We Love Astrid: Astrid attends her first kid's birthday party

Our friends Becky & Michael have a daughter (Lilah) who is 6 months older than Astrid. We were invited to their home this weekend to celebrate Lilah's first birthday.

At one month old Lilah looked so tiny and fragile in my arms. At 6 months she had grown so much and was able to sit up on her own and hold her own bottle. At that time when I held her all she wanted to do was jump; an outcome of her love for the Jumperoo. Now at one she's already a proficient walker and gets around like a pro

Lilah had not one birthday cake, but two. Becky explains it like this, "the bakery where we bought the cake gives you a second small one so the birthday girl can dig in and make a mess for pictures without wrecking the cake to be shared with everyone else. Pretty cool concept, huh? :)" You learn something new everyday.

The cake on the left has a similar design as Lilah room which looks like a scene straight out of "A Bugs Life". Lilah is lucky to have her own personal designer (her daddy) to custom design/paint her bedroom. Michael was the Art Director for a Hollywood studio for many years (he now owns his own company) and his work has also appeared on "Friends" and "Six Feet Under".

Here we are.

I'm glad we got a photo of Astrid in this outfit since it's for a 6 month old and soon she'll have outgrown it.A quiet moment with Mommy.

The last time we were at Becky & Michael's house for a charity benefit Astrid was just fine with a room full of people talking and music, but Lilah being six month older was crying. Today however it was just the opposite. Lilah was just fine and Astrid was crying. It's reassuring to know that this is just another phase.

Uwe and I didn't know what was wrong at first. It was past her feeding time (so we know she was hungry) but she wasn't drinking from her bottle. At first we thought she was hot, so I removed some of her clothing. That didn't do the trick either so we realized it must be too much for her being inside with all the people. So we took her outside and it took awhile, but she finally finished her bottle.

It's strange how people can see that you're trying to console a baby and get her to stop crying and to drink from her bottle and yet they will try to have a normal conversation with you as if nothing is happening. I didn't want to be rude but had to get up and walk away several times. Here's a closeup of Astrid that Uwe took. Becky says you can see she has almond shaped eyes. I think you can only see it if you're looking for it. Astrid can still pass for a White baby hands down. But if you know she's a quarter Asian you can see a little something in her eyes. I think she'll definitely have exotic eyes. Patrick can't resist squeezing Astrid's chubby cheeks.A quiet moment with Daddy.I like this photo because you can see how blue Astrid's eyes are and she looks like she's deep in thought.Doesn't this look like it was taken by the Paparazzi with a long telephoto lens?Daddy and me time.You do this a lot when you have a kid. Take a walk with the kid when your kid is getting restless/fussy.Look at all the presents. Jokes were being made that the table might collapse under the weight of all of Lilah's birthday gifts. =)Here's the birthday girl (and her daddy, Michael) awake after her nap, dressed in her pink party dress.Look at those adorable pink shoes.Here's a photo of Becky holding Astrid. (Yes, I asked her to hold Astrid so I could have a photo for my blog. Shameless I know. But it is "Becky & Michael." I couldn't just have a photo of Michael. I had to have a photo of Becky as well.)

We've known each other since all of us were just dating our spouses. We celebrated each other's engagements and weddings and now children. Now look at us; married with children and party animals at 2 in the afternoon. (I have a photo of all of us from Becky & Michael's New Years 2001 party that I have to dig up. It would be funny to see how different we all look almost 5 years later.)Someone is tired and ready to go home.