Milly’s first birthday is Monday, and so we celebrated today. I was up mowing the lawn at 8:20 and followed that up with a bit of outdoor cleaning while Amanda and Karen took care of things inside. We were pretty much finished by 1:00, which is when people started arriving.
Actually, most of the family members who came showed up a little early. My crew arrived at about a quarter of, and I was shocked to see Aunt Robbie with them. I remembered after talking to her that she had planned on being around a little before Milly’s party, but she was supposed to have gone back before today. It was really great to see her. Not that seeing Mom, Dad, Erin and Aunt Reggie (who all rode together) wasn’t great, but I totally didn’t expect Aunt Robbie.
Amanda’s dad, Phil, came early and helped go get some thing. Adam and Renee came, and Michael and Jenn, the whole Frazelle quartet, Amanda’s grandparents and David and Oxana all came. As far as friends go, we had the Warkentiens plus Nick’s sister’s boyfriend; Charles, Deanna and their girls from across the street; Bonnie (also from across the street) made an appearance, then we had the Nowaks, the Clarks and the Boscaljons. I got a call from Seth saying that Gavin was being pretty fussy so they and Dana didn’t make it. I think (I hope!) I listed everybody.
It was a pretty good crowd. When my family got here Milly had just gotten up and was a little upset by all the commotion, so she went upstairs with the ladies and they put her hair in pigtails and got her dressed. She wore a little pink tutu that Amanda had picked out special for the day and a shirt she decorated with puffy paint.
After a little mingling we dove into the cupcakes, or at least Milly did. Actually, she didn’t even dive in like we thought she would. Amanda made a giant cupcake just for Milly and put lots of cream cheese icing on it, but she mostly just daintily picked at it with her thumb and forefinger for a while. Eventually she started open-palming it. Amanda put a speck of icing on Milly’s nose and Erin gave her two little pink dots on her cheeks. She looked a little like a clown.
When she’d had enough cupcake I went to rinse her off in the sink, but it was too difficult so we just ended up stripping her down to her diaper and she and Eli got in the pool. I was amazed at how much moisture a diaper can soak up.
We never got around to the finger painting, but maybe we will next year. Or something. We did move on to the presents though, and I think Milly has already learned how awesome birthdays can be. I’m not going to list everything she got and who she got them from because I’m terrible at remembering that sort of thing and I know some things will be left out, but she did get quite a bit- lots of new toys and clothes. Andra, who wasn’t able to make it, even sent something via Mom and Dad.
Milly wasn’t really that into opening the presents herself, but she did enjoy playing with them as we opened them, as did Eli, Kenzie and Kimber. When we brought out the gift from my parents, which was in the largest box, she did take the opportunity to climb on it. She got up on the box all by herself and sat on it. I’m telling you, that child is a climbing fool.
Everyone trickled out after the gifts were all opened, with the exception of David and Oxana who were staying with us tonight. David wanted to treat us to dinner, so we made arrangements to meet Adam and Renee at Elijah’s. We went early so we wouldn’t have to worry about a crowd or Milly’s feeding schedule. We sat outside where it wasn’t too hot, ate some good food, drank a few drinks, went for a short walk on the river after dinner and just had a really nice time hanging out with my cousin and his wife. It’s been a long time since I’ve had real quality time with Dave.
David and Oxana rode in the back on the way to and from Elijah’s and fed Milly on the way there. It was funny listening to them interact with her. Milly had a good time at Elijah’s too. She ate pretty much the whole time, whether it was pieces of a cornbread muffin, fruits or mashed potatoes. She didn’t drink much of her bottle in her last feeding of the night later on.
Adam and Renee came over to our place after dinner and after David read Goodnight, Moon to Milly and we put her to bed, we all played a game of Puerto Rico. It’s a five-player game so Adam and Renee were on a team together. Amanda beat me by one point but Oxana, in her Puerto Rico debut, killed it while Adanee or Renadam came in fourth with David in last. Poor guy kept getting screwed when it came time to ship goods.
Zach Dotsey