One!

One year ago yesterday, Neal and I welcomed an amazing, beautiful, funny little girl into our lives.

On the one hand, it blows my mind that a year has already gone by, that so many changes have taken place. But on the other hand, it feels like Claire has always been a part of our lives, and it’s hard to remember what life was like before.

We were planning to have a medium-size birthday bash here for Claire, having invited a few close friends and family. As it turned out, it ended up being a party consisting of me, Neal, Claire, and my in-laws who had driven down from Saint John for the long weekend. Not surprisingly, Claire came down with a cold not long after starting daycare; in fact, I think she caught it during the orientation week. Possibly thanks to her (gross) habit of smooshing her boogers into her eyes, she developed an eye infection. We suspected something was going on a couple of days before, but we were hoping that the crusties fusing her eyelashes shut were just a combination of what everyone calls “sleep” and her eyes running a bit more due to the cold. But on Saturday morning, one of her eyes was puffy and slightly swollen.

I called 811 and spoke with a registered nurse. She told me we could treat her at home for now, unless the condition worsened, by using Polysporin eye drops. I don’t think it was pink eye, because her eyeball wasn’t pink or red at all, but rather a generic eye infection. Thankfully, the eye drops cleared up the pus within a day; as is usual for antibiotics – including the over-the-counter types – we will continue the treatment for 7-10 days.

It was disappointing to cancel the party, but for one thing, it’s not like Claire knew about anything. If this had to happen any year, this was probably a good one. For another, we celebrated anyway by hanging up some decorations, dressing Claire in a fancy dress she got at Christmas from her Aunt Carolyn, and eating the cake I had baked and decorated the day before.

Peek-a-boo!

Opening presents!

My big, happy girl

Family photo!

I figured that since Claire’s birthday fell on Easter weekend this year, a bunny cake was called for.

Cake!