Chie

I can’t believe it’s already been a year! Kiko is certainly not a baby anymore, one day I woke up and she is a toddler. I’ll wake up tomorrow and she will be leaving for college.

Prepping for her birthday party was a lot of fun. I got a lot of inspirations from sites like the sweetest occasions and Spearmint Baby (my prego photo was featured there by the way!). The theme was “Pink and Piggy”, and I saved money by making a lot by hand: piggy pinata, pink cupcakes with DIY flag toppers, pink balloons and pink paper ribbon streamers (both bought from 100 yen shop), party favors (I made the bags for the candies using my scraps), and paper cup labels. Most of the food, save the cupcakes and cheese cakes were bought at Costco, so that it I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with preparations 🙂 My friend Kaitlyn, kindly sent me the pretty pink dress from baby Gap that was perfect for her party.

I was hoping for a bright sunny day, but unfortunately the day of the party was very cold, rainy and windy. So, some people could not make it because of the weather, but we still had plenty of people and were able to have a great time.

I must say that this past year was the best year of my life (to date, except for the delivery, which was beyond painful!!).  The joy Kiko has brought to both Andy and me  has been so unexpected. I mean, I was looking forward to her arrival as during pregnancy, but I didn’t really know what it was like to be a mother until she started to exist. She brings out more emotion in me than I thought possible. I laugh and smile with the small things Kiko does, but at the same times she makes me angry or frustrated when she is bad. She is able to bring my emotions to peaks and valleys in just a moments time I really enjoy seeing her grow and change. I’m really blessed to have a supportive husband and parents, especially my mom. Without them I am not sure if I’d have survived the first year with my sanity in tact!

Anyway, some of my friends have already begun asking “when is baby 2 coming?”. For baby #2, we are hoping to adopt. Andy and I have talked about adoption for as long as I can remember. We both want biological kids and adopted ones. We’ve been exploring different options for adoptions, and hopefully it won’t be too long until the baby #2 will come to us. More to come!