Maren's 1st Birthday!

Okay, now that Maren is almost 3 years old (haha!), I guess I can finally get this post on about her birthday. The sweetest thing is how excited Evan had been about it literally for weeks. Every day when he woke up the first thing he told me was that it was Maren's birthday. So we pretended day after day that it was her birthday. He reminded me that we needed to make cake and cookies and that we needed to buy balloons, ice cream and presents. So, we were crossing off the days on the calendar leading up to the big day.

Now, on normal mornings Evan wakes up, comes into my room and tries for about five minutes to get me out of bed. We let Maren sleep as long as she wants, usually after we get up. Well, not on her birthday. I'm woken by Evan shouting, "It's your birthday, Maren!" all the way from his room. Then I hear him race down the hall and throw open her door and announce, "Happy birthday, Maren! I love you!" And it was all silly, loving, wonderful birthday festivities from then on out. No one was more excited about Maren's birthday than Evan was. And that includes her parents.

Now on to Maren. She had been taking quite a few steps...five to nine at a time before falling. But you really couldn't say she was officially walking. Until the night before her birthday, that is. It's like something clicked in her head that her birthday was coming and she'd better just decide to be a walker. So, as of her birthday, she is a full-fledged walker. A week after her birthday, she stopped having to pull up on things to stand. She figured out how to stand by herself, which it seems like took Evan a month or so to do once he started walking. But maybe I'm just not remembering right.

For Evan's first birthday, there was months of thinking and planning. I think we had about 45 people in and out of his birthday party. It was a big deal. Poor Maren being the second child. :-) We participate in a babysitting co-op where we get to have two Friday night dates a month and the third Friday we watch our kids and the other four kids. Well, her birthday happened to fall on our night to babysit. That's okay, though. My sister made some cupcakes, we got some cheapy ice cream and Evan, of course, reminded us that we had to have balloons. We had a great time. Big hoopla or not, we are thrilled that Maren hit such a fun milestone. She is getting more and more personality every day. We've been calling her Feisty Spice the last few days. She's feisty and spunky and silly and we love her to pieces. Happy birthday, Missy!