First Birthday

Molli sensed some excitement on the morning of her birthday, despite the fact that her slacker parents didn’t do a damn thing differently besides repeating a bunch of happy and excited phrases. She crawled crazily around the apartment, danced around her broom (that’s a story for another day), and played her favorite new game: open the drawer of her bureau, grab her clothes, and throw them on the floor.

I actually managed to get an action shot in which you can see a piece of clothing just having left her hands but not yet on the floor:

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon prepping for the party, which was held in the courtyard of our building. Here are a couple of pictures to try and illustrate what the terrace looked like once the party was underway:

If we use the convention that the umbrella, from a bird’s eye view, is the center of a clock, then the shot above was taken from about 5 o’clock. The next pictures is taken from 7 or 8 o’clock.

The next is taken from 10 o’clock.

Believe it or not, this is one of the only pictures in which the balloons and flags are visible for what they are, despite the fact that they were all over the place. (And you’ll notice there is one American flag, though curled beyond recognition in this photo, in about the center of the pic.)

Moving right along, here’s a close-up of the cake mormor made for the occassion:

(It doesn’t say “Molli Yar.” It says “Molli 1 Year” in Danish.)

Molli enjoyed her first birthday cake with less than the traditional recklessness, so this was the “messiest” she got with her cake.

The party put Molli in an awkward position, because both of her boyfriends showed up. First, of course, there’s Liam:

But here you can see Julius, her flame from last winter (he of the “biker dude and chick” photos when they couldn’t do much more than lie there and drool), butting in. And Liam backs off.

But it probably won’t affect Molli and Liam’s relationship in the long run: they’re apparently swingers.

There are lots more pictures of the party, but none that are especially good. Dozens of other cameras were in operation, however, so more may dribble in over the coming weeks.

After cleaning up most of the mess, we made sure to get pictures of Molli with each of her parents on this memorable day:

A not-so-good pic with daddy:

And a nicer one with mommy (you can see Molli beginning to crack here):

The sweetest picture of Molli I may have gotten all day is here:

And I like this one of Molli with her mommy because it’s nice to see pictures where everyone isn’t just staring at the damn camera.

I know certain people are wondering why Molli wasn’t wearing certain other clothes on her birthday. We did put the birthday outfit on, but she pretty much swam in it. And it was too hot for the “Fun to be One” shirt. However, the “Miss Firecracker” Fourth of July outfit fits her beautifully, and she’s wearing it today. (Napping as I write this, but wearing it nonetheless.)

Here’s a preview, and hopefully there’ll be a better shot this evening:

Sorry there aren’t more pictures, or better ones, but we were advised by multiple sources to let the day be about Molli’s and our enjoyment instead of the camera. It was good advice, so we followed it.

We do have analog video of a lot of the party, however, and the portion in which Molli gets her first cake and fails to blow out the candle will eventually be available on CD-ROM.

Thanks to everyone for the cards, gifts, and birthday wishes! Now it’s just 12 short months until Molli has the first birthday of her life in which she actually has some idea what’s going on.