Look Who's Walking!

Yesterday I was in the office and Ben yelled, "She took a couple steps!" I came running into the playroom and indeed, our little girl took a few more. I ran and grabbed my phone and was so glad to catch these first few steps on video.

Jess and I had just gotten back two days before from our first-ever trip without the kids. I'd wondered all weekend if we were going to miss her first steps. It was so sweet of her to wait until Mommy came home!

First Days of School!

This is a catch-up post, so let's go back to August 15, which was Noah's first day of Pre-K. He was so excited. His school has a really fun tradition of delivering yard signs before the start of school.

And then the following week Ben started first grade.
Wow - how do we possibly have a 1st grader?!

They're both loving their new classes and I'm having fun spending some girl time with Eliza.

Eliza's Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Eliza's 1st birthday with a family party.
Eliza greets her guests.

In Korean tradition, on a child's first birthday, you hold a Toljabee ceremony where different items are placed before the child (book = scholar, knife = chef, rice = wealth, needle & thread = long life, ruler = talented with her hands) and the child's future is predicted upon what she chooses. We did it with both boys at their first birthday parties, and so we did it with Eliza.
She heads toward the items ...
and chooses the rice (wealth)! Jess and I figure this means early retirement for us.

With Uncle Joseph.

After lunch it was time for presents.

I'd underestimated the toll that her one-year shots she'd gotten the day before would take, and she was very sleepy by this point.

Looking like she might want to go to sleep with her new glow worm on her new "scooter."

No bedtime, though, before cake, of course!

So when we gave her her "smash cake," she was really quite preplexed as to why, instead of being put in her bed, she was being set in front of this big strange, round thing.

"Ooohh, I'm supposed to eat it?"

And she'd had enough.

She exited her party early in favor of a nap, but the rest of us continued celebrating for her.

Happy birthday, Baby!