1 is One!

Do y'all know that Tasha Tudor book?  1 is One?  It is beautiful, and I highly recommend it for any little ones in your lives; Honey gifted Ev with a copy at her baptism last spring.  But speaking of little ones and being one and all that, OUR little one turned ONE on Wednesday.  We can't believe it!  And man, did she celebrate in high style.

Ev kicked off her birthday week with a visit with Uncle Phil, who came in town on a work trip.  He brought along a fun gift for Evelyn from her cousins Piper and Lily and her Aunt Amy.  Evelyn had never opened a birthday present before, so thank goodness Phil helped her figure it out before her big day arrived....

 Do you see the slow progress depicted above?  Evelyn has tended be a very precise and fastidious present-opener thus far, neatly ripping off the tiniest shreds of paper possible to reveal the surprise within.  Though I open my presents in a very different manner, I love that she can savor the unwrapping process in this way.

 OK, this is what I'm talking about.  Rip that paper off, girlfriend.  Really get after it!  Can you spy the surprise waiting for Evelyn in the box?

Sometimes it's good to just hang out with your wrapping paper and take a breather.

Hooray!  A shopping cart!  Evelyn has since loaded and unloaded this cart approximately 6700 times.  She LOVES it (thanks Phil and Ames:)).

So after learning how to unwrap a present, Evelyn was all set for November 2.  Ev's daddy was in the midst of one of his busiest weeks of the year at school last week, staying late every night in rehearsal with his students to get ready for their performances this weekend (just for the record, he directed the kids in King Lear, and it was awesome).  Since Daddy wasn't going to be home for an evening birthday party, we did the only thing you can do in such a situation:  we had a 6 AM birthday party with just the three of us, complete with presents, cake for breakfast, singing, skyping with a godmother in China, and other general merriment.  (You'll have to forgive the lack of pictures; Dave and I were stumbling around in a 6-AM-stupor, coffee cups in hand, and having a hard time speaking clearly, let alone taking pictures of our sweet baby.  We do have a couple videos I will share later, though....)

Though eating/smearing-all-over birthday cake for breakfast while naked and wearing a party hat is pretty much the best thing ever, Ev followed this up with some serious play-time with all of her goodies (a bead maze, the shopping cart, lots of fun books, and a couple puzzles), and then threw on some clothes and went out on the town to meet up with her other godmother for lunch at a Mexican restaurant....

This is after Ev consumed 2 flour tortillas, some rice and beans, and a fair amount of my enchiladas.  I feel like this sometimes after too much Mexican food, too:)

After a nap, some cupcakes before dress rehearsal at school with Daddy and his cast of high-schoolers, and an evening visit from D, Grammie, and Grandaddy, our ONE-YEAR-OLD hit the hay.  What a glorious twelve months it has been, sweet thing!  We love, love, love having this little bit around, and can't wait to see what the next twelve months will hold....