Par-tay!!!!!

We threw a rager for Davy's first birthday. We all know how she loves to party. So we went all out........milk kegs, Cheetos, snack packs and lollipops. All of Davy's favorite things.

The weekend of Davy's birthday was extremely busy for me. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to get all of the birthday parties over in one weekend(Max and Ollie's was the day before). I DO NOT recommend this. Not a good choice on my part(what was i thinking?!!!). It was really quite stressful. Throw in a crazy rainstorm , school talent show, the cupcake inc

ident and boy scout camping activity and you got your self a nervous breakdown.

By the time her day rolled around I was pooped. Luckily I borrowed the birthday decor and made my crafts weeks before. I also had the help of my lovely SIL's, Katie and Nan, thanks ladies.

Once it was party time, I was one very proud Mama. I was just really happy that this day was here. Davy turned one and I didn't even cry. I thought for sure I was going to be emotional all day. But I held it together. Ok, I may have got teary eyed once.
Doesn't Davy look deep in thought? I would love to know what she's thinking. I think she is reflecting on the past 12 months. Cuz she had some doozies.

But her somber mood did not last long. As soon as her peeps started rolling in, she was all smiles.

I love this picture of Miss Davy. She looks so happy. She was loving all the attention she was gettin.

I have to say I was a little surprised by Davy when it came to her cake. I expected her to act like a lady, but she was all over that thing. I had to stop her from licking the high chair clean. I actually started to get nervous that she was going to choke.

I wonder how much cake actually made it into her mouth?
After we hosed Davy off she had a second dessert of wrapping paper and lollipops.

It's really weird to think that she is one. I can't believe it.

Thank you to our family for celebrating her day with us!

**And thanks Grammy and Papa for letting us party at your house!

The monthly review

one- two -three- four- five, six- seven-eight- nine- ten, eleven- twelve!

Oliver Ben is se-ven

March has been a month of celebrations. Today we honored Ollie's 7th Birthday. You by now know all are birthday traditions.
They get so excited to jump through their door full of streamers. it's like christmas morning.
Oh Ollie, I actually CAN believe your seven now. You have always been an old soul trapped in a child's body.

*Ollie is my funny child. He is always trying to make me laugh.

* He is my cuddle buddy. He loves to get his blanket and snuggle with me.

* He has a really good imagination. Most kids will dump a bucket of toys to play with in the bath. He will bring ONE Nerf bullet and be entertained for hours.

* Ollie can be sassy and dramatic. When he is hurt, his cry can be heard all across the world. So sorry for all the noise.

* He is a lover of ALL animals. But he of course loves his dog, Charlie the most. He is currently trying to find Charlie a wife, so Charlie can be a DAD. Plus, Ollie wants a puppy plantation. So win, win. I don't have the heart to tell him Charlie is fixed. Plus, I don't want to explain what fixed means.

Because of Ollie's great love of animals, we are stuck seeing every single cheesy talking animal movie ever made. I just saw Yogi bear with him on our Birthday date. I believe his favorite movie right now is Alvin and the chipmunks and Totorro(which actually is amazing).

*Ollie used to want to be a spy when he grew up, but he realized it would be hard to have a family. So now he wants to be a potion master/artist. So is potion master a fancy word for chemist? Don't know.

* Ollie has only lost 2 teeth. He is pretty bitter about it. Especially since Davy has lost 3!!But i love his baby teeth.

* By the way Ollie has told me he wants to be called Oliver now. But he said you can write Ollie, since it's shorter.
Ollie chose a breakfast of chocolate milk, watermelon and a variety of pancakes. So Dad made him brown sugar, vanilla, marshmallow pancakes. And then he finished up with a Toxic blue slime pancake, which the ingredients will remain top secret.

Love you Oliver.

twelve *12* twelve

Here it is, month 12. Can you believe it? I normally end the month pictures at 12, so I'm a little sad that this was my last little photo shoot.

Davy has had a really good month. You ready to hear about it?

Davy weighs in at 18 and half pounds and is 30 inches long. That is 10% in weight and 70% in height.

So looks it looks like solids are paying off. We are cautiously moving forward and making so much progress. But I have learned some things the hard way. Like, that freeze dried mangoes do NOT dissolve as fast as Cheetos. Not a pleasant experience.

On a good note, thanks to the time change, Davy wakes up now at 6 am rather then 5am!! It's weird what one hour later can do for you. Hey BTW this morning she slept in til 7!!!!!

Remember when Davy loved looking at peoples faces and she would lovingly caress them? Well, she still loves faces, except now the caresses have turned into slapping. Basically she is playing pat a cake with your face. Every once in a while I'll get some tenderness, but not very often.

Davy is still not crawling on all fours. But she can drag her little body all across the floor. She can pretty much get anywhere now. This has made a huge difference in Davy's(our) life. She is way more content. She can entertain herself for longer periods of time and is getting in lots of trouble.

Davy's favorite toys are the remotes, phones and magazines. Everything gets a taste test now a days. So I'm trying to keep a cleaner house in result.* Key word, trying.

SO I don't have a picture of Davy's latest trick because she only did it a couple of days ago and

it's only been done a handful of times, BUT I walked into our room to get her from her crib and she had pulled herself to a standing position!! The best part was the look on her face. She knew what she did and was very proud.

She is also starting to figure out how she can sit up all by herself...she has built in kick stands, her arms. So she just bears weight on her guns and plays for a bit.

This picture makes me laugh so hard. I love the gas face, Davy is making.

It is done. 12 months of documenting this little girls life.

