My Beautiful Dead Flowers

These are the most beautiful flowers I've ever gotten. Yes they are dead, and well, I had to cut a little mold off the stems, but I just love them. They began life as a birthday bouquet for Tara. Back on Dec 27. They prettied up the kitchen table for a long while. When they were past their prime, I tossed them over the porch railing onto a bed of snow and ice. Certain that by the time the snow melted and anyone was out there again, the flowers would have blown away, been eaten by a fierce flower eating rodent, or otherwise dispersed. Well, that didn't happen, we had a mini- New York January heatwave with a 50 degree day and the boys played outside and the snow melted. And there was the knock at the front door. And Aidan was standing there, so lovingly carrying all the dead flowers he found outside. "Look mama, I picked them just for you!" it was so sweet. I had to keep them. So they are once again prettying up the table, but just a little further away from the food.

Happy Birthday Corinna Bo-Binna!

I think we finally got it right. By the third kid, we mastered the first birthday. It's not that the boys had awful parties, they didn't, but let's just say, this one was the best. Little Miss Corinna was a delight, she napped during the day prior to the party, and she was in great spirits--even when we had to wake her up to greet the guests. It was unseasonably warm for her January party, kind of poking fun at the snowflake themed fete. Once she warmed up to the crowd at the house, she was loving it! Corinna played in her playhouse with the other girls (tea parties!), chased the boys, and went to town on her smash cake (for those of you out of the kid cake circle, the 'smash' cake is a relatively new phenomena where parents give the one-year-old guest of honor their own mini cake to 'smash' as only a one-year-old can. I never really understood it, but upon seeing it in action at the party, I get it. It's cute. Messy and goopy and sticky, but awfully cute.)

The kids played mostly in the boys room and the adults were left to mingle and enjoy themselves. What a concept! The cake was a hit! There were snowflake tableclothes, candle holders, favor holders, luminaries, painting on the window, crafts, cookies, snow -snow-snow! Corinna's birthday shirt read "I Love Snow" (white shirt perhaps not the wisest choice)and her adorable "snow princess" headband topped off the ensemb.

She scored pretty typical (yet wonderful!) one-year-old loot. Pink bath toys, cute outfits, a ride on car, markers, Abby Caddaby plates and more. She's loving it, playing with everything. Even her brothers have set aside their pink prejudices played.

Ms. Corinna is 1!! So hard to believe such flashbacks between a year ago at this time and now. It flew by so quickly. She’s amazing. She’s got 7 teeth with another just about through. She’s 22 pounds and 30 ½ inches. She is saying “da-da” and “That”. “That” was her first word. She loves buster and is constantly showing him her toys and feeding him her food. She has recently gotten out of the baby bathtub and really likes being in the big tub now (luckily she's got all her new toys to play with). More room to play. She’s smart, too! She walks, nearly running, and has tried to push things together to climb on. She loves her brothers and has tried saying “Jake” and “Aidan”. “Aidan” is a tough name, it just happens that Jake is easier to say. That’s how I comfort myself when she repeatedly says ‘da-da’ and not ‘ma-ma’. She loves apples and waffles. She barely nurses during the day, but at night she’s still up 3 or 4 times (Oh to sleep through the night!). She's a happy, easy baby who puts a smile on her mommy's face like no one else can.