Little B's First Birthday: Part 2

On the morning of his first birthday, my son only had one gift to open from his dad and me. We decided not to go overboard because it was, after all, only his first birthday and he has so many toys already. It was too big to wrap (and he doesn't understand wrapping paper anyways) so we just threw two of his blankets over it and called it good.

He didn't even notice the giant blob in the middle of the living room when we went downstairs. He just wanted to play with the printer. Oh, and per my husband's request, he got to stay in his pj's for the majority of the morning.

He finally crawled over to his gift and we handed him the card. My husband helped him open it, and he instantly fell in love. The tiny little two-page "book" had glitter on it! Shimmery, shiny glitter! Ah, heaven.

Once we were able to pry the card out of his hands, we nudged him towards his gift and tried to get him to "open" it. Alas, he thought it was supposed to look like that and just patted it.

So my husband and I started tugging on the blankets for a great reveal as the little man waited with bated breath.

Once his Sesame Street couch (!!!!!) was revealed, he was in awe of it.

Then we opened it up and showed him how it can also be a sofa-sleeper. He was still a little tired, so he yawned and showed us his belly button.

We then folded it back up and showed him the purpose we initially intended it for ... reading! Kiddo loves to read, so we thought it would be a nice place for him to be able to sit comfortably and read for a while.

He gave us a little clap, so we knew he liked it at least a smidge.

Then we moved it over so he could play his piano while seated, and he loved that, too!

Unbelievably, it took him this long to realize there were characters on it, and he started pointing to them, asking us who they were. "That's Ernie, kiddo!"

Then, hopping off his couch, he and Daddy went through the characters several times on the one side ... "Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster".

After breakfast, he finally got dressed and was able to enjoy his couch a little more.

It was a lovely little start to his first birthday ... who could ask for anything more?

Toddling Around

Yup, he's a biped alright. My son can walk (!!!), rather unsteadily still, but he can walk nonetheless. He has to pull himself up on something to get into position, but after that he is good to go. It's so fun to see him toddling around the living room, Frankenstein-ing it from ottoman to couch to chair to mini-couch.

I'm hoping to get a good video of him walking so I can put it on here for those living far away to see, but so far he has been clamming up when I whip out the camera. Plus, our living room is not that that big, so getting a nice extended video of him walking has been a logistical challenge, to say the least. We'll see what I can do!

Oh, and he can now open up his own closet bi-fold doors and get himself in there for a little time with his clothes. If I ever lose him on the second floor (not that I'm planning on it) the first place I'll look is his closet! Funny little man.

Sinfully Good Morning

If pride is a sin, then I'm happily going to hell. I cannot even begin to tell you how proud I am of my son today. He has been doing so many new things and all so happily.

Here is just a little list of all the stuff I've seen him do today:

- Shut himself in his own closet. I know this sounds weird, but he didn't panic when he was in total darkness; he just opened the door and smiled at me. Then shut himself in again. Which reminds me, I need to keep his closet doors shut from now on.

- Ate his Cheerios with milk. He balked at this the entire time, and a few tears were shed, but he did it. We cheered and clapped, and he made it through it without choking on them or melting down.

- Took his balls from one bucket and put them in another. He's never done it before and it was just so cute to see him so industrious.

- Said "get down" after I asked him if he wanted to get down. I know he was probably just repeating what I said, but it was nice to hear his little voice say something other than "dada".

- Asked me to read him a book. No, he didn't toddle over to me and say, "Mommy, would you please read me this lovely story?" But he did look me in the eye, hand me a book, and wait patiently while I fought back tears to read it to him. Again, he's never done this before, and it was so nice to feel like he wanted me to read him the story.

- Shared a Kashi TLC bar with me. He looked interested in it, so I pulled off a piece of the breaded area, thinking he would hate it (as he does with most things bread-like). But he didn't. He liked it. And he wanted more. So I offered to let him bite off the bar, and HE DID! Several bites, in fact, and he seemed to really enjoy it.

All of this, particularly the food stuff, seems even better in light of what happened last night; we tried to feed him this vegetable beef stew stuff (by Beech Nut baby foods), and he totally melted down and pitched a total fit. Wouldn't have it. And then was finicky the rest of the night. It is so good to see him back to his calm, happy, curious self today!

Little B's First Birthday: Part 1

Baylor's first first birthday party took place on the 6th of September over on the Tittabawassee River at the Jacques family Labor Day get-together. After a lovely lunch, we got down to birthday business.

First, the singing of "Happy Birthday." There were only about twenty people (usually there are anywhere from forty to sixty) in attendance this year, which probably ended up being a good thing at this particular moment; the noise level of everyone singing directly to him seemed to scare my little man and he ended up crying by the end of the song.

