Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Our baby is 1!

I'll admit that it feels a bit unreal. Even though Terah has been toddling about for 2 months now, jabbering, developing a clear sense of her likes and dislikes, eating more and nursing less, and in general becoming a real little person, I'm still having a hard time believing that she is now a whole year old. The year felt like an entire (long) year in many ways, and in other ways I wonder where it went. There have been many surprises and the roller coaster ride of life has felt particularly full of highs and lows for me. I definitely would have thought I'd be sleeping a lot more by now, which probably would greatly impact the lowness of the lows I just mentioned. I've noted (maybe even in this space) that I often feel a mix of feeling overjoyed and overwhelmed on any given day.

For now, I'll focus on today, which had a high dose of being overjoyed. Being the fourth daughter in our home, Terah really didn't need any material things for her birthday (as it was, she got a few presents from her sisters which were fun to open and play with or share her new snacks). I decided that my present would be to try to follow her schedule for the day rather than work to have her follow mine. I attempted to be unproductive (which for those of you that know me, you can imagine this was no small thing for me). It helped a lot to have Mom around this week, as our laundry still got done today and dishes from multiple meals got washed before I ever got to them. Oh, and Kali made supper (a delicious meal she thought Terah would love - and she did).

I will admit that I did sneak in a little sweeping, some cooking, a round or two of dish washing and other puttering. But I also had lots of fun Terah times, including meandering around the yard snacking on raspberries, tomatoes and persimmons while we looked at flowers and chickens. Then we played with her big sisters at the swingset for awhile - on what was a gorgeous fall day! In the morning Terah joined all of us in the root field for a bit where we were planting garlic. She "helped" by handing me cloves to plant and then occasionally harvesting them (many months prematurely). I'm so eager for more family gardening times again - it's coming!

Since I have a feeling she will likely soon wish for my attention to be diverted from writing about her birthday, to ending her birthday with her, I'll include a sampling of pictures from her special day for you to enjoy with brief captions. It was a good day, made most special by being at home together and letting her enjoy all the simple pleasures that fill our days. We are so glad she is a part of our family (and even if her addition to our family hadn't made it feel complete - which it has - we'd be out of our minds to think we could handle any more complexity around here)!

...A long break and now Terah is sacked out so I should follow. First a few photos:
Getting ready for her first excursion outside. Hats are so interesting, but not so much for their practical qualities of keeping the sun out of our eyes or heads warm. Mostly for taking on and off!
While Alida has clearly gotten her Grandma Myers' love of puzzles, Terah shares the love of flowers (except I don't often see my Mom rip them apart). 
She was very sweet letting me know when she had more cloves to hand to me to plant. I love how much she loves the outdoors (except when I really need her to be willing to come inside with me). 
A birthday visit from Buttercup and practicing being gentle with Kali's pet hen.
A nap has happened and lunch and now off for the second stint of outdoor adventures. This time ready to fill her basket with some of the mediocre end of season tomatoes.
She doesn't quite yet get that green ones aren't nearly as tasty as red. She might have been catching on towards the end of our picking.
The tomatoes pale in comparison to the few white raspberries that remain. Those she loves!
She was not content to play with the many many little stones around Nora's garden - she wanted the big one covering the hole of course! She really was milking the "birthday card" for all it was worth today - she seemed to know she was going to be able to do things she might not normally get away with. She doesn't miss much!
She went from being very frightened of swinging to really liking it (if we don't go too high). Today she really enjoyed when I would give Alida big pushes.
A very happy part of her birthday was time with Grandma. Maybe the only thing that might have made it better would have been if Grandpa had also been here, but he'll be back tomorrow!
Her birthday meal: roasted butternut, mashed potatoes, a bear pea Indian dish and fresh homemade ricotta. She approved!
And presents for dessert - including her own box of organic o's...
...which she loved but almost loved as much as anything feeding them to others (especially Alida who tried to get her mouth the closest as often as possible).
p.s. An update on our sweet potato and corn harvests, as well as more on the garlic planting will have to wait for another time. And while this blog post focused on celebrations, my heart has been heavy this week with many things close to home and farther away. For those for whom Terah videos provide a bright spot in the day, I'll try to include a cute video or two as well whenever I next carve out time...

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