I'm one now!

Otherwise known as, the day AV fell in love with cake and frosting.

I took the day of from work because a) that's what personal days are for and b) your baby only turns one once.

I had promised AV that I would take her to the aquarium a long time ago, so we did just that. By aquarium, please don't imagine Seattle Aquarium or SeaWorld. Think more along the lines of not quite an aquarium but still better than a fish store. They had tropical fish and fresh water fish. Fish from Africa, the Americas and Asia. They even have a shark tank, with no sharks. AV happily ate fishy crackers while we perused the tanks, which I found very appropriate.

Then we were off to the Honda dealership. What's more fun than spending your 1st birthday dropping off mommy's car for its service? Then we crossed the street, and by cross the street I mean I attempted to maneuver her Cadillac of a stroller on what can only be loosely defined as a sidewalk and darted across four lanes of traffic in fine Frogger style to the mall across the street. AV had her first taste of McDonald's soft serve and then commenced to walk the entire length of the mall, stopping only to check out the taco stand. Like father, like daughter.

Ramon picked us up and we spent the afternoon around the house. AV played with her birthday toy, which I am thrilled to put in the parent "Win" column considering my child is usually more interested in her toothbrush and the empty tube of toothpaste than any of her toys. She even played with it today, too. I'm impressed to say the least.

We walked over to the church where we baptized her and helped her to say "Thank you" to Jesus for one year full of growth and health and the joy she's brought to our family. She waved to Jesus and blew kisses which I think is as close to saying a prayer as you can get a 365-day year old to do.

Then we finished the evening with....CAKE!!!! I invented funfetti cake by adding sprinkles to white cake mix. Fancy, I know. I got real fancy with the frosting, a can, but I made spirals and ribbons with my new fancy dancy piping bag that I found for 50 pesos at the random store around the corner. AV loved it. Love. Like mother, like daughter.

As with any really classic first birthday, we ended the evening with a total meltdown and a much needed bedtime.

I can't believe it's been a year already. AV is a walking, talking tornado that makes us laugh and brings more joy to our lives than we ever could have imagined. Who knows what the second year of her life has in store for us, but if its as good as these past 365 days, I'll have absolutely no reason to complain.

I went and totally redeemed myself.

I am officially amazing. For the record.

Remember that time I made a million cracker/cookies that were just plain old sucky? Yeah, I didn't want to remember either. Well, today that day can be washed away from all the history books. It can be forgotten forever.

Because... I am amazing.

I made the most kick butt-est (kickest butt?) chocolate chip cookies today. From scratch. No recipe.

Yeah.. jealous?

Here is the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.

1 stick Mexican sized butter/margarine. It's less than a US stick of butter. I don't know by how much, but it apparently makes a difference.

1/2 cup Mexican brown sugar. It's not squishy. It doesn't pack. But that don't matta.

1/2 cup white sugar.

Pinch of salt.

Use the 1/2 tsp but don't quite fill it of Baking Soda

Use the 1/2 tsp but don't quite fill it of Baking Powder (But fill it a little more than what you filled of Soda.)

Add flour 'til it's the right consistency. Like 2 - 2 1/2 cups-ish. (I live at high altitude. I don't know why that matters, but it does. I don't know how it will change your recipe for kick butt cookies.)

Add 1 cup chocolate chips.

Get out the lighter stick and light your oven....oh wait, your oven probably turns on by you pressing a button, whatev. Adjust the flame to between "cinge your eyebrows just by looking at it" hot and "you could put something in here for days and nothing would happen" lukewarm. That will get you a varying oven temperature that jumps between 200 and 400 farenheit.

Cook the cookies until they smell like they're done.

Take them out and write me a thank you note.

No one's giving you a Starbuck's card...

So, apparently, parenting doesn't come with cash rewards.

I did not get this memo during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or the first year of life.

I think a lot more people would have babies if there were some sort of incentive. You know, other than, like, that super cute baby you get to call yours.

Why am I saying this? So, the other day AV got a little fever. Nothing serious, I think the highest it got was around 100, but it was enough to make her cranky and needy... all night long. She decided she'd like to sleep in my arms. Fine by her, not so fine by me. I curled up on the couch. Why I curled up on the small couch and crunched my legs all up instead of moving to the big couch is beyond me, but I, along with many others I'm sure, don't tend to make the soundest and most coherent decisions at 1:30am with a crying baby.

Anyway, AV decided to wake up every hour, cry for a couple seconds and go right back to sleep. She slept fine. Me? Not so much. In one of those delusional sleep-wake moments, I got this fabulous idea that I was going to get a Starbuck's card for being up all night with her. That was the best idea I had heard in a real long time. It got me through the night.

But, then the morning came. Apparently, that is not, in fact, true. No magical Starbucks card with tons of free coffee coming my way. Just my same old decaf waiting to be made, by me, in my coffee maker, in my kitchen. No free day off. Just the same old 6:00 wake-up call, same old fifth graders, same old job.

But, would I spend the night squished on the tiny couch with AV again? Yep.
Even though there is no Starbuck's card? Yep. (Though I might conveniently forget so I could have that motivation next time.)

OR, I could just give myself the prize of Starbuck's...But paying for it myself just doesn't bring the same joy.