Today is Vienna’s FIRST birthday!! Last year at this time I was getting ready to have an epidural… it didn’t work, but I got one! The delivery seems so long ago, but it doesn’t feel like my baby could be a whole year old already! In about 8 more hours it’ll be one exact full year since Vienna joined our world and lives. Just amazing.

Tonight we are having family over for cake to celebrate (and a few friends are crashing the party too). I originally didn’t want to make a huge party for her birthday, because lets face it, she won’t remember it at all… but I got a little carried away and decided to make a cake trying a new fondant technique for covering a cake. Wonder of Wonders and Miracles of Miracles I actually finished this project!! I’m not always great at finishing projects I begin. And I’m pretty pleased with the results Here’s Vienna’s cake for tonight:

It was fun, but I doubt I’ll be doing this every year!! Anyway… we set up everything last night for the party because we got a HUGE surprise this week! Our friends from Latvia, Vitally and Natasha, have moved to Washington State and were going to be just one hour from us today as they were coming south for a conference!!! So, we got to go to Vancouver, WA this morning and have breakfast with them!!!! (and Vitally’s brother and his wife, Vladamir and Lilia). It was two hours of wonderfulness!! We just love them! Their two children (Max & Denis) weren’t able to come with them, so hopefully we will get up to Auberdeen to see them in the next month or so! Our other friends from Latvia, Bruce and Kim (American missionaries living there) will be home in November and will be just north of there, so we may get to make a dual trip!

It has already been such an exciting day. Vitally and Natasha were some of our favorite people that we knew in Latvia (Vladamir and his wife had already moved to Canada, so we didn’t really know them well) and I had worried that I would never see them again. (Vitally was the one who resumed Sam’s job when we left Latvia). But through some miracles in the immigration system they were invited by Natasha’s mother to move to the States and received their Immigration Invitation and WOW they are here!!! I spent the whole morning singing “Natashinka, Natashinka, Natashinka Maya. Ona bydet zdec, Natashinka Maya” (“Natasha, Nasha, My Natasha. She will be here, my Natasha” to the tune of a little Russian song).  We were so excited that we actually walked out without paying our bill!!! Sam thought I paid, I thought he had!!! Hey, it’s tough keeping track of everything with freinds you’ve not seen in 2 years, two languages and a baby to manage!!!
They are at the beginning of their English learning process, so the morning was a flutter with Russian. That meant I needed to speak and understand Russian. I was sooo concerned that I wouldn’t remember (it’s been two years since I’ve really needed to use my Russian). I had visions of all of my Russian words, scattered all over the floor (yeah, I have strange thoughts) But I surprised myself and found more words than I expected. It was so nice to catch up and just be with these dear people! (Though I did wear out there towards the end… it’s a lot of mental work for me to use Russian still).
Now we are home getting ready for our party. Here’s hoping I don’t cry, I still can’t believe my baby is already one!!!! Does everyone feel a little sad??? or am I just a freak of nature! (well, I mean, in THIS case! I know I’m a freak normally!)

I am all for creative parenting… for instance… How do you keep your daughter, who has learned to walk at a remarkable pace, safe AND quiet.  Placing her in her play-yard only reduces her to screams.  Just letting her roam the house finds her inevitably heading towards the bathroom!!  Our house is set up in such a way that you can’t really “baby gate” her in anywhere (though we can and do gate off the bathroom/hall entrance.  But we have a great room set up for the living dining and kitchen area.  Well… Our answer:  CHAIRS!!

Yep, when all else fails chair off the living room!  I give it another week or two before she starts to crawl over the top of the chairs, or to crawl through the legs.  She’s actually already tried to crawl through, just through the wrong spot!!  For now it’s working, I get a few minutes to put clothes away or to cook or what not. 

Now I’m searching for the answer to “What do you do when your daughter refuses to take a nap”… I’m thinking this one’s going to be a little more difficult to resolve!!

Happy day to you all