baby girl #2 is completely healthy! no extra chromosomes! and another piece of good news. as of last year, california pays for all genetic counseling and testing once someone qualifies. so i didn't even have to use my crappy insurance for the detailed ultrasound and amniocentesis.. it was paid for by the state. i guess california is trying to budget how much social work needs to be done after baby arrives? that's my guess.
warning: long and picture heavy post
thanks to everyone who helped out and came out to celebrate alison's 1st birthday! i have to admit i'm glad it's over because our apartment was becoming birthday party central. the night before the party, i heard one of our dogs playing with the balloons and popping a few but overall the preparations weren't nearly as stressful as i thought and i didn't have to sleep late since i had help from my sister and my husband. i felt so busy during the event so i didn't really get to socialize much. we had 55 adults, 13 kids, and 8 babies show up! more people than i expected considering it was a holiday weekend and a friday. since husband and i paid for this party ourselves, i tried to save money where it didn't count.
CENTERPIECES
the day before the party, i went to the L.A. Flower Mart and bought 10 bunches of 25 purple cezanne roses for centerpieces and round glass vases to go along. the 1st centerpiece took me an hour to strip the leaves and thorns, cut the stems, and arrange but after the 1st one, i was able to finish the remaining 9 centerpieces in 3 hours. total price for 10 centerpieces = $150!! savings of $850 rather than buying centerpieces.
VIDEO
i made a video slideshow using animoto (animoto.com) and my own videos. using animoto was awesome because all i had to do was upload the pictures and the program animates the photos to music and renders it for you. i paid $5 for the DVD quality AVI video download... bargain! i used our own video editing software to add in the small captions and splice in our home videos. the song is "all mine" by sarah vondehaar.
DOL TABLE
the fake rice cake towers are made of colored m&m's. total cost of the styrofoam and M&M's = $75. the korean letters say "1st birthday" and "alison." the 4'x6' banner was designed by my sister's friend and i printed it out at kinko's for $160. my husband blew up 75 balloons the day before and we tied them together to make flowers but if you can see, we only ended up using like 12 balloons. but over hiring balloon people, i think we saved several hundred $.
donated by my cousin who is a professional wedding cake designer. top layer is chocolate and served as the smash cake. alison needed a little help with the smash. cost = $0
here is alison in a hanbok. she hated changing clothes but once the hanbok was on, she didn't let it stop her from crawling to grab her fortune which was string = long life. it was both cute and funny to see her try to crawl with the hanbok on.
ENTERTAINMENT
we hired a face painter and balloon twister to keep the kids occupied. they were awesome! the company was called party face magic.
THE LOOT
we received a lot of much needed clothes! she even got her first true religion jeans. we received a ton of new toys too, she's going to be busy.
12 MONTH MILESTONES!
- said "mama" on her 1st birthday... i love it!
- clicks her tongue
- has 8 teeth (4 on top and 4 on bottom)
- first hospitalization =( for kawasaki disease but she's healthier now
- drinks through a straw
it's been a year since alison came into our lives. time flies but as i look back through all the pictures, she has really grown a lot. we've been through a lot this year.... we used to sleep her in the crib so she was head to toe along the short side, i used to wake up in the middle of the night just to check to see if she was breathing, we used to get excited when she bat a toy, we thought it was funny when she discovered her fist, we sleep-trained her, i cried when she first got eczema, she'd prefer not to be held, can do a sit-up, loves reading books, thinks it's funny when her dad shaves his face, super cautious, scared of loud noises, i could go on. most people say they are sad that they see their baby growing up so fast and although it's been a fast year, i can't wait to see what year 2 brings.
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