unwrapping. He is going to be so excited to open gifts on his birthday in just one month!

I'm so glad Mom was feeling well enough to enjoy the party. We had such a good time!

It was fun to have our families together, and I'm so glad Dan's parents were able to be here to celebrate Mae's birthday. They even babysat Mae on Sunday while Dan and I saw "Beautiful: The Carol King Musical" with tickets they got us for Christmas. A lovely Mother's Day for me!

Phew, that was a lot of photos, but I had to show all the fun moments from Saturday. Finally, here's the aftermath of the cake (top destruction by Mae, bottom by Kelsey and Dad... at least they used forks instead of their hands!)

So proud of my little girl... Can't wait to see what year two brings!