First birthday

Hello, my name is Zarya and this is my first blog post, and today is my first birthday!  I had a party with all of my best friends from the missionary community here in Musoma.  It was a really fun party!  Mama and Baba made lots of nice food for the grown-ups, and they all got sodas, too.  The other kids and I got apple juice for our special drink - it was my very first time to try apple juice and I really liked it!  I chugged my entire sippy cup full of it down to the very last couple drops!  This is a picture of all the food for the big people and bigger kids: 

My real aunts live really far away in America and one is even in Guam, but my special Auntie Ronit lives in Musoma and came to my party!  She's the funnest EVER.  I mean most fun.  Isn't she pretty?

I got to get dressed up in brand-new clothes because it was my birthday.  They are size 24 months, but they were only a tiny bit too big.  Most of the clothes that fit me right now are size 18 months.  I guess they size baby clothes for normal-sized babies, not really tall ones like me.  Baba and Mama measured and weighed me this morning.  I was 31 inches (78.7) cm) tall, 21 pounds (9.5 kg), and my head (can you believe they even measured my head?!) was 18 inches (45.7 cm) around.  Mama checked online, whatever that means, and said that means I'm in the 93rd percentile for height, the 45th for weight, and my head is in the 65th.

I got to eat lunch on the back porch with the other kids.  The adults all had to sit inside.  I think my friends had more fun watching me eat than they did eating their own food!  Maybe they were jealous that I got special food that was different from theirs, because it had a lot of different vegetables and some legumes in it.  Because it was my birthday, Mama gave me extra carrots, since they are my favorite!

There are three of my best girlfriends.  They are all big girls, aged 7, 5, and 3, but they still like to play with me.  I'm one now, at least I finally have an age, so I'm almost a big girl!

I guess when it's your birthday, you get presents!  Who knew?!

Not only were there presents, but there was this weird new food called cake.  The presents were fun, but the cake was kind of scary, because they stuck a candle in it.  I cried a little bit.  Baba and Mama didn't help me eat it - they didn't break off little bites for me or anything!  I was stuck there on my own, this weird cupcake in front of me (at least they took the candle out), and I had no idea what to do.  Surely this purple thing wasn't food!  I poked it and some of it stuck to my finger, so I licked it clean, and then I discovered it tasted okay.  Sugar, I guess it's called.  I picked at it a bit after that and got some more frosting.  Baba seemed kind of sad that I didn't make a mess, but Mama seemed sort of relieved.  I don't know why they didn't just give me some more carrots.  Grown-ups, seriously.

As a final treat, I got to play with Miss Holly's watch.  She's married, so maybe I should call her Mrs. Holly.  Anyway, she has the nicest watch I've ever seen, and I want one just like it when I grow up.  I really want to have awesome curly hair like her when I grow up, too, but I don't think that's going to happen.  Miss Holly used to live next door me to me, and I'd visit her almost every day.  She moved away last week, though, and I'm kind of confused as to why I don't see her all the time now.  But all the same, she is still one of my bestest friends and her watch is my favorite.  And you should see her new house - it has lots of space to crawl around in, and pretty soon, I'm going to be walking and running all over it!  I took my first steps by myself the other day and might take more soon if I'm in the mood someday.  Oh, and Mama and Baba told me that I'll have new neighbors soon, Mr. George and Miss Amanda, so that'll be fun.  Miss Amanda was at my party today and I played with the envelope from the card she gave me more than any of the toys I got!

So now you know all about my very special first ever birthday party.  I wish you could have been there!  It was so wonderful - I had a really great time!  However, I had to take a nap at 2:00, so I had to tell everyone bye-bye while they were still in the living room having fun.  Being the first to leave your own birthday party is kind of lame, but Baba and Mama don't budge much on naptime.  And you know what?  I really was pretty tired after all that laughing and playing!  Birthdays are a lot of fun!