More Birthday Talk

It's My Party, and I'll Cry if I Want to...

This was Lydia on the morning of her birthday. I couldn't get the oatmeal ready fast enough for her. Maybe because I was busy taking pictures of her crying?


I took Lydia to a really cool fish store on her birthday. It's almost as good as the actual aquarium and it doesn't cost anything- unless you get suckered into buying a fish- which I didn't! Yay for me!





If you ask Lydia what a fishie says, she'll tell you "Bub bub." Ryan got off early on her birthday, so while I was teaching piano, he took her to a local animal farm (which is also free!). She chased after the geese, making some sort of throaty sound that geese apparently make. It got dark soon, so they went to Best Buy and played Mario Kart. Lydia has a fun daddy.

One of the presents we gave to Lydia was a homemade bank. I did the letters, and Ryan did the paper. My friend Jill added the bow. Group effort! I'm terribly proud of it, not because of it's appearance, but because I recycled an applesauce jar! Ryan and I actually think it looks like a 4th grader made it. But Lydia won't know that for a while.



We had a small birthday party at our house on Sunday. Lydia got her very own cupcake. We accidentally didn't put her tray on tight enough so she accidentally pushed it off. Then, she really did cry at her party! I didn't get a picture, but just see above for a pretty close likeness.





I have a friend who is part Japanese, and she told me about this tradition the Japanese do on babies' first birthdays. They set out objects that represent different career/life paths and let the baby walk or crawl to the objects to choose one. Whatever they choose is supposed to predict their future life path.

We put a book for academics, a ball for sports, a conductor's wand for music, a paintbrush for the arts, a spatula for a culinary career, a pencil for academics (Whoops! Two academic objects), and money for wealth.



Lydia chose the ball.



We had all the other babies and kids do it after Lydia. Lydia's 15 month old cousin Liam chose the conductor's wand. Lydia's 14 month old cousin Cameron crawled right past everything and played with a big pile of shoes. We decided she's destined for a career in fashion.