2007. It was a Sunday. I remember being shocked about Allie being four years old already. I gave her a little cash register toy. That morning before church she was mad at me for something silly, and she kept saying "Ooh!" to me in the same way her mom says it when she's mad. I found it quite hilarious.
2006. My cousins Jesse, Peter, and Quin and I had all slept at my grandparents' house because we had been to a Fathers and Sons outing with my grandpa. When I woke up that morning, I think the others were already awake and were watching TV. I remember Grandpa being on the phone, probably to someone from the stake, and saying they were going to their "great-granddaughter's third birthday party." I thought about how it was actually her fourth birthday, because her first birthday was the day she was born, but that it was actually her third birthday party. Then we went to our house, where Allie had balloons, and everyone gave Allie her presents. Every time a new present was presented to her, she would gasp dramatically and put her hand over her mouth:
Among her presents were costume princess dresses: Belle, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. After she got her presents, we partook of a cake with princess figurines on it. Later that day we went to my aunt Peggy's apartment--I'm not sure why--and a lot of my cousins were there visiting. They were eating fried chicken. Allie wore one of her new costume dresses, and Peggy had everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Then we went home again and I was outside picking apricots. I went inside and asked David to take a picture of the June bug I found on one of the apricots:
2005. My mom was holding Allie on her lap while they were looking at pictures on the computer. Allie kept saying "Gawgo" as she looked at the pictures, which we found funny. I asked my mom if Allie used that word for her, but she said she used it for Ya-ping. We all found it funny. Then when she had to go to bed, I was holding her upstairs and told her to say goodnight to my dad and Ya-ping. She said, "Night Pop, night Gawgo." We laughed and knew that was her official name for Ya-ping. I made a blog post, "Not Auntie Ann but Mark on Ya-ping's new name," that evening. (It's possible that the events surrounding the name did not happen on her birthday, but the blog post definitely did.)
2004. My mom's friends Sam and Jackie and maybe Jake came to help celebrate Allie's birthday. Someone took a picture of her while David was filming, and as was characteristic for her at the time, when Allie saw the flash, she scrunched up her nose and sniffled. Jackie found that quite funny, not knowing that she did that every time a picture was taken, and David said he got it on camera. She got a toy that was a little fishbowl that played music. She would dance to its music. She also got a toy that was shaped like a fish and you put water in it and it was a little mat. Sam and Jackie brought Allie a big gift of a pink and purple tricycle that could be pushed, with little license plates that said "PRECIOUS" and "IAMLOVED." Jackie said that she wanted to get a red one but Sam wanted to get her the girly one. We had cake and ice cream; Allie made a mess with hers, as would be expected for a one-year-old. After that we might have gone downstairs to watch the video David had compiled of pictures of Allie and videos from her first year. That night, David said the family prayer, and he said we were thankful for Allie, and I was mildly surprised. I know at one point Susanne told my dad she didn't like the "PRECIOUS" license plate; it made her think of Gollum. This remark about "precious" might have been on a different day.
2003. My mom and Susanne went to the hospital in the morning. A little later my mom called me and said, "We're having a baby." I might have called my schoolfriend Houston Rowe that day--first I called the number he had put in my yearbook, but it was his dad's number and he gave me his mom's number. My grandparents later picked me up and took me to University Hospital. I wanted to be the first person besides my mom and my sister to hold my niece. Except for a friend who had stopped by earlier in the day, I was. Then my grandparents held her. There was talk about how the nurses were all surprised that she was the hydrocephalus baby, because she looked normal. I think at that point they knew that she wasn't swallowing properly but they didn't know why. I could be wrong though.
What a nice uncle!
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