Phoebe's First Birthday

It's been a year since our baby girl was born.  Our last child's first birthday - that made my heart ache a little bit, but we did have such a good day and Phoebe was so delighted with all the birthday fuss.  She's spunky, that girl, and she was not overwhelmed by all the singing, crackling paper, shiny toys, loved ones, and cake (with decaf coffee and ice cream, of course, because Phoebe dearly loves to eat what the grownups are eating).

I was very proud of the cake.  It was banana chiffon cake because Phoebe loves bananas, and I put a peanut butter/butterscotch filling between the layers, and iced the whole thing with Italian meringue.  Then I made just a wee batch of pink confectioners sugar icing and piped little florets.  I was so pleased with the pretty, yet classy, yet slightly lopsided-homemade look.  It was delicious, too, especially with neapolitan ice cream.

I did not want to spend Phoebe's birthday making food and cleaning house, so I started working ahead more than a week in advance of her birthday.  I planned the light supper menu as soon as I sent out invitations, and that way, I could start planning.  I bought the ice cream probably 2 weeks before her birthday (and hid it in the deep freeze).  I made the cake layers almost a week before, and froze them, triple-wrapped.  The light supper was French lentil salad, homemade French bread, and cream of tomato soup.  The salad was made the day before.  All I needed to do on Phoebe's birthday proper was make bread and soup, assemble the cake, and set the table.  Success!  I still had energy and good humor left for the birthday party!

Phoebe loves books, although she generally prefers to look at them herself rather than being read to.  She loves to drop her baby while I'm changing her diaper, making little chuckle-whimpers which is the baby crying, and then I imitate a baby crying which makes her grin all over her face, and when I return the baby to her, she spanks it soundly with her hand to comfort it.  When a phone rings or a timer goes off, she says "oh! oh! oh!" in the manner of an alert until we respond - we're not sure if she's trying to say "phone" or just going on high alert the way the rest of seem to do when there's beeping.  You see we are so highly entertained by her, and she is just a dear.