Engineered in HD: Caroline's 1st Birthday

It is hard to believe that it has already been over a year since Caroline entered this world. It sometimes feels like it was a lifetime ago since so much has happened for us in the last year. We were living in Singapore and enjoying Asian life and culture. Half way through her first year we moved back to the US but to a new city for our family. With these big changes, it can feel like a long time but she has grown so fast and we just want to savor every moment with her.

She is still our little lady and weighed in at 18lbs, 11oz and 28.5in long. She still fits well in her 9 month clothing but we are starting to move into the 12 month stuff. We are certainly getting our full wear out of everything. She has not started walking but will cruise on furniture and is really good at crawling and climbing. She just does not seem interested in walking right now and thats okay as we know she will when she is ready.

She is really learning to communicate and we have been teaching her some sign language to go along with the few words she knows. She says "what's that (wassat while pointing)", "mama", and "dada" when she wants to. She has been signing for "milk" for a while and has now added "more", "please", "thank you", and "all done" to the vocabulary. "Milk" has also become her universal sign for wanting something, especially something to drink. It is so fun being able to communicate with her and she is so proud of herself when she says something and we understand.

She loves reading books, swinging, baths, walks around the lake and to the park, watching Maddie, and music. Her favorite song is definitely Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo and Stitch and just about anything by Phil Collins. She still does not get to watch any TV so she listens to lots of music while she plays. She is staying at home with the nanny and her activities currently include Gymboree, Mommy and Me Spanish Class, and story time at the Library. We are looking forward to swim lessons in July because she loves water!

Despite her small size, she eats a lot of food! She loves to eat berries, peppers, spinach, cheese, yogurt, and almost all meats. She does not like cows milk or any of the other milks we have tried yet so she is still getting mama's milk. She loves healthy food and I hope she always will!

We celebrated her birthday at home, just the three of us. We let her try a cupcake at lunchtime to make sure she would not be hyped up on sugar at bedtime and she was not very interested in it. She liked the cake okay but wasn't really into the icing (just like mom). We ate sea bass veracruz and mac and cheese for her birthday dinner. I know sea bass is a strange choice but the first time I made it I split the fish into 3 equal pieces, one for each of us. I expected her to eat half of her piece for dinner and half for lunch the next day. Well she ate the whole piece for dinner so it is certainly one of her favorites and I wanted to make it for her again. After dinner we opened her presents and reminisced about her birth back in Singapore. We love that little girl so much!

I don't know about the icing Daddy

Oh my goodness, sugar!

Getting to the good part, the cake

We traveled back to South Carolina a week later to celebrate her birthday with both of our families and attend the Aiken Steeplechase. It had been years since we had been and it is a fun tradition for my family. We attend the races and then have an oyster roast and birthday party after. Caroline's cousin, William, has a birthday very close to hers so we celebrated both of their birthdays together. I also went out to Hopeland Gardens and did a smash cake photoshoot for Carolina. As always, my mom did an amazing job on the cake.