Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

Last Wednesday, July 26, we celebrated Kaiya's first birthday and our survival of the first year of parenthood by collecting my parents from the airport and going to Chili's for dinner. It was and still is so hard to believe an entire year has passed.

My friend's son, Ian, put into words exactly what Andrej and I have been thinking lately. As Ian entered the room where we were, he looked strangely at Kaiya as she stood in the middle of the room playing with a toy. He turned to his mom and asked, "Where is Baby Kaiya?" His mom, understanding why he would be surprised to see Baby Kaiya standing up all by herself, explained, "That is Baby Kaiya. She just isn't a baby anymore." Satisfied with her answer, he looked at Kaiya and simply said, "Oh."

I don't think a year in my life has ever gone by so fast. Where did it go? It has me asking just like Ian, "Where is Baby Kaiya?" It's hard to believe that just a little over a year ago our lives changed in such an incredibly wonderful way. No book I read or advice I was given prepared me for all that I experienced throughout last year. It was definitely the most difficult challenge I have ever faced and by far the greatest and most rewarding. I was stretched and changed in ways I never thought possible. I learned things about myself (good and bad), about Andrej (good and bad) and of course about this little person God brought into our lives (good and bad). I learned how to nourish her, comfort her, and care for her. Most of all, I learned just how deep love can actually go. I love my family. I love my friends. I desperately love Andrej. But, the love I feel for Kaiya is unbelievable. I think it must be the closest I can get to tangibly understanding how much God loves me. It's deep.

No first birthday is complete without a celebration so on Saturday we celebrated Kaiya turning 1 with my parents, our house church and my girls' small group. It was a lot of fun and we are so thankful to everyone for making the day very special. Especially thankful for Eric and Brenda for letting us crash their house (complete with air conditioning and a grill) and to Brenda for helping me make the party invitations and of course the adorable bear cake. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, cake and homemade ice cream and watched Kaiya tear into her gifts.

Kaiya and her birthday cake was a bit disappointing as I had imagined her smashing it, getting icing all over her face, smearing it in her hair and of course actually eating some of it. No, not Little Miss Kaiya! She wouldn't even try it. She did stick her hands in and mush it a little, but every time we coaxed and tried to get her to take a bite she would shake her head back and forth saying no. If you don't believe me, then see it for yourself here. I was a bit disappointed, but Andrej put a good spin on it saying that everyone has pictures and a video of their baby with cake all over their face and we have pictures and a video of our baby refusing to even taste her yummy cake. Oh well, at least it wasn't hard to clean her up for present time!

In the gift department, Kaiya cleaned house. Prior to the party she had already received money, swimming lessons, books, a swing set, a sand box, clothes, a wooden puzzle and a bear-in-the-box to name a few and at the party she got an adorable robe and stuffed bunny (which she promptly called a bear), books, CDs, a tractor (for pushing sand in the sandbox…Poppa couldn't resist), a Little People Doll House and Little People Farm Animals set. Whew! We are going to have to get another toy shelf just to house all of the new things. It was a fun day and I know Kaiya thoroughly enjoyed herself, even if birthday cake wasn't her thing. Enjoy all of the pictures and videos!