First Birthday

Not sure how many people are still interested in this blog now that it will get a lot more mundane with daily life and annoying little baby stories that only parents really find all that funny. However, it's become a bit of a habit and a nice record keeper, so the blog lives!

The sleep strategy seems to be working, although it seems a little cruel to be keeping her awake in the afternoons, especially when her little head starts to bob and weave, desperately looking for a place to lay down. However, it has meant that she sleeps from about 9 until 6, with a few snorffles in the middle of the night that are easily resolved with a little patting. Thanks to this, the fatigue fog has lifted, and I can proudly say, that I haven't lost anything in the last 24 hours (I'm still looking for the clippers I lost on Saturday)!

This week's big events (other than a rather leaky diaper that proved to be quite the challenge for us new parent types) were Kiyomi's first birthday and a surprisingly easy trip to government offices to get a health card and SIN for the latest Ottawa resident. The former was an unexpected surprise, as we had been lead to believe that this can often be a hassle. My compliments to the Service Canada folks who were helpful and courteous, even though you can tell that something new (processing a SIN for an internationally adopted child) was outside the bureaucratic box. My advice to anyone else who has to do this, bring every piece of paper you have, and when in doubt innundate them with paper.

We also decided at the last minute to have a few folks over the celebrate Kiyomi's first birthday (if for no other reason than to have pictures), so a few friends who hadn't yet met her popped over for cake. We also got a fantastic phone call from cousin Mika, who sang Happy Birthday (or at least a portion of it) all by herself!

It was a very low-key affair, and more than anything else, a last minute excuse to introduce Kiyomi to a few friends. She had chocolate cake and was the life of the party (with her friend Ella) until she conked out because we hadn't let her sleep all afternoon! I fear we have a party-girl on our hands.

She also has been opening birthday gifts over the last few days from all sorts of people. It's an embarassment of riches, actually, but nice to know that we're not the only ones who are spoiling her. Of course, she generally seems more interested by the paper than what's inside, but she's learning.



She also made it out to her first ultimate game on Monday night, and seemed to at least fein interest in the game. Aunty Sue came to the game to do some side-line babysitting, which was most appreciated. Kiyomi seemed generally a little confused about why mommy and daddy would spend all that time running around a field chasing a frisbee.

We are also dealing with our first case of the sniffles - runny nose, congestion. Kohji, engineer at heart that he is, seems to be a big fan of the' snot sucker'. I will admit, he is much more proficient at it than I, so I'm happy to relinquish that particular bonding moment.