Cake Time!

A's party

Catch up time. The whole world is busy celebrating Christmas and here I am catching up on things from a month ago. Here are some cute shots from Anderson's birthday party. I loved having the little kids at the big kid's table. The conversation was really sophisticated that night. Loud, but sophisticated.


Ally was sick that night, so Gabriella had Anderson all to herself. Look at those ladykiller eyes!


I love this shot of Jake and Anderson doing practice walks together. And apparently it's not a party until Dad turns you upside-down. Get with the program, Jason! Thank you all for coming and making it a special night for the boy. I know he won't remember it, but these pictures will help us convince him that everything was equal between him and big sis!

A is 1

Still in denial that our little baby is actually a year old. It's been a year filled with cuteness and smiles as you can tell from the pictures above. It's hard to find a picture of him where he's not smiling. We spent the morning taking his 1-year pictures and will celebrate with a small get-together tomorrow night. Also on the "celebration" list is a visit to Red Robin for the traditional ice cream sundae and singing and a hair cut! I couldn't bring myself to cut it before his birthday, but the Hulk Holgan/Terry Bradshaw look just isn't working anymore.

On the list of Anderson's favorite things:
Favorite people: Me, Jason and Maizie (this boy loves his family and dives to us whenever he gets the chance--so sweet)
Favorite pasttimes: Climbing stairs, chairs, boxes, benches and anything else that gets him off the ground; also sticking small items into his mouth, gnawing on electrical cords and anything else to foil any attempts at baby-proofing.
Favorite things: His blue blankets (thanks to Aunt Stephanie, Tanya and Kim); the piano; his toy circus truck; bread
Favorite ways to make friends: Waving, chattering, clapping to "If You're Happy and You Know It" and peek-a-boo!

I was hoping he'd take his first steps today. He's SOOOO close, and he may have taken a few steps during his photo shoot to try to escape the evil flash. Keep your eyes peeled for an "I'm walking!" video coming to your favorite blog soon. He loves to stand up and dance and clap to music or So You Think You Can Dance, so I think it will go down in history that this boy was dancing before he could walk.

Happy Birthday, sweet Anderson. You've made it to your first birthday with all 3 syllables in tact. Phew.

Morning Person

Anderson wakes up way before Maizie (and Mom and Dad) on most days. And he's always chipper. Here he is playing on our bed trying to wake up Daddy.

That was then...

This is now.

Three in a Nutshell

Or in a tiny pink laundry basket. Skip to :40 if you want to get right to the good stuff.

What 19 cents can buy you these days

A Halloween mask no one wanted and a very goofy little girl.

Still Smiling After All These Months

Anderson is 11 months today and is still the happiest, grinningest thing in the whole wide world. It's really been such a fun time to see his personality emerge and watch him play more with Maizie and interact more with us. I would say this month, he has proven his climbing ability. We have to rearrange our house every day to keep him safe. We put a baby gate on the stairs, but he would still climb on the 1/2 inch of stair left and scale the gate like a monkey. If I want him to get all his energy out, I just open the gate and let him scale the stairs while we follow behind. He's incredibly quick on the way up and would be incredibly quick on the way down if we weren't right there. This week, he learned to crawl into Maizie's rocking chair and when I put that away he went over and climbed into our full-size rocking chair. Should we take all the furniture out of our house or just cover everything with pillows and padding?

His sounds that actually connect to some meaning now include MA-MA! Yea! So, I think we have to officially declare Dadda as his first word (just like Maizie) then Whazzat?, then Daw (for Dog) and then Mama. I see where I rank. Anderson loves to meet new people, he loves anything with wheels, he LOVES music (as soon as he hears music, he stops what he's doing and bounces up and down) , and playing peekaboo. See video below if you're having a rough day.


Whazzat?

His indoor jungle gym.

Such a depressed child.

"You can't see me!"

Happy Halloween!

So for weeks we've been hearing a little voice in the back seat saying, "I just need to see that Pancy Pants and Manda." This weekend we listened and headed to San Antonio for some Halloween fun. If you know Grant and Amanda, you know they don't do anything half-way. That holds true when it comes to Halloween. Grant constructed this GIANT alien space ship over the span of 2 weeks with lots of plastic tarp, duct tape and box fans. Such a MacGuyver. Maizie was a little overwhelmed at first, but by the end of the night, she was telling 12-year-olds, "It's just not scary in there." The kids would come in the front, get a glow-in-the-dark bracelet from Alien Grant and crawl out a tunnel in the back filled with strobe lights.



