Birthday Boy!

Well, have we ever had a busy couple of days!  With all the birthday prep and celebration I haven't had any time at all to post.  The rational side of me says, 'It's a 1 year old's party - he won't remember it anyway so relax' but the reality is I get so stressed out about things like this - I woke up at about 7:30 am on Saturday (I'd hoped to sleep until at least 9) and couldn't fall back to sleep because my mind started listing all the things that still needed to be done before the party.  Luckily my mom had come over the evening before to watch the monkey so that I could get some work done around here and Dad came by too to put steps on the deck.  I can't tell you how nice it is to step out of the back door onto a real deck - but I'll save my house/yard reno stories for another time - that could be a whole blog all by itself!  :D

The Birthday Boy

Saturday was a perfect day for a party and with this small house - being able to be outdoors was wonderful!  

Mikayo and his buddies playing in the yard.  

The ball pit was a big hit with the 1 year old crowd.

Mikayo loves being outdoors so he really enjoyed himself, he didn't care much for opening gifts but he seemed to really enjoy his cake.  

The Wild Things Cake

The Little Man enjoying his cake and what appears to be watermelon.

He got lots of cool toys, clothes and books and has been busy checking everything out.  

Today we went to Mikayo's friend's first birthday and though the rain kept us indoors for part of the party we had a lot of fun!  Cake 2 days in a row?  Oh my!!  

Mikayo is pulling himself up on everything these days - it's great to see him getting around and exploring his world.  Unfortunately, increased mobility = increased chances of getting hurt.  Today Mik was pulling himself up on a dining room chair and managed to pull it down onto himself.  Poor little bug!   He had a few tears (though I think I may have been more upset than he was) and is now sporting a very fat lip.  

Even with a fat lip - I'm still pretty cute.  Check out my crooked smile!

Happy Helper

What a looooong day!!  I am already ready for bed!  Mikayo on the other hand is full of energy!  Finally close to supper time he seemed to be back to his old self.  I am SO thankful for that!  He even had the energy to help his daddy load the dishwasher!  

Right now there is music on and he is dancing away!  It is so funny to discover what amuses an ALMOST one year old.  (I am still in denial that I have a baby that will be a year in a few days!)  Apparently, pulling all the paper and bottles out of the recycling box is loads of fun! 

Tomorrow we are doing more birthday prep, hoping to get some planting done in the yard, and maybe even baking the birthday cake!  I am a little nervous about doing it - it's different than anything I've ever done in cakes before.  I got the idea from the internet (where else?) and thought it would be perfect.  If it isn't a TOTAL disaster I will post a picture after the party.  2 days, 2 hours & 5 minutes before my baby is no longer a baby!!  Waaaaaa!

Sickie!

The wine, food and adult conversation at last nights supper were all great!  The little man throwing up ALL over me - not so great!  This poor little bug has a bug!  He was not a happy camper last night and I think he is still feeling it today.  :(  We've been having lots of snuggles this morning.  I sure hope this passes soon!

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, Please Shine Down on Me!

Day 2 of yucky weather here is driving me cRaZy!!  One day to go (according to the forecast) and then we should be looking at nice weather again.  They're still predicting nice weather for Saturday (Mikayo's birthday party) so I am pretty happy about that!

So, what do we do when it's rainy, grey and cold?

Scrapbooking!  :D

This is one of my favorite picture of "the boys".  It makes me laugh every time I look at it!

This is a series from our Booster Juice trip.  The bright yellow layout is not really my taste but I thought I had to go bright to match the cup.  I used Stampin' Up letters for the title.

Yesterday we stayed in our pajamas for most of the day and did some serious playing.  The ring stacker is still a favorite around here!

Here Mikayo also participated in one of his favorite activities - pulling EVERYTHING out of the shelves in the living room!

"Uh Oh!  Busted!!  Luckily I'm cute!"

Today we had a bit of a rough day.  I'm not sure if it was a little stomach bug or if it was teething but the little man was not a happy camper!  :(  He is finally down for another nap so hopefully he wakes up feeling a bit better.  We are heading to a friends place for supper tonight.  I'm looking forward to some nice wine and adult conversation!!

Marathon Mural!

This is from one of the first nice days of spring.  The ground was still wet so we had Mikayo all geared up.  He loved feeling the grass, finding pine cones and eating them.  You'd think he would have realized they were not tasty after the first one but no, every time he came across another pine cone, into his mouth it went!  I still have journalling to do for this page but I went to my Stampin' Up group and managed to get most of it done there.  The paper and the adorable corduroy button are from SU.  Finding time to do the albums is getting harder and harder so I was pretty pleased with myself!!

I had a goal to get Mikayo's bedroom mural finished before his birthday.  5 days and 2 hours to go.  I don't think I'm going to make it but I've since made a goal to try to get even a little done every day.  It's hard when Mik is awake and when he's sleeping, I can't very well get in there either so I've found this extremely challenging!  Today I brought him a pile of toys and hoped he would be distracted enough for me to get a bit done.  Well he preferred climbing on my back to the toys and we had to call it quits when he discovered the dirt in the plant we have in his room.  All I managed to get done were Tzippy's feet!  Oh well!  Yesterday I got his little M for the bedroom door finished though.

Before:                                                                   

 After:

bedroom door:

Soaking up the Sunshine!

Aaah!  Another beautiful day.  With all the cold and sometimes snowy days that we have had to endure this spring we just have to take advantage of the warm days when they do come!  Yesterday we spent some time at the park.  I love watching Mikayo explore new things... yesterday it was sand.  He also went on the baby swing and seemed to really enjoy himself.  I managed to get a few good shots of him in the swing, though 90% of them had to be trashed.  It is surprisingly hard to get a good photo of a moving subject!

Today we went for a nice long walk, eventually making our way to Booster Juice.  Mik just LOVES this stuff so I get him his own little cup to keep him from stealing all of mine.  I have tried pouring some into his sippy cup but that isn't good enough... he recognizes their foam cups and gets mad if I try to give him anything else!  This shot is from a few weeks ago.

Starting Small

Hmmm... Where to begin?  I was excited to start a blog and I took some time to organize the space and now I wonder why I did it.  I have always had issues with other people reading my writing... what am I getting myself into?

Bottom line...

With family living so far from us I think it will be a nice way to share our day to day lives, especially with the little man growing up and changing so much!  So for anyone stumbling across my little on-line world here's the short version:

I am 34 years old - Ouch! and married to the love of my life aka Marty.  We actually met and dated in high school, took separate paths that finally came back together again 11 years later. We got married September 1, 2007 and are pretty sure our little man was a wedding night baby! ;)

Everyone says how having a baby will change your life but it is hard to understand until you live it.  Until I had a baby I didn't know tired, I didn't know love, I didn't know fear, I didn't know joy.  I thought I knew, but a baby changes everything!  I am in utter disbelief that Mikayo is going to be 1 year old in just one short week!  What a year it has been!  Of course he will likely be the star of my little blog but a few other bits and pieces from the rest of my life might creep in.

What else? 

I am a teacher and plan to go back in September.  I love teaching and though it will tear me apart to be away from Mik, I am looking forward to going back to it.

If there is any time left in the day I love to scrapbook, read, & garden.  It's WAY too cold around here for a good part of the year so when the weather gets nice over the spring and summer I try to get outside for a walk, go to the park or spend some time out in the yard enjoying the sunshine.  TV calls to me too often, as does the laptop (Darn you Facebook!), but I do try to limit it.  

I guess that's about it for now... okay - that wasn't as painful as I thought it would be!  Now just to press the "Publish Post" button... (6 minutes later)...