Happy Birthday, Mirei!

Today is Mirei's first birthday.  Happy birthday Mirei!

Wami made a monkey cake and Mirei dug in.

It's been a fun first year.  The kids have grown so much.  In the last post, Mirei got her first tooth.  Within the next two weeks, she got 3 more for a total of 2 on top and 2 on the bottom.  Since then, nothing.  But the ones she has are getting amusingly big.

In addition to the growth of her teeth, there's been lots of physical and mental growth as well.  She started standing when Ye-ye and Na-na visited back in early October.  Then a few weeks later, she stopped until just a few days ago.  No walking yet.  She's just more interested in crawling still, I guess.  She still loves food.  Anything we're eating, she wants to know what it tastes like.

The real growth for Mirei has been the mental growth.  Compared to Taisei, she seems closer to him at 18 months.  She understands what's going on and has no problem letting us know her displeasure.  She copies everything Taisei does, to the point that's he's starting to get irritated by it already, particularly when he's engrossed in one of his crafts.  After showers, both kids get a coating of lotion applied.  Now, Mirei likes to get a little squirt on her hand and then proceed to apply it to Taisei's legs and body.  She likes to climb up on a seat by herself, have us push her in, and sit at the kid's table opposite of Taisei.  She'll then pretend to feed herself if she can get a hold of some utensils.  She also like to sit on her big brother's booster seat.  She'll sit there for several minutes just amusing herself.  Funny stuff.

Here are random other things about Mirei's first year that I don't want to forget.

With Mirei, I found that I, papa(!!), have the ability to get her to sleep.  She does this endearing thing where she hugs me as tight as she can with all four limbs and puts her head down on my shoulder.  When she's tired, she'll just stay in the position until she falls asleep and I can just put her in the crib.  Often, it's usually not that simple, but I feel like this little thing has been a little father and daughter bonding thing that I didn't have with Taisei, since he always needed a human pacifier - Mama.

Mirei's also not shy with strangers the way Taisei was.  At about 8 months, he wouldn't let anyone hold him but Mama, Papa, and a few select family members.  Ever since, Taisei's been slow to warm up to most people.  Mirei, although she recognizes and probably prefers her mama and papa, she doesn't object to very many people holding her.  She's friendly and smiles for people unless she missed a nap or something.

Right now she's a handful and it's hard to eat out and things like that, especially since she's so interested in food, but it's such a cute age that I wish we could freeze time and just enjoy her at this age for a few more years before she grows up and starts asking us to how to drive (like Taisei has on several occasions)!