Maizie was a butterfly and Anderson was Sherlock Holmes. I didn't get that many great still shots because 11 month olds and 3 year olds, in general, aren't still. These will have to do. Maizie definitely got the trick-or-treating concept this year (Say trick-or-treat = free candy). She probably could've gone all night if we let her. It was tons of fun to catch up with the Maloneys and see them doing so well in the Alamo City. I tried to spread dirty lies about them so they'd move back, but no one believed us. Oh well.

Birthday Festivities

Maizie's Big 3 was tons of fun. Last October, I was 7 months pregnant, we had just moved into our first house, Jason had gotten laid off and then started a new job, our second car stopped running and I was helping organize the ARTreach festival at our church. Needless to say, Maizie did not have much of a "2" celebration. I promised her (in my heart) we'd make it up to her. I'd say promise fulfilled! Mia's birthday is in November, but with Baby Ro #3 due to arrive right around Mia's 3rd birthday, we decided to do a little joint party at a pumpkin farm. Tanya made some yummy frito pie and wassel (sp?), which was perfect for the brisk weather we got.

Here's the rundown of the fun.

pic1: Her birthday suit for school. She helped me make "M" cookies to share with the class the day before.
pic2: The princess at the pink-and-purple princess pumpkin party
pics3: Pink & Purple decorations for Maizie & Mia's Big 3
pic 4: Maizie and Mia cheesing it up
pic 5: Poor Ryan stuck at a girl's party. Such a good sport.
pic 6: Maizie may have a crush on Luc. She borrowed his jacket and then cuddled up during the hayride.
pic 7: Swingin' in full princess gear.
pics 8,9,10: The motherlode of gifts! We spent all night slowly opening and playing.
pic 11: The birthday sundae at Red Robin. A family tradition. "Do we have a birthday here?"
pic 12: Princess Maizie
pic 13: Prince Anderson
pic 14: I'm this many!!!

pic 15: Mo Mo eating her cupcake. Good times!

Three's a Charm

Thought I'd take a walk down memory lane tonight. Sigh. Here's my baby growing up right before all of our eyes. Maizie had a great day today. She received lots of calls, cards and well-wishes. And it was fun to watch her realize today was special and just for her.

She's Three!

I've had a couple of unexpectantly sappy days anticipating Maizie's third birthday. I can't believe how quickly everything is going by and I'm amazed at the person who is emerging as our beautiful daughter. Between knock-down, drag-out fights over going to sleep and a running list of "I wants", there are moments and looks and touches and grins and laughs and that are too cute to stand.

Without further adieu.

Maiziese as a Second Language - The three-year-old edition

My sick hurts - My belly hurts

My sick feels better - My belly feels better

I'm sweaty. I need a jacket. - Usually it's 100 degrees out when she says this. The girl just loves to accessorize.

I'm going to the O-port to get on the A-plane. - I'm going to the airport to get on the airplane.

Wiiiiissssshhhh! - Any kind of stick or wand (i.e., I need my wiiiisssshhh)

Sleeping Booty - Sleeping Beauty

"I know you, you're a queen and I so boo-fi-ful." The preferred lyrics of "Once Upon a Dream"

"I know" dress - A dress with any kind of twirl capacity.

You can't dance. You're wearing pants! - What she tells me when I try to dance.

Go To Way - Go away

Soappaste- Toothpaste

Cat in the Cat - Cat in the Hat

Cheshire Cat Moon - Crescent moon

Meatball Store - IKEA

Mo Mo and Ca Ca - Simone and Jessica

Gigirella - Gabriella; also, umbrella

Calla and O-sin - Tanya and Wilson

Assisson - Anderson (up until about 2 months ago, thank goodness)

Little Paw - The refugees as a whole (e.g. "I need to go see my Little Paws")

Jesus - Anyone asking for money on street corners. (e.g. "That Jesus is thirsty! She needs she's water!")

Daddy, you stink? You need to change yours diaper? Huh? Anytime there's a smell in the car (whose origin is most often Maizie).

A, B, B, B, LMNOP - The beginning of the alphabet song.

W, X, Why not Z? - The end of the alphabet song.

This much and no matter what - How much we love her.

