By my accounting, Chickadee has two last “first holidays” to celebrate before she turns one. They’re not even real holidays, like Easter (she was just under two and a half weeks old for her first Easter, so she was especially tiny for that “first!”), or Christmas, but celebratory days, just the same.

In less than a week, Chickadee will experience her first Valentine’s Day. Normally, this day is barely even on my radar, but I decided that this would be a special Valentine’s Day for two reasons. First, I agreed to prepare a special Valentine’s Day tea party for my children, which they’re very excited about. To be honest, I’m pretty excited about it, too! Second, Valentine’s Day happens to be on a Thursday this year, which is Chickadee’s regularly scheduled picture day, as she was born on a Thursday. Since I knew I’d be taking her weekly picture anyway, I figured this would be an appropriate way to mark one of her last first holidays:

The other special day she’ll get to celebrate for the first time is St. Patrick’s Day. This probably sounds even stranger than celebrating Valentine’s Day, but St. Patrick’s Day is one of my five favorite holidays every year (yes, I have a list). Yes, it’s right up there with Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day. To be honest, I’m not sure where it falls on my list of five, but it could rank as high as favorite holiday number three…and I’m not even Irish! I love it anyway, though, and always make a big deal out of it at our house. So, of course, when I saw this on sale, I knew Chickadee “needed” it:

You might notice that both of these outfits reference Daddy instead of the long-suffering Mommy. I’ve made my peace with it…after all, she insisted on saying Dada, and only Dada, for several months before she ever uttered Mama. It seems fitting that her special day shirts would reflect her unique, rather mischievous, personality!