Annabelle's First Birthday Party!!! Part I : The Hitch and The Cakes

Even though Annabelle won't technically be 1 year old until tomorrow.....wow I still can't believe how fast this first year has gone....but we'll save the sappy sentimental post for tomorrow. We decided to throw Annabelle's birthday party day before yesterday to ensure that anyone who wanted to come could. I had hoped it would go off without a hitch and for the most part it did. The only real issue came up when our family started to arrive at 12:00 pm on the dot. Now I set the time for the party to be between 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm, assuming that most people would show up around 12:30 pm. Normally our family runs a little late for gatherings and the friends we had coming had never been to our house, so I figured in time for them to find the place. Me and Paul left at about 11:45 to go to the bank and then get Annabelle's birthday cake and balloons. At about 12:15 pm my mom called to tell me that the 10 odd people that we had left at our apartment had more than doubled...This resulted in a mad dash from the bank to Hy-vee to get our custom cake and a set of 10 balloons. We finally get back to our apartment and it's a mad house! 23 +/- people to 7 chairs and a 3-4 person couch....there were a lot of people left standing or sitting on the floor. Thankfully, it didn't take long for us to get organized and from then on the party really did go on without a hitch! Only 2 of the expected 5 children showed up, but I really don't think there would have been the room for them even if they had, and Annabelle seemed to enjoy playing with her little friend from downstairs.

Now for the fun details!

We decided to go with a Yo Gabba Gabba theme for the party because it is one of the few tv shows that Annabelle will watch all the way through, and she just loves to dance to the songs. This is the custom birthday cake that we got at Hy-vee, I was very impressed with how it turned out especially considering it was only about $17.00. It's hard to see in photos but it had a gradient effect wherever two colors met that just looked amazing.

Happy 1st Birthday Annabelle

Here is Annabelle's special cake surrounded by cupcakes. We had bought some Yo Gabba Gabba candles about a week ago for the big cake but as you can see in the last photo there really wasn't any room for them, so we used them for this one.

And don't worry she wasn't as close to the flames as it looks in that photo! Of course she needed a little help blowing them out, but her Aunt Patti was happy to help!

We had bought this smaller cake hoping that Annabelle would demolish it, but she wasn't having any of that. 

We pressed her hand in the icing to motivate her but she was not happy about it!

In the end she was happy to be spoon fed the cake. 

However, when the icecream was brought out, she had no trouble at all picking it up and shoving it in her mouth....my daughter is so strange....

So this concludes Part I, of my birthday posts. Stayed tuned for Part II : The Presents.

Potential Negative Effects of Attachment Parenting

Now for the long awaited sequel to my  What is Attachment Parenting post. If you haven't read that post yet then go read it and come back....I'll wait.......

Did you read it? Okay now we can go on to the effects of AP. 

First off, I'd like to point out that AP is not so much a set of rules as it is suggestions. At the end of the day only you can decide what is best for your own child, and if you choose AP and there is something that you just don't agree with, don't do it. It's as simple as that

So anyways, I've been doing some research and it's actually pretty difficult to find hard evidence of what the long term effects of AP are. Most of the time the sources I found turned out to be opinion pieces, and those were so ridiculously biased that I won't pollute my blog by mentioning them by name for fear that I may actually provide an audience for them . They focus their opinions on the stereotypical over-the-top AP parent, i.e. hypochondriac, borderline Munchhausen Syndrome, total ignorance of their children's talents to encourage equality,and whatever other ungodly trends have hit the parenting world that I'm unaware of. None of which apply to me, and I still consider myself an AP parent. The source goes on to the selfish focus on a parent's own intimate needs over the comfort of their child, aka giving up marital relations in lieu of co-sleeping, thereby being completely unaccepting towards co-sleeping as a whole. As far as I know, there is nothing under AP that says that co-sleeping has to take place every single night. Obviously, parents need time together away from the child, that's what separate bedrooms and babysitters (for out of the home occasions) are for. 