Barkitecture

So Jason's firm, Negrete & Kolar, decided to enter Barkitecture this year. It's an event where local architecture and design firms design and build dog houses to be auctioned off for charity. Theirs was called the "Bark-elona Paw-villion" (clever clever) and turned out super cool. We met friends at a pumpkin patch Saturday and then headed down to see all the other dog houses and even witnessed a Doggie Costume fashion show. Maizie was in heaven. It was our first at-home, together Saturday in a long time and it was NICE.

 
 
 
 

Nashville

Last week, Anderson and I had a Mommy-Son date to meet his little buddy, Eli, in Nashville. On both plane rides, the flight attendents stole Anderson from me for about a half hour and paraded him up and down the aisles. It was great to have the break (he was literally climbing the plane walls), but still felt odd. Here are some pics from the trip. Note the one of Anderson and Eli laying together. They are 7.5 months apart in age, but only 2 pounds apart in weight. Craziness. Oh, and a trip to see Jodi isn't complete without us dying our hair. Click to see more detail. I may be addicted to these collages for a bit.

 

Bye Bye Fancy Pants

A few weeks ago, we met some friends down in San Marcos at Guadelupe River State Park to say a fond farewell to Grant and Amanda. We plan to visit them alot in San Antonio, but so far the cards have not aligned for us to get down there. We are looking forward to many years of fun adventures with them in the Alamo City. San Antonio is so lucky to have them.

I got a few good shots of the fun and thought I'd try the Picasso collage, so here you go.

 

On a side note, I thought I lost my camera (aka third baby) on this camping trip. I was sad. Really sad. Two weeks went by and we bought a cheap stand-in, but my deepest affections remained for the old one. On the way to Nashville this week, I was going through the "fun" process of airport security with a ten-month-old who (of course) fell asleep 10 minutes before screening time. When the stroller went through, the TSA guy told me that I should be careful unfolding it because a CAMERA was in the middle of it! I literally did a "raise the roof" (wee bit embarrassing in hind sight) and told him he was my best friend and that he made my trip. So anytime you're feeling down about where your tax dollars are going, just think back to my story and do a little "raise the roof" on my behalf.

Perfect 10

Anderson is 10 months old today (and cousin Brooke is 3!) It's been another fun and eventful month. He is clapping up a storm, standing on his own for a few seconds at a time, and "real" crawling! He's also gotten alot more verbal, repeating back tons of sounds. His favorites are "Da, Hi Da!" when he sees Jason, "Wuzzat?" when he points to things, "Uh-uh" when I say "Uh-oh". He's eating like a real person for the most part. I just cut up whatever we're eating into Anderson-sized chunks and he has a ball. He also started "kissing" which means he dive-bombs my face with an open, teethy smile whenever I say "kisses". He's definitely found his voice (aka scream) when he's in the sharing arena with Maizie. That's going to be a long-term battle, I'm afraid. He's so much fun right now I really want to press pause....sigh.

 
 
 
 

Maizie Wonder

This video makes me smile. Hope it does the same for you! I'll continue my series of lessons in Maiziese as a Second Language soon. She's come up with some doozies lately. But I thought this would tide over our biggest fans (hi mom and dad!) until then.

Growing Up!

 
Saturday was Anderson's 9 month-day. We spent it with good friends and family in Abilene. Tons of fun! Took him to the doctor today and he is 17 lbs., 10 oz. (6th percentile). His height was 27.25 inches (11 percentile) and his head was, uh, well, in the 90th percentile. No wonder I've been having trouble getting his shirts on. The picture above is the "framer" for the dining room. Anderson's new "tricks" this month are pulling up (and learning to get down), putting new things in his mouth (and learning to let mommy fish them out), chasing after his big sis, and clapping to performances on So You Think You Can Dance. I couldn't have asked for a happier, sweeter, cuter man child.

 
Another big milestone was Maizie's first day of school. It was a bit of a madhouse getting out the door, but I dutifully posed her for first day pics when we got home. She was HYPER, so this is the best we could do. She's loving her class this year with Miss Angela and Miss Jeanne and can really repeat back the things they talk about this year.

 
Here are the two rugrats being so sweet together....

 
And now for the rest of the story. 90% of the time, all is well between the two siblings. But luck allowed me to capture this face when Anderson reached his "sharing" limit. Love it.