I always have loved doing this but it has been extra special documenting Davy's 12 months. I love going back and looking at her progress.

Maybe I will keep doing it. Maybe just every couple of months though.

This picture was taken moments right before Davy was born. We were told a lot of maybes and what ifs. We were both incredibly scared.
I've been thinking A LOT about the past year. I thought how I wish I could have shown myself what was in store. But I don't think that I would have believed me. I really wouldn't have thought me capable. But when your child's life is at stake, you become capable. And unfortunately you have to learn this the hard way. No one can tell you or show you. You just have to learn it for yourself.
So...... it's a year later and I am no longer scared. I am happy, grateful and feel so very blessed.
I kinda get why we celebrate birthdays now. Because today Davy is turning one and I have never felt more like celebrating.

a peek into my life..........cupcake carnage.

This time I did not giggle. In fact a completely primal scream came out of me.

Tomorrow I am having a birthday party for Max and Ollie, so today I spent all day baking. I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, frosted to perfection. I put them in my cupcake stacker all ready to go.

Then  I went outside to go throw away the trash(why?!!) and came in to find Harper..........

Harper opening up my stacker, I then screamed a scream that resembled a wookie and 36 cupcakes came tumbling down. They were on the table, on the floor, everywhere.

I don't have it in me to bake more. 

Is it totally ghetto to just fix the frosting and give it to the kiddos?

                                                    

Welcome to an Occupational therapy sesh

Seriously, no wonder she likes O.T ! She went from pudding to Cheetos. These are actually cheese puffs. They are easier to grip then the Gerber baby puffs and they dissolve faster. We started off with a little tap on the tongue, then we mashed it up and gave her some and then this.........

Oh why can't Cheese puffs be healthy!!! I am so proud of her though. She hasn't grasped onto the whole pick up and feed yourself system too well. So seeing her grab a lollipop and Cheeto makes me  down right giddy. The even better news was she didn't choke or throw up. She has not been able to do other textures aside from purees. So this is another hurdle jumped by Miss Davy.


 After her junk food fix, we worked on her cup skills. This was actually strawberry apple sauce. Were you expecting a Slurpee?  I would almost expect it at this point. It seems like every food from Ot has been bought at 7-11.

Next up...liquids via straw. She did better then I expected with this. She didn't choke and she swallowed most of it. 


Davy's GI Doctor was completely floored by how well she has been doing with eating. I think everyone was not expecting her to do this well, myself included. I now am seeing the possibility of how we may one day not need a machine to feed my little girl. And that feels pretty dang good.

another peek into my fabulous life.

You all know I am a lover of baths. And even though my tub is the size of a large sink, I can still manage to squeeze my 5 foot 10 inch body in it. It's really the highlight of my day, my refuge, my daily meditation and I even manage to get some reading in.

Last week as I was soaking, I looked up at my ceiling and saw this...........

SPITBALLS!!!

They were huge! I am pretty sure they were constructed from my (now empty)jar of cotton balls. Once again, my first reaction was to giggle and show my husband. My next reaction was to question Son #1 and Son #2.

All I had to do was stare into Ollie's eyes Bruce Willis style and say, OOOOOOlllllieeeeeee?

BAM! Instant confession, I totally should have been a cop.

Any one else have spitballs on their ceiling?

A peek into my life

Do your kids just help themselves to the fridge? Harper has been driving me NUTSO with this. He is like Houdini. I turn my back and there will be 3 empty yogurts in his room. Or I will be finishing up Davy's feed and find this in my kitchen.

Isn't it beautiful? So artistic, I couldn't even get mad. He had took a bite of every.single.strawberry.

He also had another pack in the fridge waiting for me. There goes my freezer jam.

What a stinker.

So, should I get locks for my cupboards and fridge?

Or should I just try better parenting.

* excuse the picture quality

TEN years old

When did this little boy grow up to be this kid?

Max is officially in double didge and it's freaking me out!!!

Max is truly an amazing son, he always has been. He's very funny. He has a different way of looking at the world and I LOVE when he'll tell me his thoughts. He is a lover of hip hop and indie music. He loves making mixes. When he was little he used to write songs and perform them for the family. Now he would rather break dance and tell jokes. He loves to read and play cardboard games(he has always called them this.)

While he can be a very picky eater, he surprises me with the foods that he will eat... like fish, most vegetables, hummus and cottage cheese. He hates sauces, berries and meat.

He is so very kind and always apologizes when he does something wrong. He can be a little absent minded and is always losing his jackets, glasses, lunch boxes, homework. I would say about 80% of the times he puts his shirt on backwards(look at his shirt) Like I said, absent minded. I have no idea where he gets it from :)

I know I am the mom and I am supposed to be teaching him, but I am sure I have learned way more from Max in these past ten years. That is the beauty of motherhood.

This is one of our Birthday traditions. In the morning the boys have to jump through a door full of streamers into their new year. Then they get the breakfast of their choice(they can ask for whatever they want). Max asked for chocolate popovers. I used a new recipe and apparently it did not go over to well. Max took a bite and said, Wow I can't believe I am already SO full. I only had one bite. Can I be done? I asked him, "they don't taste good, huh?" Nope, sorry mom.

SO we had Dad make him the biggest pancake he has ever had.

This picture is not doing the pancake justice, it was huge.

Scott and I then took turns doing fun stuff with Max. Scott made stencils and painted shirts with him and I took him to color me mine to make a new birthday plate(ours broke.) Then we let him watch his new Pokemon DVDs tell his brain burst. I would say it was a pretty good day.