A Few Pictures from Lilia's Birthday Party

Lilia turned one about 3 weeks ago, but I decided to have her birthday party in June when Cliff was GUARANTEED to be home. I think I have finally learned my lesson. NEVER plan on your husband being home over here. NEVER. By pushing back her party date a lot of our good friends had moved or were gone for the summer and Cliff got called back out anyway. Ok... lesson learned. On the bright side, we still had a good turnout and the weather was lovely for our FAERIE GARDEN TEA PARTY! This tea party was complete with faerie wings, delicious food, and lots of flowers and fun. I spent three nights making most of the food which included homemade tarts, Oreo truffles, tea sandwiches, cupcakes, two different kinds of cookies, a vegetable tray, and deviled eggs! (My mom was here to help with a lot of it too.) We also had cream puffs and some sandwich spirals. I think everything was a hit and it was worth the trouble. We had pink lemonade with frozen raspberries and we played "pin the faerie on the flower" and "I spy the faeries." We were so grateful to everyone that came and made Lilia's party so much fun!

Happy Happy Birthday (25th)..... to me.

Balloon from Nancy and Flowers from Robyn.
I love fresh flowers. If I wasn't so lazy or cheap I would have fresh flowers in my house every day.
A Lilia
This is what Cliff got me for my birthday. I've had my eye on this lazy susan since we arrived in Japan. I just think it is beautiful and I'm excited about pairing it with my china. When I picked a china pattern I went with a very simple design (it's actually called "Simply Anna" by Anna Weatherley) because I wanted to be able to mix and match in the future. My pattern is white with gold scalloped edges and the gold in this china will compliment what I already have.
I love all of the detail.
Isn't that gorgeous! Thank you Cliff!!!!
This is what Nancy got me :)
These pictures are actually from today. Lilia is 2 months old as of today! The doctors clocked her in at 12.5 lbs at her appt on Friday! She is in the 75% percentile for weight and the 50th for height. The doctor thought she looked fantastic. I guess she has caught up for having such a rocky start. She got her shots that day too. The nurses asked me if I was doing ok after they gave her the shots. I had to laugh. Not to sound like a bad mother or anything, but a couple of shots in the thighs after all she has been through? This was cake! She got more shots the week before when they had to give her precautionary antibiotics in the UCC.
If she wasn't 2 months old I would say that this was Lilia playing "coy"
Just look at those chubbola cheeks!
Aww!!


So my birthday...

The day started off... dreadfully. Lilia started crying at 4:30 am and continued on and off until 11:30 am. She wouldn't sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. We had to leave for Yokosuka at 11:30 so that I could see the dermatologist and she cried the whole way there too. While I was in the doctors office she was fine because the nurse offered to hold her while I had a mole removed, but as soon as we left she was back at it. I fed her before the appt and I must have changed her diaper like 5 times while we were there but she finally fell asleep long enough for me to get a little shopping done and get back on the road. I thought she would maybe sleep on the way back to Atsugi, but no such luck. She screamed on the ride home.
I had been planning to go out to dinner with my friends Chrissy and Crystal that night but after no sleep and Lilia's all day cry-a-thon I really wasn't in the mood. I had invited my neighbor and good friend Nancy to come along too and she came downstairs around 5 to hang out until Chrissy got there. I told her about my day and how I really didn't feel like dinner anymore and she told me that I needed to go and that she would watch Lilia for me.
Now, originally I was not planning on leaving Lilia with anyone until she was a few months older as I am a paranoid new mom and she has already given me quite a scare but on this particular evening I couldn't have been more willing or more grateful to let Nancy watch her. This is where my day got a million times better. Chrissy and I left for the O Club and when we got there there was a table set up for us and Crystal was waiting along with Robyn and a beautiful vase of flowers. Mari showed up a little later and we had a wonderful dinner. They topped off the surprise with a homemade cake by Courtney ( OIC's wife) and singing to me. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I wish I had brought my camera to dinner but I really wasn't expecting anything!

Two hours may not seem like very much time, but it felt wonderful to have a little break that night. I am so grateful to Nancy and I learned that leaving Lilia with someone is fine. I may even do it again sometime. It's been really hard with Cliff gone and having to go it alone. I have trouble asking for help and thats why I am grateful for friends that step in and help anyway. Anyway.... so I made it! I am officially a quarter of a century!!