brief update

so, baby is turning a year old in a few weeks. it's been quite a year with lots of ups and downs...lots of downs actually... but i have to admit that it's getting a little easier now that baby is getting older. she's sleeping a little better at night and during the day, she can play by herself for 20 minute chunks of time.

at 11 months old, she's still exclusively breast fed, doesn't really like sold foods, is almost walking, generally happy, likes anything electronic with buttons, weighs 20.5 lbs, doesn't sleep in her crib, loves music, loves books, tv, swinging at the park, has 9 teeth, feeds her babydoll a bottle...

in celebration of this epic year, we're throwing a big party at the mandarin oriental. the theme is going to be pink elephants. i sewed little stuffed elephants for the party favors... and on spreadshirt.com, i designed these little totes to put the elephants in:

this party is honestly going to be over the top. the cake is going to be made by the same baker that made our wedding cake. it's going to be 2 tiers and this approximately how it's going to look: instead of the elephants on the top tier, they're going to circle the bottom tier and on the front of the top tier will be a swag shaped banner that says happy birthday "baby".

i got these thank you cards (except i changed the font to match the elephant's ear):

and i got these stickers that say, "thanks for coming to my party" which i'm going to put on goodie boxes that people can bring home a slice of cake or something from the dessert bar:

i also got another set of stickers that say "Let's have fun... Baby's turning one" (which was the wording used on her invitation) to put on the bags for the candy bar. the candy bar will feature all sorts of pink candies.

we'll have entertainment for the babies...a singing duo from baby wiggle. and a bazillion balloons.

i actually bought baby's dress back in early february when we were in palm beach. there's this exquisite children's clothing boutique called spring flowers.. they have a website springflowerschildren.com, but the dress i bought is not in it. it's a pink and grey cherry blossom print with smocking and flutter sleeves. totally precious. hopefully she'll be walking in 3 weeks so she won't be dragging her dress all over the floor.

we've invited roughly around 45 adults and 18 children. so far, 30 adults and 13 children are definitely coming. we've got 6 more adults and 3 kids on the maybe list. the whole reason this party ended up becoming such a big deal is because we wanted to invite a good number of people, but then thinking about getting them all into our apartment seemed very unappealing. it's not that we don't have the room...we just didn't want to have to deal with it... so, we thought gee...why don't we have it somewhere else... and then well, if we have it somewhere else, it'd be ridiculous to rent out a room for just 15 people...so to make it worthwhile, why don't we just go all out. so here we are. of course baby's not going to have a single clue what all the hubbub's about..nor is she even going to know it's her birthday. but, i've thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of planning the party and all the details. it's a totally selfish and extravagant pleasure. oh well! if we don't mind spending the money, then what the heck. all in, i think we'll end up spending around $3500 for everything. that sounds like a lot, but we're getting a lot...i like the fact that we're serving excellent food...in real dishes and not pink paper plates and using real silverware and not plastic... and i don't have to worry about a single thing. i don't have to worry about having enough food...whether it's going to taste good...and i don't have to worry about cleaning up... or spills on the couch or on our rugs... i just get to do all the fun stuff i like doing and then all i have to do is show up.

i'll continue to post more about the party as it comes along.