One Day Before One Year

I'm taking a stroll down Memory Lane tonight...and pausing to remember how I was feeling--and what I looked like!--one year ago.  I didn't know it at the time; but when I posted that 40 weeks pregnancy update, I was about 12 hours away from meeting my daughter face to face.  Sweet, sweet memories...

And now here we are, a year later, on the night before Moriah's first birthday.  This year has been unbelievably precious, and I am sure I will write more about that in the days to come.  But tonight I'll simply share some pictures from the birthday supper we had for her tonight.  Yes, I know we're a day early; but this week is uncharacteristically busy for us (because of three Suzuki recitals I'm accompanying, as well as three practice sessions in addition to the recitals, plus some other things going on, too), so it seemed like the best thing to celebrate Moriah early, on the evening that was the most open and relaxed for the whole family.

Whenever any of my babies turn one, I always make a carrot cake for them.  I did that first for Josiah in Israel when we had his first birthday party under a blazing hot sun in a park by the Mediterranean.  I did that for David and for Tobin here in Virginia.  Now that I think about it, I did NOT do that for Shav because when he turned one, we were actually in Tennessee at a conference.  He, however, got to smash a cake that Emily made for him, so I'm guessing that more than made up for his lack of a carrot cake on his first birthday.  ;-)

Despite the rather hectic pace of this week, I was glad to carve out some time to make a carrot cake for Moriah's birthday.  You only turn one once, you know!  :)

 Josiah, David, and Tobin (and maybe Shav? I can't remember) were all clamoring to "help" Moriah blow out the candle; but when they started to appeal to me to let them be the one, I told them that their daddy would have to figure out how to make that decision.  He came up with a Solomon-esque solution: whoever was the one to blow out the candle would be the last to get a piece of cake.  Immediately a chorus of "not me's" rose around the table, except for one dear boy: Tobin Bear's response was "ME!"  And that is why he got the honor of blowing out Moriah's candle.  (Moriah, meanwhile, was completely distracted and didn't even pay attention.  She did, however, enjoy having "Happy Birthday" sung to her.)  ;-)

 It's always a toss-up as to whether my kids will actually care about eating their chosen dessert on their birthday.  I've had some that have attacked their cake (or pie or turtles or whatever) with zeal, and others that have largely ignored dessert, leaving the sweet stuff to parents, grandparents, and siblings (who don't mind a bit).  ;-)  So I was curious as to whether Moriah would actually eat any of her cake.

 I bet...

 ...you...

 ...can figure out...

 ...the answer.  ;-)

 When evening comes and I tuck the birthday child into bed for the last time as their current age, knowing that in the morning, they'll awaken a year older, so to speak, I get a little nostalgic.  I don't always remember to do so; but when I do, I like to take a picture of that child to document their last night as a Three-Year-Old or a Four-Year-Old or a Whatever-Year-Old.  I guess these next pictures show Moriah's last night as a Zero-Year-Old!  ;-)

 I tried to take pictures without the flash, but it was just too dim in Moriah's room and the pictures were blurry.  The photo above is the best I could do.  So I did something I almost never do and actually used the flash.  :)

What a little ball of love she is!

Now on to the real birthday!  :)