Almost A Year!

So, Jane's birthday is only a few days away! She is going to be a year old! It's amazing when look back at Alice's first year and compare it to Jane's first year. There are so many similarities and differences that it is mind boggling. They both have the same 'look'. That look being that they look identical to me as a child. It's almost as if I have literally cloned them - but I will save that for a different blog entry.

I'm surprised that I don't really have a plan for her birthday party. I know what I am going to do in terms of presents and I know I am making her cupcakes instead of a cake, but I really don't have anything planned as for time, theme, or anything like that. She's obviously going to have two different parties. One with Mike and his family and one with myself and my family. Mike and I are going to try to get some pictures of the four of us together for Jane's sake - it's only fair she have a chance to celebrate with the two of us and her sister all together, if only for a half hour.

Her birthday is falling on a Saturday this year. Normally Saturdays mean I have her automatically. Mike usually films weddings on Saturdays. This is actually going to be the first Saturday he has had off in months, so I have told him that he can have her birthday party on her birthday and that I will do the Sunday.

Shopping for her birthday presents was a lot of fun. I knew exactly what I wanted to get her. It's this bilingual learning table by Leapfrog. I was also going to pick up this Furreal friends dog toy. Jane is obsessed with dogs. Her first word was dog - though she says "dada" or "dowee". She loves playing with Alice's "Go-Go the Walking Dog" toy - she will crawl up to it, bite/kiss its nose, and pat it on the head. So I decided I would get her Furreal Friends "Cookie" a dog that responds to touch and sound and plays with a chew toy but it much softer than Go-Go. It's a toy both Alice and Jane can share as well, so Alice doesn't feel left out.

I had known that I was going to be buying these things for Jane for a few weeks now. I saw some commercials for Cookie and I knew about the bilingual learning table from previous trips to ToysRUs. It seemed almost like a sign when I saw the sale flyer this week and saw that both items were on sale. Cookie was on normal 20% off sale but the table was on a two day 50% off sale that was only available Saturday and Sunday. We almost didn't get the table, thanks to the sale.

Because the table was on the two day sale, the store only had so many they could sell during each day of the sale. By the time I had made it to ToysRUs with the girls, the tables for Saturday had been sold out. I asked a sales lady if there were any left and she said there weren't. I knew it really meant that there were just none left for Saturday. I was fine with that and was going to plan on showing up first thing Sunday morning to get it...luckily I had Alice with me. As we were walking away she said "I guess Jane's not getting a birthday present, right mama?" (Oh, the way kids think) The sales lady heard this and told us to wait a minute. She went to the back and brought out the 'girl' colour one for us (I'm not going to get started on how much boy and girl coloured toys get me going in this entry, so I'm just gonna keep moving on with the story.) I thanked the sales lady profusely and we went home with the table and Cookie in tow. Very excited.

I still have to buy some wrapping paper, vegetable oil, a disposable camera (lost my camera and gave Mike the DSLR), and pick out some birthday clothes, but I have a few more days to grab everything. It's bittersweet to see my girlies growing up so fast. I love every stage of their development. Alice is making leaps and bounds in school - I plan on that being my next entry. Hopefully fit that in before the birthday.

I really don't know how to sign off from this blog post. It's not like my YouTube where I cna blow a kiss and be done with it. Hmmm.