ruby is 1!

 

 our littlest ruby is already 1!  we celebrated her day with a little morning brunch.

tia sarah spent the weekend with us.  she played with ruby while hanging up little decorations that tia ashlei and i made earlier in the week.

 

ruby's cousin oliver came over to celebrate and they practiced their standing-against-chairs-skills.

 

so sweet, that little girl of my heart.

  

we had coffee and a sort of attempt at strawberry champagne, luke made a frittata with rainbow chard and sweet potatoes, and pan catalan, tia ashlei brought an amazing fruit salad, and i made the lemon poppyseed muffins i'd made last year while i was in early labor.

 

we had a little art project time of making flower crowns and tall crowns, and then we opened a few gifts.  mateo chose a pinwheel for ruby.

 

mateo took (pretend) photos of cousin oliver in his crown.

 

 me and my best girlfriends.  :)

 

i was stressing a bit about what to give ruby.  i knew exactly what i wanted to give mateo for his 1st birthday, but ruby has so much already because of him, so we weren't so sure what she would really enjoy.  in the end, we gave her a miniature version of a water bottle like mine, and i tried to make a doll for her inspired by one i'd seen in a window downtown. 

 

ruby liked the doll, but mateo liked it more, and tia sarah liked it even more.  :)

 

mateo showed her how to use all her new things.  i know he is excited for his own upcoming birthday after celebrating mine, ruby's, and his uncle's these past few weeks.

 

cousin oliver and uncle brian worked their new crowns.

 

ruby was the only one who absolutely refused to wear a crown.  :)

we made a little ruby collage.  she is so good at going along with everything we do, and so good at allowing a more demanding toddler to get the attention so often, so i really, really, really wanted to give her this day of her in the spotlight.

 

here she is having lunch in her birthday kitchen.

 

we made little beaded hearts for hanging as party favors.  i have struggled this year with not having enough time to accomplish what i had hoped.  her party was the same - so many ideas but not really enough time to realize them.  i'd wanted to make a few more brunch-y things, i'd wanted to buy her some fresh flowers, i'd wanted to give her a simple birthday balloon.  i was thankful that all of her party guests were so patient and so helpful.  i think one of the things having her has taught me is to let things go and be ok with it.

 

 she and mateo didn't nap on her birthday so instead of making dinner and cake that night, we ordered every curry available at our favorite thai restaurant to eat at home and put them to bed early.

  

the next evening we made her a lemon birthday cake with beet cream cheese icing.  we realized mid-making that we only had 1 lemon left for her cake, so we added the zest of some oranges and some grapefruit.  it turned out yummy (and sour).  the beets made the cream cheese icing an unreal shade of pink and was super sweet, but somehow the sour matched the sweet and we all enjoyed it. 

she ate really delicately actually and didn't make the mess we anticipated.  

 oh ruby sue, we love you so much.  happy 1st year.