Happy 1st Birthday, Saoirse

On August 30, my baby turned 1. She's a toddler more than a baby now, really.

And I'm not really okay with that.

But I digress.

We had a pool party at Mills Park, with their awesome, renovated-this-summer pool. It was the last weekend it was open for pool parties, and it was a wonderfully mild day. Overcast, with a chance of rain that held off. Upper 80s, warm enough for swimming to be fun, but not so hot as to make being outside miserable for those who opted not to swim.

It was a Hello Kitty party, so I put Saoirse in the Hello Kitty swimsuit I bought her before we went to San Diego.

Reese (my sister) and Saoirse 

At first, she was a little confused about what to do with the cupcake. And definitely curious about that fire stick on top of it. We'd fed her little bits of cake during the cake pop practice so once we got some of it in her mouth, she realized what exactly this thing was and was up for it. She never did do the whole cake smash thing quite as much as many babies do. She ended up with an ear infection just days before her birthday, so she wasn't feeling her best, but 4 days of antibiotics had helped quite a bit.

Feeding Daddy some cupcake

Fistful of cupcake and the Hello Kitty cake pops

My sweet baby is getting bigger and bigger all the time. She has 4 teeth now (3 were through on her birthday, with a 4th just visible in the gum line). She loves food, but she also still loves breastfeeding. She's gotten confident in her crawling skills and will now track you down into the kitchen from the living room, probably a good 20 feet or so all told. She doesn't do a typical crawl, it's more of a crab walk or a gorilla walk or something. We have hardwood floors, so I don't entirely blame her for not wanting her knees on it.

She cruises and has started working on getting down off of things. She does okay with assistance on that front, and will walk around the house while holding on to someone's fingers, although being carried offers a great vantage point and ease of access to places otherwise blocked by doors.

Saoirse with her sword her daddy made her

She shows us how very not child-proofed our living situation is. She will fight you for some grapes and cherries. Bananas can also result in fingers in your mouth to retrieve the food she wants. That Cookie Monster toy was picked out for her specially by her Papa. It's a favorite toy now. She grabs it and hugs it tight, and it is the cutest thing.

You can barely see it, but Saoirse had her own rainbow for her birthday.

She's about 21 and a half lbs now, according to her appointment just before she was one. Due to the ear infection, her 1 year old check up had to be postponed. I wasn't about to give her shots when she wasn't feeling her best.

I can't believe it's been more than a year now since I went through the life-altering experience of giving birth, mostly naturally, and becoming a mother. It has made such a change in my life, and Saoirse is just so...Saoirse. She's bubbly, and happy, and snuggly, and loving, and just has such a love for life and it's offerings. She helps me see all the wonder in the world and in just chilling out with the people you care about. Giving birth to her both showed me how strong I can be, and just how vulnerable we are as humans. I live my life both so incredibly thrilled to have her and innately terrified of forces outside my control. It's a strange balance. But you learn to embrace the wonder and push out the fear, because you can't live life scared of what could happen. You miss out on so much when you do that. Being a parent is really wearing your heart on your sleeve, sending a chunk of your soul out into the world where it will do what it will. I love her so much, it's just crazy.


Happy 1st birthday, Saoirse Flynn. The first of many to come.