At right about this time, one year ago today, I was in the middle of a lightning quick 1.5 hour labor. It was fast, but intense. Painful is really the word I should use to describe it, but painful in a good way… if that makes sense, and if you’ve had med-free births, maybe that does make sense to you.
Leyna Lorelei was born on December 28th, 2011 2010 (I am seriously lacking braincells these days). She weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces. This is the first picture ever taken of her.. still purple from having the cord wrapped around her neck. The first thing I thought when I wrapped my hands around her tiny ribcage was, “CHUB!” She was born with rolls and had a thick layer of fat around her tummy already.
Today she is one year old. It caught me by surprise, this birthday of hers. The first year of Kendall’s life seemed to be much longer, more thought out. Hers has just happened without us having any say in it.
As much as I vowed to never let the timing of her birthday, falling right after the holidays, affect how we celebrate her, I’ve already had to go back on my word. It is just *really* hard to plan for a birthday party in the middle of all the holiday chaos.
So, her first birthday party is not today or even this month. We will have it at the end of January, giving everyone a little time to recover and me some time to plan.
Today has not been without celebration, though. I made her a snowy “rainbow” (more like tie-dye) cake last night, and this morning we had fun with a little smash cake photo shoot. I wish I could say this was her first taste of sugar, or even just cake, but she is a second-born, so…
Happy First Birthday to my little Leyna Bug! Hard to believe it’s been a year since I almost pooped her out on a toilet.
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25 comments
Happy birthday “little” Leyna! She certainly looks like a sweet little girl.
Happy Birthday Leyna!!!!
Happy birthday Leyna!!
what a cool cake…do u have the recipe?! If so, can you possibly email that to me.
Hey Trista! I just used boxed cake mix (white). Then I divided it into 6 bowls, died each bowl of batter a different color with food coloring, then poured half of each color in each cake pan. I bought 2 small round pans just for this. I just poured each color on top and in the center of the color before it. The frosting is just canned vanilla with Wilton sparkling sugar sprinkled on top (got it at Michaels, saw they have it at Target, too).
Happy Birthday Leyna! How much I have enjoyed watching you grow this first year, sweet girl!
Happy Happy Birthday Leyna!! Jill…that picture you have with her is amazing. It’s absolutely priceless. Coming from someone who has no pictures of my daughter after she was born (emergency birth) I hope you always treasure that one 🙂
I totally do cherish it. I’m glad my husband lucked out and managed to get something relatively in focus even though my camera was still very new to us then.
Happy birthday Leyna! How did you make that frosting?
It’s canned frosting that I sprinkled Wilton sparkling sugar on. I got it from Michaels but you can get it at Target, too, I think.
Oh OK. Thanks!
I’m so glad that I’ve known you this long plus some more. And it doesn’t seem like quite long enough! She’s ridiculously sweet. Love you all.
Happy Birfday Ley Ley!
happy bday to your little one!!! that cake is so cute!! top of it makes me crave rainbow strip candies lol!
My baby was due today but he decided that he wanted to ignore his eviction notice. I’ve been a daily reader for awhile now and I never connected the dots that Leyna’s birthday was the same as my due date! I read this entire post plus Leyna’s birth story parts 1 and 2. You had me laughing while at the same terrifying me since this is my first pregnancy and I don’t know what to expect. Just thought I’d share! More importantly–HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEYNA! 😀
Good luck for a speedy and smooth delivery, Jeana! Hope you manage to get a little sleep tonight 🙂
My little sister’s birthday is 12/28 and the year she turned 2, I swear my parents completely forgot her birthday. After the disastrous 2nd birthday, my parents started throwing a party for her on her 1/2 birthday in June. We still celebrate on June 28th every year!
Happy 1st birthday Leyna! I can’t believe it’s already been a year. The pictures came out great!
Can’t believe it’s been a year already. I remember stalking your twitter feed all of December waiting for the big tweet that she was here. Happy birthday, Leyna!
Happy Birthday Leyna! So cute!!
She has the cutest chubs though! Happy birthday, Lenya!! Great job on the cake, mama! 🙂
So, so cute. She’s looking more and more like you. Also? I LOVE the hairbow. I saw you liked that page on FB and immediately sent that link to my friend.
Aren’t they awesome bows?! I just ordered 2 more, including a personalized one for Valentines day.
Beautiful, gorgeous baby girl! Happy (belated) birthday. I stumbled across your blog via Lyndsay Stradtner’s fb page (re: your Love Light Session–so fun!), and was shocked to see you talking about a baby named Leyna, and you call her your Leyna Bug, no less! I’ve been my mama’s Leyna Bug and the ONLY Leyna I’d ever met in all of my 30 years until my best friend’s sister gave me a namesake a little while ago. I’ve had my name butchered mercilessly forever and ever (just this morning yet another person called me “Lee-nuh”–there’s a “Y” in there, people!!!), but I love my name and wouldn’t have it any other way. Good choice, mom and dad!
I’m definitely enjoying your blog so far. Please continue your inappropriate Elf on the Shelf thing next year–my husband and I had a ton of fun over here with “Bernie” after the kids went to sleep and had no idea there were so many other like-minded sick, sick individuals out there in the world.
P.S. Please make sure your girl gets a few things in life personalized with her name if you haven’t already. As a kid, it always sucked when my friends got their “Jennifer” and “Michael” pencils right off the rack, and I had to pick the generic “Superstar” one.
[…] hired Charlotte from The Paper Cupcake to design the invitations (which featured Leyna’s cake smash pictures that we took on her actual birthday, December 28th) and all the printables for the party. She […]