Big girl!

Caroline is now a 1-year old. I'm not sure that she knows the significance of a birthday. I'm not sure that she even knows what "big girl" means. But, she definitely thinks she is capable of doing big girl things. (Tonight she all of a sudden decided she would go down the stairs backwards, and for never having done it before she mastered them speedily. It was quite amazing to watch and Bo and I joked that she must practice while we are asleep.) We had a little birthday party that was not so little at my mama's house. People said they felt like they were at a daycare. The chaos was worth every bit of having friends and family celebrate with us. I think it turned out to be a good time. Caroline and I were fashionable... I had burned my neck with my flat iron the day before and I looked like I had a hickey and Caroline got her hair cut by her daddy a few hours before the party. (Bo cuts his own hair and had practiced once (and only once) before on my hair; we both agreed we'd spend the money to get Caroline's cut next time....but at least her rat tail is gone.) Leading up to the big birthday Caroline tried her best to injure herself. Every time I turned around she was into something dangerous..... a razor, 2 seashells of perfect choking size already in her mouth, standing up turned around backwards leaning over the back of the highchair (thankfully, my dad caught her), and the worst... I found a pack of busted silica gel in her mouth. I was able to retrieve a good bit of the little silica pellets out of her mouth...that stuff says "do not eat" all over it, but yet they put it in children's shoe boxes??? Why do shoes need to be kept fresh or whatever? She was fine. My hands shook and my heart raced as usual. God gives parents (and grandparents) a supernatural ability to know just how long to let a child out of sight. It is an amazing thing.