Miss Personality

Although it has been 12 months in the making, it's safe to say that Olivia's personality is clearly established. The conclusion: Charm City Daddy and I have created a monster.

With that said, we have officially entered one of my favorite ages/phases of development.

At this point the little girl has clear favorites and preferences.  I would say her two favorite things in this world (other than her mama, of course) are bananas "Nanna!" and her toothbrush.

The love affair with bananas started as a breakfast routine and now is an all day, everyday request. She gets supplemented with banana puffs, and gerber banana cookies, otherwise we would easily need a banana tree in our backyard to fulfill her 2 bunch a week habit. In fact, daddy ran to the store this morning to get more bananas b/c that damn warehouse mouse on Disney had a banana and that was all it took. "Nanna, nanna, nanna!"

Daddy also made the mistake of giving her ice cream today--and she threw a FIT when I had to physically remove her from the room (kicking and screaming) to keep her from begging for more (although I can't blame her it was sooo good).  We gave her some "Nanna" yogurt instead.

Other things she LOVES: sleep (a champion napper. a 3-hour and a 2-hour nap today, for example) the Eric Carle board books, specifically Brown Bear  and Head to Toe.  I must admit I was one of those skeptics about those books but I was all wrong. Many thanks to our friends who knew better than us. 

You can find her cheering herself on around the house, whether she is successfully putting her purse over her shoulder, closing doors, stacking rings, or sorting shape. You just hear a random "Yaaay" from a distant room and you know she figured something out. Here she is organizing daddy's shoes with her purse in tow.

Funny but true story, along with the delight of closing doors comes the danger of closing little fingers in doors. Last week Olivia closed her little fingers in her bedroom door as she was closing it, but managed to wedge her fingers out while crying wailing and still motioning a clap saying "yaaaaay" in full fledged tears. Funniest moment of the week by far.  And in this phase it's only getting better. 

Just Like That.

And just like that...I started my grad school program last Thursday and by the end of my first class I decided this wasn't the program for me. Just like that.

What does this have to do with being Charm City Mama, you ask? Well you become a new parent, balance career and home and then decide to throw grad school in the mix within the first year of your balancing act and see how confident you feel. I've told myself that any time invested in school (away from my family) has to be totally worth it to me (financially and personally). I've decided it's the right thing to do for my career. It's a good example for my family, although Charm City Daddy has enough degrees for both of us.I want it and there is no time like the present.

If you didn't know, I work at a university. I love it, btw. One thing working at a university and in academia does, it either gives you or further exacerbates a thirst for knowledge. That combined with a free tuition perk is a fantastic combination. AND in most cases your studies aren't limited to your home institution. You have a choice of any program offered in a system of universities.

Because I was willing to take a few calculated risks, I have been given some incredible, early career opportunities in the poltical arena that have accelerated my career path. Now with my position in higher education,  I consider myself in the development phase of my career where I need to hone my skills.

Like most working professionals, my graduate program needs and expectations are pretty specific and practical. "Show me how to do/think x, y, z, thanks bye." Unfortunately after further inspection of the graduate program in which I was recently admitted I realized it would be too broad and too theoretical to be beneficial to my immediate career needs. It really hit home when each of the students in my class began to do their introductions in my first class. Many had not yet started their career or were making a career shift. Neither apply to me.

Luckily there are several top-notch options for my area of interest in the DC area---political, strategic, crisis communications. Even better, I've found two that are fully online and/or can be combined with an MBA track.

So, just like that, all hope is not lost. Now back to the application process!

The First Birthday Party

It has actually taken me one week to fully rest and recover to even be able to do this recap. Yowzah.

Although my wonderful mama (Charm City Grandma) is a champ and started helping me get ready for the party several weeks in advance, we were both overwhelmed and exhausted the day before and the day of the party. The next thing we knew people started showing up and we hadn't set up the food, tables, and we were still in our work clothes. In about 30 minutes, with the help of a few of my good friends that arrived early (I have the BEST friends), the place set up and we did our quick changes into decent attire. Here's the main spread in the dining room...

Pictured: My homemade cupcakes, pig-in-the blankets, DIY tissue poms (leopard), and a hot dog/hamburger spread.

I was still running around most of the time making sure the essentials were out, so the pictures are lacking with hardly any close ups--sorry about that. I was the crazy first-time, first birthday mom trying to do it all and telling myself you have to put in the hard work for at least one of your kid's parties with all of the homemade mom touches. It is your rightful baptism as a mom. I told myself this, so that I won't feel guilty about taking the easy road next time.  You know like taking the kids to the zoo or Chuck E. Cheese and you let the staff do all the work---yeah---like that. But my fondest childhood birthday memories were the ones at home that my mom organized and I can't help wanting to do the same for my family.

I also found a very reasonable petting zoo for a steal! I am so proud. The animals were a hit and the operators were professional and very permissive with the children. I highly recommend if you live in the area. We had goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and bunnies.

I am also proud of the adorable felt animal party hats my mom and I found at Michael's craft store on clearance for $2.99! The hats were appreciated by adults and kids alike.

Are you looking for what I promised to reveal that I actually sewed myself? Well, I ended up just assisting (cut, pinned and partially sewed) my mom in the construction of a table runner which cannot be seen in any photo. Except for the one close up I took of my imperfectly perfect cupcakes. Look for the green jungle looking runnner! 

Also here's another DIY tissue pom I made..zebra!

Also the tablecloths for the the outdoor tables were made by good old Charm City Grandma. We hope to use them for years to come as my mom made a a similar set of tablecloths with cloth napkins for my older sister when we were kids and they appeared at all of our birthday parties.

We sang happy birthday twice b/c daddy was lingering around the house and I realized this and had to stop everyone mid-song and wait for daddy to come into the room to witness the magic/confusion of Olivia enjoying hearing everyone in the room sing her name. 

And finally, what the first birthday is all about...eating the cake! Olivia wasted no time at all and devoured half of a giant cupcake I made before daddy confiscated it. 

So we started here...

Then daddy tried to keep it from getting too out of hand...

But it didn't take long before it got to here (complete with icing in hair).

 

Olivia actually had to take a nap that extended through the first hour of the party b/c of all of the excitement of visiting cousins and people setting up before the party.

For me it was a power-packed three hours. One thing I've learned about myself as a hostess, I'm terrible at delegating tasks b/c I want to retain all control until the last-minute when I give up caring or finally realize there are many things that others can and want to help with. I never get to socialize as much as I would like when I host parties and I am going to make a better effort to do less during my parties so I can enjoy myself more. Charm City Daddy always enjoys himself. Other than that--I wouldn't change a thing. Yay! So glad we survived! Happy Birthday Olivia!