Our darling Little Miss had her first birthday over the weekend!  She cried most of the day.  Whether her dad left or she had to take a nap or mom took the iPhone away from her, Miss Henley broke down in tears and–her latest achievement–flailing arms that just might slap you in the face.  Her theme song for the day went like this: “It’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I waaaant to!”

All crying aside, we had the most perfect birthday!  As you can see, she loved taking pictures with the chalkboard and her balloon.

She loves to throw her head back with a big “UGH” and then peek to make sure you’re smiling at her silliness.  She also throws her head back when you howl or when she’s having a tantrum.  The funny thing is that she’s always like her head held this way, in fact, she was like this in utero which is why she had to be born via surgery.

She’s turned into quite the energetic, opinionated, smart, talkative, lovable, teasing, dramatic, little beauty.

Most of her really dark brown hair fell out thanks to a horrible case of cradle cap and has been replaced by lighter brown hair with definite red undertones.  Her eyes are dark, not quite brown, blue, or green but a mix.  She has five teeth and loves when I brush them.  She’ll slurp green smoothies or apple sauce, eat chili, tacos, meat, or cheese, and drinks water.  Juice, milk, hot chocolate, or soda are promptly spit out–I’ve raised her well!  Oh and yes, she is still breastfeeding.  I’m surprised she still is since she is so independent in pretty much every way, but I’m okay with it.  We’re slowly weaning and working on a new sleeping schedule–apparently she is far too big to take two naps every day, but some days she’s okay with it.

Her favorite part about opening presents was looking all the colorful bags.  She loves to unload anything from anywhere and put it into another container and the bags were just waiting to be emptied.

She got clothes, money, books, an activity table, farm animals, and bath toys and she was excited about all of them!

We had a small party at our house with cupcakes and icecream for dessert.  My cupcake decorating leaves a little something to be desired.

And here she is again with the arched neck.  She really does this all day, every day.

Ooooh her candle!  Ty has been trying to get Henley to blow out matches in preparation for blowing out her birthday candle, but she’s been more interested in touching the flame than extinguishing it.  Grandma had to pull her hands away during “Happy Birthday.”

She started out daintily picking at the frosting of her cake.

Clapping for others as they ate.

And ended up offering to share once she was covered in chocolate.

Happy birthday, my little sweetie!

We had such a fun time at her party, but the aftermath was not good.  Henley really isn’t used to eating much sugar, I mean, I’ll give her cookies or icecream or sweets, but we don’t have them very often.  She ate about a third of her cupcake and threw up twice before bedtime.  Poor bug.  Next year may have to be an apple or carrot cake instead!