update on the birthday front

...some of you may remember last year's birthday fiasco for cadence to which the whole world was invited and 60 people actually showed up. we learned our lesson and decided that we will not throw any more bruhahas for our little progeny until she's old enough to clean it up herself afterwards.

...so this year, we didn't do anything spectacular. we invited only our immediate families for cake and candy and that's it. we also asked at least the siblings to please not bring any presents. i knew that gifts from the grandparents and great-grandmas would be inevitable, but i just didn't want people to feel like they had to get something for the kid every single birthday, and i also didn't want cadence to think birthdays are just about getting stuff.

we had a really nice time, definitely much more subdued than last year. cadence had a ball chasing her ay-pa (grandpa) around the condo and being doted on by every one else. and although we were tired after everyone left, it wasn't the type of party that will take days to recover from, like last year's was.

...as for our gifts to cadence, we got her her very own backpack embroidered with her name. i also filled it with some books and a stuffed elephant and a sigg water bottle, which she loves drinking from now. ted likes the backpack cuz he can put diapers and her snacks in it so cadence can carry her own stuff now.

we also got a very special gift from auntie lauren in sweden. she started a personalized alphabet scrapbook for cadence. using a 3-ring photo binder, she put in pages for the letters A, B, C and D with elaborately deocrated pages of items beginning with those letters, as well as photos of people in cadence's life, like Auntie Ali for the letter A, Auntie Becki for the letter B, Uncle Charles for the letter C and Uncle Dave for the letter D. i'll have to post some photos of the pages soon. lauren is so creative and artistic! it was such an unexpected surprise. she plans on adding more letters in the future, and i can't wait to see what she comes up with!

...yes, our little cadence is growing up so fast now! just in the past week, she's learned to climb on and off the bed like a pro (even i have a hard time getting in and out of our bed, which is pretty high off the floor), she had her first drink of cow's milk without complaining, and she put herself to sleep for a nap while i was busy tidying around the condo (she NEVER goes to sleep on her own when her mama's around!).

...she's also had some totally gnarly meltdowns, but i'm trying to accentuate the positives, and i refuse to think of these days as the 'terrible twos'...there's no reason why we won't get the 'terrific twos' instead. sometimes the temper tantrums are so downright frightening that it can be easy to forget that most of the time, she's totally delightful. i have to keep reminding myself that.