I cannot believe it has been a year since I met Lucy Kate face to face for the first time. Words cannot express how I felt at that moment. Oh, how I had been waiting (what seemed like forever) for this.
It has been such a fun year with this sweet baby! I have loved watching her grow and learn. Nathan and I say all of the time that our favorite thing is to watch her discover. It is just cute. Most nights, we will sit on the floor in our den and do nothing but watch her crawl around and go through things. I wouldn't trade the nights at home with my family this year for anything in the world. Part of watching her grow has been hard though. The day she first walked, I cried all night! It just hit me that it is such a short time in her life that she is meant for my arms-- that she wants me to hold her everywhere I go-- that she would prefer me over anything or anyone else. The day she walked was one of her first (with many more to come) declarations of independence from me. It was so special and sweet and yet so sad! Goodness-- Life is short! My prayer is that we honor God in the way we raise Lucy Kate and that we make the very most of the time that she is in our home- when she is dependent on us :) And hopefully (prayerfully), one day she will learn to transfer that dependence to the only One that will never let her down and the only One that is capable of fully providing everything she needs.
Since this is her birthday blog post- I do feel the need to talk about her actual birthday DAY and her birthday trip to the zoo :)
I really wanted to make her birthday super special and, even though she won't remember anything that happened, I wanted to make a special memory for Nathan and me. We made LK her favorite meals (biscuits then later spaghetti), and we took her to the zoo. It was such a good zoo day because it was chilly and cloudy (which all zoo goers know is the best time to go because that's when the animals are the most active). We had so much fun looking at all the exhibits! On a whim, I told Nathan we should just go ahead and eat lunch in the cafe since we were both starving and wanting a place to sit and relax for a minute before heading home. After we ordered our food, the manager of the cafe told us that as soon as we walked in the door, the male Gibbon noticed Nathan and had been going crazy! Then she told us to go stand by the big window. That's when the ape pounced on the glass at Nathan! It was so funny (though not to Lucy Kate), we decided to record it (if he would do it again). Sure enough, as many times as we stood there, that ape would go crazy and bang the window! We completely realize that these apes do this kind of thing. They are placed in that exhibit next to the cafe for a reason. But we were fortunate enough to capture it on video! We had no clue that the video would get as much attention as it did. I still cannot believe it! As of today, this video has 2.2 million views on Youtube, and it has been featured on MANY national TV shows, newspapers, and internet channels. I was really hoping to make it to Ellen-- still holding out hope :/
I'm so glad all of that happened on Lucy Kate's birthday-- what a fun story we will have for her in a few years!!!
Lastly, I do have to mention her big birthday bash! I decided to do a sweet shoppe theme. I had so much fun shopping for it and being crafty; although, I will say, I did not come up with the crafty ideas! Here are a few pictures from that fun day :) Pictures are a little out of order...