The wind blew out the candle the first time, so after a relight ...

At first he wanted nothing to do with the brownie, which I honestly couldn't fathom.

But then he gave it a try and actually seemed to like it a bit.

Then it was time to open gifts. He didn't seem to care much for the gifts themselves, but he LOVED the cards. Probably since they are like little books, and he is very much a book man.

Great Aunt Sharon bought him a couple of MSU onesies, a great sacrifice for her as a die hard U of M alum and fan. Thanks, Sharon!

Great Aunt Ellene got him an adorable Elmo sippy cup, sure to come in handy as he starts toddling around the house (one of these days).

The worm card from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa was a sure hit!

After presents, the birthday boy was all smiles as he hung out with the aunts and watched the dogs and kids run around.

Looking jaunty in his superhero baseball cap.

The family eventually gathered around for a group picture, which was much easier this year than in years past because there were half as many people as there usually are. Unfortunately, the little man was not too thrilled to be pulled away from play to pose for the camera. But he did it anyways.

All in all, it was a lovely day and a good start to the birthday festivities!

Entering a Contest and Thinking About Diapers

Weird combo, right? But the contest is to win a whole bunch of cloth diapers from Fuzzibunz.com, and I am curious about the whole cloth diaper thing. I know a lot of people swear by it, and I can see the affect us using disposable diapers is having on our wallets and our earth (goodness the kid poops a lot ... and soon enough there will be two).

So I decided to give this contest a try. If I win, maybe it'll give me the courage to try the whole cloth diapering thing on Paco (that's our little nickname for the bun in the oven, in case I haven't mentioned it before). I don't get quite how the whole thing works, even though the writer of the blog in question explained it a bit, but I know I could figure it out. And who knows, maybe it'd be grand and wonderful and whatnot.

We'll see. If I win, we'll embark on the cloth diapering adventure. If not, we'll see.

Wait, It's Not Tuesday?!

Aw, crap! It's not Tuesday. It is, in fact, Wednesday. I am totally bummed out now. I ordinarily look forward to Wednesdays (and Saturdays, for that matter) because I exfoliate my face in the shower on those days. Particularly when I am pregnant, I crave my Exfoliation Days (as I have been known to call them in my head) because I try not to use products with salicylic acid in them and my face is more prone to breakouts because of the hormones. After I exfoliate, my face feels smooth, if only for a little while, and I feel a little more human, a little prettier.

Today in my shower, as I was reaching for the face wash, I hesitated a little bit and thought to myself, "What day is it? Ah, it's got to be Tuesday." I hurriedly washed my face and got out of the shower, only to find out from my mom that it is Wednesday. I missed Exfoliation Day.

No, it's not the end of the world; I will live on and today will probably be a pretty good day ... I get to spend time with Little B so how could it not be a good day, right? But I am a little sad I missed it. I don't pamper myself much; my hair is unruly and messy most days, I rarely take the time to paint my nails, and makeup has become a thing of the past. But on Exfoliation Day I take a second to slough off the old and bring in the new, and I love it.

It's the little things, you know?

So maybe tomorrow will have to be an Exfoliation Day.

Do you have any special time you take just for yourself to do something kind for you?

Nine Weeks with a Grape

Saturday was the nine week mark of this pregnancy, and upon reading the babycenter.com e-mail I discovered I am currently pregnant with a grape! The baby has eyelids now and everything ... how cool is that?

So here is the front view ... again, not much change here, except you can kinda see my shirt tugging a little because of the bump.

From the left side ...

And the right.

I feel like my legs look really short, especially in the last two photos, but I don't think I have actually gotten any shorter.

I can no longer button up my pants and have graduated from the hair tie trick to the bella band. Today I'll be wearing maternity pants, and I'm a little excited for it ... they won't squeeze me as much as that band seems to.

Little B stopped playing long enough to pose for a picture with his Mama. What a wonderful son!

Oh, and I am taking Zofran to help combat the nausea. I wasn't eating enough for me, the baby, or Baylor, so I had to get a little extra help. Most days it seems to do a pretty good job; there are still waves of unrest in my stomach, but they aren't as horrible as it was without the medication. If I had to say how I am feeling, I would say that most of the time I am hanging out on the precipice between extreme nausea and feeling fantastic. It makes me a little anxious, but it's better than where I was before.

Eli and JoAnn's Wedding

This weekend we drove across the state to attend friends Eli and JoAnn's wedding. The church was amazingly beautiful (sadly, I didn't get a picture of it ... not that it would have done it justice) and the ceremony was sweet.

