THORA'S 1ST BIRTHDAY » YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

This past weekend was Thora's second birthday and in light of such a milestone, I started going through old photos. I pulled up pics from her first birthday party, all graciously shot by our dear friend and amazing photographer Aubrie Pick, and am blown away. These kids really really grow so fast. Last year she barely had hair! She had just started crawling. I remember feeling like it took forever for her to become mobile. I worried whether I should worry. The constant teething made her such a drooler. Her blue eyes dominated her face, still do actually. And her world was (is) full of wonder, which made (makes) my world full of it too.

Life was hectic, our new norm. And at the time we barely came up for air. But we needed to celebrate. Even if that meant pulling a rabbit out of a hat, which we did, and hopefully we made it look easy. I decided on Your Are My Sunshine as the theme because that was the song I sang every night... when I used to rock her to sleep. See, that has changed too! I still sometimes sing it in her ear on the way to bed. I love it so.

Going along with the theme, and considering none of our attending friends had little kids, we decided to do a brunch. Nothing terribly sophisticated, just enough to entertain adults and impress a one-year old. Mike illustrated the invite based on some quick iphone shots for reference and I designed it. We had it printed locally at PS Print, they have amazing deals on postcards, and paired it with a yellow envelope.

I remember sweating over her outfit, running around looking for the perfect, adorable yet equally affordable, something. I was surprised that I chose a dress, considering I am very casual by nature, but this little blue number called out to me from across the mall. (Shh, it was from The Children's Place. But doesn't it look like Janie & Jack?) This was also the debut of her first pair of Salt-Water sandals, size 4 and too big for her at the time.

All decor was relegated to the dining room, a manageable space. Literally the day before Thora, myself and both grandmas ran around town, gobbling up anything yellow we could find. We ordered polka dot balloons, bought streamers, placemats, tablecloths, flatware... if it was yellow it was ours. In my usual frantic pace, determined to have something hand-made for her party, I whipped up the Happy Birthday bunting in record time: design letters on the computer, print, cut out circles, layer onto craft paper times two, string together with ribbon, done and done.

The cake... the cake! The cake was made by our friend Siobhan, a pastry chef. I really wanted the ombre look so we decided on yellow to white. Inside was a vanilla cake with two different fillings: one was chocolate and carmel, the other vanilla and mango. To die! The frosting is all buttercream.

I had lofty ideas for the food but instead settled on Costco muffins and quiche. Ha! Mike is the cook in our house (I'm generally useless in the kitchen) so he made the roasted potatoes and biscuits. My mom made her tried and true deviled eggs and my girlfriend Melissa, who always seems to save my ass when I'm in a pickle, sent us the Edible Arrangement.

Thora, not so great at opening presents. Confused is a word I might use? So Mommy did all the heavy lifting and Little T did her best to feign interest. Sigh...

She'd rather be swung by Daddy.

After presents we gathered around the little lady, all strapped in her chair and thoroughly perplexed. We sang her Happy Birthday, even Grandpa who was on Skype, then presented her with a little cake all her own.

Alas, you can lead a babe to water, but you cannot make them eat birthday cake.

They say that once your child hits one, she is no longer a baby. I remember that thought ringing in my ears throughout the day. We relished those final moments with our baby and did our best to welcome her to toddlerhood. That face there at the end, we call that Squares! Happy to say Squares! has not changed, not one little bit and she still does it all the time.

I'm in the middle of editing her second birthday party pics, a rainbow party and can't wait to share them here. She still has not grasped the greatness that is opening presents, but she did eat two bites of cake!