The Birthday

She's one now.  She acts like she's two, but she's one. We call Quinn our "great surprise" because that is what she is.  When her sweet little smile woke me up at 4:07am the morning of her birthday, I had to get up with her, get her some water, snuggle a little and cuddle in bed with her until she finally decided to go back to sleep. A year ago, she was born at 4:15am. I find that ironic.

Quinn is so happy.  She doesn't get cranky. If she's tired, she wants to be held. Happy as a clam, as long as she's held.  In true White child fashion, she has become a little hip monkey lately, but she's also very independent, loves to play and explore, and is content to watch and laugh at her siblings ongoing antics. Tonight, after dinner, she sat in her highchair, hand on her cheek as she watched Declan and Isabella play "ballet school" in the den, twirling, falling, giggling, and jumping. She watched and laughed, giggled and smiled.  Totally smitten with her brother and sister that love her dearly. 
On the morning of her birthday, they rushed into the room when she woke up.
"Quinn! You're one today! Happy Birthday Quinn! You're one now! Let me see you walk. You can walk all by yourself, and mommy, let's get her a big girl bed now because she's one!"
 Oh, we were so excited.

Quinn wasn't feeling well on her birthday, so we just hung out with my mom and Genivieve until the early afternoon when Gen had to go back to Norfolk.  Mom stayed for the day and we had a little home renovation session while the kids napped.  Just a side note: when my mom comes over on a random weekday, during the day, we can gaurantee a little rearranging, and freshening up is going to happen. I love those days.
Taylor, Kelly and Eleanor, Kate, and mom were here for dinner. We had an amazing dinner that night with all of Quinn's favorite foods.  Well, not really. Nothing served was a favorite food of hers. Mine, maybe. Her's, not so much. Not that I wasn't considering her, but she's pretty easy.  I'd say her favorite food is still not in the solid form, but she eats pretty much whatever we give her.  That night though, she was just not in the mood to eat.

                                       Girl's always looking for an excuse to wear a party dress

Not feeling the dinner tonight. Obviously.

I went back and forth on what kind of cake to make her.  I spent hours making Isabella's first birthday cake, and it wasn't even a full sized cake. It was just for her.  I made sure that it was "healthy" as far as cake goes, but still good enough that she'd like it. I didn't think it would take much since she hadn't had sweets for the first year of her life.  So that cake was not good.  She dug in, tasted a little and I'm pretty sure my masterpiece finished off the evening in the trash. But it made for good pictures....
Declan's first birthday cake was an ice cream cake. That boy had tasted sweet things before his birthday and he was a fan. So he had a full fledged ice cream cake, and enjoy it he did.
I figured ice cream would be good for Quinn. You know, July birthday and all.  So I got a strawberry sorbet and lemon gelato from Split Banana and felt confident in her eating that knowing at least what the ingredients were!  I made her a graham cracker crust and a homemade whipped cream topping.  Quinn's a huge fan of cold things, so I was sure she would love this mini cake.  But, as I said before, she was sick. So she licked a few tastes off of big sister's finger, took one or two small bites from the spoon, and moved on.  I should probably at least let her taste her leftovers...I'm sure she'd enjoy it now.

Oh yeah. I made an adult cake too.  Chocolate and coffee ice cream cake.  Can't forget about all those people that love this baby, right?

She pepped up during present time. I'm going to say it was a certain daddy and a certain instrument that got her going.  Quinn enjoys a good jam session. That is for sure.

                                                                  Pure bliss, no?

   Can anyone do it? Like, really succeed in taking a picture of 5 people (3 of whom are small). If  so, how? Please, please, tell me how?

She finished off her birthday evening waking up every. single. hour for the rest of the night, crying, yelling, belly flopping all over the bed. Poor baby was sick.  It was a hard, long night. But she seemed to feel better in the morning.

We prolonged the birthday celebration by then having dinner at Ryan's parent's. Quinn got another chance at a birthday cake and after singing she went full force for that cake plate, grabbed a handful and put it in her mouth before we could even finish laughing.  I have to say she's the first of our kids that actually took part in the smashing of the cake. 

Isabella and Quinn took a swim in the hot tub (Isabella's favorite thing to do) and finished off the night with some more sparklers outside. Declan had no part in the whole sparkler fun.  He is officially finished with sparklers and I don't blame him. Poor boy.

So, Quinn had a low key, family birthday and it was just her style.  I used to have a hard time considering one year olds, toddlers.  Quinn changed that for me.  Toddler, she is. In action, in behavior, in energy.  The baby gates on the steps are installed. Because now, there's a toddler in the house.  A sweet, full of hugs and kisses, friendly "I'll say "Hi" to every person I see...fifteen times," silly, cuddly, amazing little girl.

Quinn's birth day is still very fresh in my memory.  I remember the moments before, the moments during, and the moment that we met face to face for the first time.  I miss those moments. But I love these new ones all the same.

Quinn, you are so loved by so many.  Happy one year, sweet girl.