The reception was full of personal touches and featured stunning reds and creams. Exhibit A: the cake. It was gorgeous! And, I later found out, it was RED VELVET CAKE! Major style points for carrying the red/cream theme throughout. As a bonus, it was totally delicious!

We three got all dolled up for the occasion ... my hair hadn't looked that good in months! Thanks goes out to my sister for the use of her adorable shirt! It was perfect!

Little B was a champ at the wedding, happy just to have a high chair and some good books.

Of course, luck being what it is, Bubba pooped right before the first dance started so I missed it. But my husband, being smart and thoughtful, took some pictures of it! Yay, Bryson!

What a cute couple!

They were so sweet together.

Once we got back, Little B and Big B were reunited, and I think I noticed my husband getting a little choked up during the father-daughter dance as he held our son. Mariah Carrey's "Hero" was playing. Ah, the perfect storm of emotion!

In about the middle of the mother-son dance, my son laid his head on my husband's chest and just sat still. So cute!

Sadly, right after the picture above was taken, my beautiful boy burst into tears and we carried him out into the lobby area. The music was just too loud for him, so he and I went back to the hotel for some pre-bedtime fun while my husband stayed behind to spend some time with his friends.

But don't you worry, Baylor and I had fun, too! We explored the hotel room, opened all the drawers, went to the front desk for toothpaste, and then read a ton of books! And yes, the little man is almost tall enough to open the doors in hotels, apparently.

The next morning we got to snuggle in the giant bed for a while and relax for a bit. Then the explorations began, resulting in the phone needing to be disconnected. Ah, such a wild child!

We had a lovely time, and it was so good to see everyone and finally catch up. Congrats to Eli and JoAnn, and thanks for having us! Congrats to Matt and Emily on their exciting news! And a belated congrats to Phil and Alexis on their happy marriage! We're so glad we got to hang out with the Lyman Briggs crew, even if for a short while! Hope to see you all again soon!

Happy Anniversary to Us

Today is our fourth wedding anniversary, and looking back I cannot think of a more lovely day. I spent lots of time planning it so that the day of would be as relaxed as possible. Our garden-themed wedding ended up being exactly what I wanted (minus a little pre-wedding panic attack by yours truly - I was terrified of speaking in front of so many people - luckily my awesome sister helped me calm down).

Anyhow, I digress.

We got married at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park at 6:00 p.m., inside, under this sculpture. We were literally surrounded by all our family and friends, and it was a wonderfully intimate gathering.



My flowers looked like this ...


We read vows we had written ourselves. My husband got choked up, and I just beamed.


And afterwards we were "us".

The groom's cake was bitchin'! Go green!

Our cake was beautiful, covered in gum paste roses.

I warned him not to smush it in my face. I warned him. I didn't want wedding cake on my dress for the rest of the reception, and I thought it would be nice if he just fed it to me like he was supposed to. He decided to go a different route. So sad that the only bite of wedding cake I actually got was shoved into my face by my new husband.

Now honey, I know you think this next picture is my favorite of the whole wedding but it is not. No bride should have to look this angry on her wedding day. And yes, you deserved to have cake up your nose. I love you!

The rest of the evening went by quite wonderfully, and we eventually got to the weird part. My husband's family has this bizarre little tradition at weddings where the last couple to get married buys the newly married couple a chamber pot (once used for going to the bathroom indoors in olden times) and fills it with cider and broken chunks of donuts (or donut holes). Yes, it is supposed to look like poop. Then the newly married couple has to eat and drink the concoction. It tasted surprisingly good, and we luckily had Bryson's cousin Patrick and his wife Cynthia as our chamber pot purchasers and they only included cider and donuts (Bryson's brother put corn and honey in Pat and Cynthia's to make it look more "realistic" - yuck!).

We did the typical dances. Our first dance was to Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole's duet, "Unforgettable." It was magical. (Oh, and ironically enough, I heard it playing in the grocery store today! How weird is that? I didn't even know they played music at the grocery store.)

Then we combined the father-daughter, mother-son dances, and we all four danced to "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" by Rod Stewart.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening. We had a great time, and most everything went off without a hitch. I think our only snafu came after the wedding when our photographer went bankrupt and fell out of contact with us before we got our wedding photo album. Total bummer, but at least we had the CDs with all our pictures on them!

None of this would have been possible without our loving families. Not the wedding, not the relationship (if we hadn't been born and all), and not the happiness afterwards. So thanks to ...

The Maxeys


And the Jacqueses.

And thanks to you, honey, for four marvelous, eventful years! I love you! Happy anniversary!