Wrapping up Birthday Month

Today is my mom's birthday, and it caps off a busy month of celebrations. We had D's on the 7th, Great-Grandma's on the 8th, my dad's on the 21st, and M's on the 27th, with Thanksgiving thrown in for good measure. M's birthday was a fairly subdued affair, given that she won't remember it and we were all pretty exhausted. Still, we did get the family together for a meal, special cake, and gifts. One of our many nicknames for her is Mouse, so I made mouse cupcakes. They were decorated with chocolate icing, Oreo-style cookies sawed in half (for ears), chocolate chips (for eyes), and red shoelace licorice (for whiskers). M was not overly fond of her cupcake, but she did like smearing icing all over herself. Hubby has a beard at the moment, and she looked even more like him than usual when she was done!

We only got a couple of small gifts for M: two French books (one of which actually held her attention!) and a sippy cup like the one we got D for her birthday. I almost felt badly, but then she really doesn't need anything, and she doesn't even know what presents are. Other people got her little outfits or books, and that was lovely. She has been growing and changing immensely these days; she started walking a few weeks ago, and has added a few new tricks to her repertoire, including relocating shoes to the garbage bin, and a whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet. She's still nursing, and luckily for me, still toothless, although it doesn't slow down her eating. She gums away at all kinds of things, favourites being grapes, tofu, applesauce and canteloupe. She can say a few words (Dada, Mama, Mum-mums, Hi, Bye), knows a couple of signs ("more" and "all done"), and is understanding a lot of what we say (clap hands, Maevey! No, Maeve, don't touch the garbage).

Overall, she's a much happier kid than she was initially. You know, like for the first few months of her life. The more control she has over what happens to her, the more content she is. I guess everyone's like that to a certain degree. She was born to move, as Hubby said from day one, and she loves to be active. She prefers finger foods, but if she's really hungry, she allows us to spoon-feed her. She does still cry a fair amount, but I think it's about the same as when D was her age, and we know how to help her now. And she doesn't sleep through the night yet. But she is healthy, and I am so thankful for that.

Big sister helped blow out the candle, having 3 birthdays' worth of experience 

Sharing is caring: Little sister is generous with her cupcake

And then she seemed to realize that it was ALL FOR HER!

Hours after M's birthday luncheon, we had my mom's steak-and-cake birthday dinner last night, and we had already given her a gift (a Tupperware shaker to replace one she used to have), but the girls and I went over this morning to bring her some pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I had tried making them once already for a brunch with friends a few weeks ago, and they were tremendous! It made for a nice breakfast treat, and we brought a couple over to my grandma as well; I believe in celebrating the mom of the birthday kid!