I did find one source that managed to be professional about the whole thing. In the article: Can 'Attachment Parenting' be Harmful? , Dr. Peter Nieman mentions two potential negative effects of AP as seen by skeptics. The first and arguably more important of the two , is the potential for the child to be denied boundaries and in turn lack understanding in regards to the mother's eventual exhaustion. In other words, the child may become so reliant on the mother always being available that when the time inevitably comes that she isn't available the child, the child may suffer from anxiety.

The answer to this potential negative effect seems pretty obvious, I mean it's literally written above, "the potential for the child to be denied boundaries". Don't allow the potential denial of boundaries, set practical unwavering ones. Have a set schedule each day, and do your best to follow it. Obviously no one is perfect, and keeping a set schedule is easier said than done, but using a physical calendar or planner will definitely help.

The second potential negative effective that Nieman mentions, that he also refers to as anecdotal, or unreliable and based on opinion, is that on the mother specifically. The potential for fatigue, sleep deprivation, weakened immune system, depression,  and the potential for weight gain if the mother chooses to eat to deal with depression. Although Nieman says that "no definitive studies have confirmed that", it kind of just sounds like the typical first year parent problems that every mother and father go through regardless of their parenting style.

I intended to be non- biased with this post, but the few sources I could find were either too biased themselves to be taken seriously, or they listed potential negative effects and then went on undermine them. So I have a question for you readers today:

Do you have any negative experience with AP families? Have you even heard negative rumors of other AP families? Can you find a non biased source that shares proof of negative effects? Leave any answers as a comment below. 

This post ran a little long so I will write a separate one soon that will go over the reported positive effects of AP, and the effects I've seen personally on Annabelle.





Sources:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/ask-a-health-expert/can-attachment-parenting-be-harmful/article4101169/

Getting Annabelle's Ears Pierced!

So I've been busy over the last week or so, hence the lack of any new posts last week. Mostly me and Annabelle were running around with family, and getting the house all cleaned up in preparation for her big 1st birthday bash! I can't believe that in about 2 weeks I will be the proud mommy of a 1 year old little girl! Now onto the main point of this post, Annabelle got her ears pierced! 4 days ago we spent the day with Paul's mother (Grandma) and grandmother (GG). We went to the party store and picked up some  more decorations for the party and even found a first birthday candle with a cupcake on it! We ended the day by walking aimlessly around walmart for over 2 hours! When we finally decided it was time to go, we just happened to pass by the jewelry department. Grandma remembered that she had three watches that needed some touch-ups, and as we waited for the jeweler to finish with them, we thought what better time than to get Annabelle's ears pierced as well? We had to wait about 20 minutes, because at the time only one jeweler was available, and we didn't really want to have each ear pierced separately  so we waited for her co worker to come back from lunch. Here is Annabelle right before the piercing, she couldn't have been in a better mood shoving pepperonis in her mouth. The pepperonis were GG's but there was no chance of having any usable number left after Annabelle discovered how awesome they taste!

In lieu of the typical response of a baby getting their ears pierced, Annabelle screamed one time and that was it. No tears, no real fussing, she was totally happy a few seconds later when we reloaded her hands with pepperonis! We decided to go with amethyst butterflies, in honor of Annabelle's birth month, February. Here is how they looked later that night.

They are upside down in this photo but you can easily make out the shape of the butterfly. She managed to get a small scratch underneath during one of the earlier attempts to pierce her ears. In all it took about five attempts to get her to stay still long enough, while at the same time having both jewelers have their guns lined up. During one attempt the jeweler began to push out the earring and Annabelle jerked, hence the scratch lining up with the earring. All in all, Annabelle took the whole thing very well, and I almost regret not doing it sooner. They look so pretty on her, and she forgot about them so quickly that she hasn't messed with them at all. They even came with a matching child size necklace that she also wears happily without any problems. I did feel a little bad that my mom was somewhat upset that she wasn't able to do it, however there's always belly button rings later on LOL.

So that's what's new with Miss Annabelle, I will close with yet another shameless plug to her cuteness. Here is sleepy Annabelle!