Fiona's First Birthday

Last Saturday we celebrated Fiona’s first birthday with a lunchtime party at our neighborhood park. Thirty friends, family, and kids joined us for the soiree themed around The Very Hungry Caterpillar – one of Fi’s favorite books.

Despite the temperature hovering near 100 degrees and humidity nearly as high, a fun, festive time was had by all – including the birthday girl herself, despite what the above picture might portray!

The homemade menu included food Fiona loves, including:

• Tortellini and Grilled Vegetable Salad with Feta and Balsamic Dressing

• Summer Berry Kabobs

• White Bean Dip with Mixed Veggies and Pita

• Carrot Cake Mini Cupcakes with green & red cream cheese frosting – and shaped like a caterpillar, of course!

In lieu of gifts for Fiona, we asked party guests to bring new school supplies for the kids living at Genesis Home, a shelter for homeless families in downtown Durham where Ryan serves as Executive Director. As new parents, we talk a lot about how to live our values and pass them on to our daughter. For us, this donation strategy is a great way to lay that foundation for Fiona - and to inspire other kids and parents at the party. In fact, several of our friends commented how moved they felt as they shopped and thought about what it must be like to be child starting a new school year without the supplies he or she needs. Thanks to the generosity at Fi’s party, the kids at Genesis Home will have one less thing to worry about this fall.

On the morning of Fi’s actual birthday, we greeted her by singing happy birthday and had a Happy Birthday banner hanging above her high chair in the kitchen. She opened a few presents - including a new push cart / walking toy.

After presents, we set out for a special, pre-work & daycare family breakfast at Elmo’s, a favorite neighborhood restaurant. I love the idea of having some special tradition for our kids on their actual birthdays – maybe hanging the birthday banner and going out to breakfast will be ours!

I’m so grateful for this amazing last year and for the opportunity to be this special gal’s mom. She inspires me to be more joyful, more fun, more appreciative of every tiny moment.

One Year Later

"Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride." - Gary Allen

July 27, 2010
9:06 pm

One year ago, I was a 90 minutes away from becoming a mom.

Shoo.

What a year it’s been.

100% transformational.

In my mind, I’ve been blogging along the way – documenting all of the miraculous moments of this journey. But in reality, I hadn't yet figured out how to both ride this crazy, wonderful wave and reflect on it. If I had been writing about these last twelve months, the posts would have had titles like:

• Every Parenthood Cliché is True
• Now I Know Why Women Can Never Describe Labor
• And the Angel of Lord Appeared: One Woman’s Love Affair with Her Epidural
• Oh, So THIS is Exhaustion
• Why Doesn’t Anyone Ever Talk about How FUN Parenting Is?
• Greetings from the Eternal Struggle of a Working Mom
• Embracing My Choice & Giving Up the Guilt
• Did I Say I Gave Up the Guilt? Like for Good?
• Why I’m Really Glad I Didn’t Have a Child:
• Without a Strong Marriage
• Without a Solid Income
• Before I’d Had A LOT of Adventures Alone & With My Husband
• Before 30
• Thank You Fellow Feminists!
• Feminists, What Were You Thinking? This is NOT Progress.
• Thank You Mom & Dad
• Thank You Mom & Dad – Again.
• Endurance Sports Should Be a Parenting Pre-Requisite
• How My Blackberry Got Me Through Middle of the Night Feedings
• Pumping is My Third Full-Time Job
• I’m Too Tired for Christmas
• Navigating a New Relationship: How Do I Give Feedback to Our Childcare Provider?
• Navigating a New Relationship: How Do I Give Feedback to Our Pediatrician?
• Love Like I Never Imagined
• How My Daughter Taught Me to Let Go
• Did I Say Let Go?
• We’ve Made It Through The First Year: Now What?!

And, I would have shared witty stories and beautiful photos from adventures like:

• Going through 3 sets of sheets on our first night home with Fiona
• Breastfeeding in a Taco Bell parking lot on our first road trip at 3 weeks old
• Bonding as a threesome during our first family vacation to Ocracoke Island at 10 weeks old
• Rediscovering running (well, I did write about that a little)
• Our trips to the Farmer’s Market, Trinity Park, Eno River and all things Durham
• Our first Mother’s Day and Father’s Day
• Our first camping trip with Fiona
• Fi’s first bottle, first stroll, first sitting up, first tooth, first sleep through the night, first words, first, first, amazing first

So with that, I’ll just consider the last year documented….

What I’ve learned from not writing, is that I really miss it. Taking the time to reflect and synthesize helps me learn, grow, and be grateful for and present in this amazing life I’m privileged to lead. And let’s face it, as chronically sleep deprived parent, writing helps me simply remember what our family has been up to!

So today, I’m recommitting to writing it down – the revelatory, the cliché, the mundane.

How do we raise a kind, loving, creative, curious, thoughtful child?
How do I take all that’s been learned by others before me and navigate my own way through balancing work and parenting and marriage and community and self?
How do we build our own family traditions?
Will I ever find a way to get back on my bike?

I’ll be writing about those questions, telling everyday stories from our wonderful life, and using this space to stay in touch with family and friends.

I can't wait to see what this next year brings.