We did it! We kept Stella alive and mostly happy for an entire year. I tell you, in the early days, I wasn't sure the three of us would survive, but here we are, still chugging along as a family unit and enjoying Stella more each and every day.
I had plans for a sappy Stella retrospective slideshow complete with tinkly acoustic country soundtrack (The Dixie Chicks' Lullaby, which is worth a listen even if you aren't a fan of the genre, and I dare you to not to get at least a little sniffly while it's playing), but time got away from me, as it so often does when a screaming toddler insists on clinging to your person much of her waking hours. Oh yes, we have entered that joyful phase during which I no longer get to use the restroom without the company of a toilet-paper-unraveling, cabinet-opening, skull-bouncing-off-the-bathtub tasmanian devil. Unless I want to wait until the wee hours (ba dum ching!) to do my business, that is. Anyway, I'm still working on the slideshow, and perhaps I will be able to share it at some point before her second birthday.
As for the party? I knew from the start that I wanted to have a very low-key celebration, so we planned a tiny little barbecue and everyone seemed to have fun. Stella was her usual charming self and took full advantage of her extended audience, pulling her goofy faces and just being a giant ham. I think we have a future drama club member on our hands. The wonky cake, pictured above, is admittedly a little semi-homemade - that's right, I used boxed mixes and I don't care. I did make the buttercream frosting because there's nothing simpler and it tastes so much better than store-bought, and I lovingly cut all the tiny flowers from homemade marshmallow fondant with a tiny, antique canape cutter I inherited from my mom. The lopsided results belie the amount of work that actually went into the damn thing, but overall I was happy with it and everyone thought it looked pretty nice. It's just that it turned out so far from the picture that inspired me that it's almost comical. Ah well, I guess there's something to be said for that homemade look.
Besides, it tasted good.
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