could it be?

One year already?

On Friday, Eleanor turned one. I think of first birthdays as a celebration of mother AND baby. We made it! All the sleepless nights, the baby illnesses (and this baby girl has had her fair share of that), the ever-changing habits. Plus the memory of labor and delivery is not so distant, so a first birthday is a remembrance of that glorious yet rough day when this sweet baby entered the world. All that to say, we celebrated, but we both enjoyed a few treats.

She enjoyed some skinny chocolate (homemade coconut oil/cocoa powder chocolate) and strawberries for breakfast

Eleanor is following in the footsteps of Thomas and Adeline, and has spent the last few months discovering all her food sensitivities. Some of them are already losing strength (she used to throw up within minutes of eating a banana, but she ate half a banana yesterday...big victory!) but her big ones right now are eggs and dairy. So finding a cake she could eat was tricky. It is amazing how much the world of food allergies/sensitives has opened up in the last few years. Adeline couldn't eat wheat without breaking out in a blistering rash, so this is her first birthday picture:

Who needs cake? How about ice cream?

 But now there are all sorts of allergy-friendly recipes out there, so we tried this Ooey Gooey Butter Cake from the Spunky Coconut. I think I spread it too thin, so it was more like a cookie bar, but she loved it, and it made this mama's heart glad! It is dairy, grain, sugar, and egg free, so we could both eat it. I'd make it again, only in a smaller pan.

Not happy to have her hands held back from that cake while we took the time to sing a round of Happy Birthday. Don't cross a one year old!

Fortunately, all the angst was soon forgotten, and cake enjoyed.

Happy Birthday to the girl who makes our hearts sing! I really do think that having babies- while physically harder with age- only gets sweeter as the years go by. You start to realize how fleeting these days are, and the harder parts seem less of an inconvenience (although they don't go away!). Plus, now we have a whole group of people to enjoy her baby antics. We love you, Eleanor!