The Birthday Party

We celebrated your birthday on Sunday with our family. What a production it was. Your father and I were busy little bees the past two weeks planning this party and making all of your special birthday decorations. We made two buntings out of coordinating fabrics. We put your name on the bunting for your highchair and left the longer one blank to hang up above your chair. We also made a "Happy Birthday" sign out of fabric circles. We made a birthday crown for you out of felt and ribbon because every boy is a prince on there birthday, nevermind that you only wore the crown for a nanosecond before you ripped it off your head. We also made you a birthday shirt with a big 1 on the front that matched your birthday banners. You looked so handsome. We greeted our guests with a "Welcome to Teige's birthday bash" sign on the chalkboard by our front door. Oh, and balloons. We had lots of balloons in red, dark blue and light blue. You also had a Sesame street babies mylar balloon. Everything looked beautiful.

Uncle Noel recorded everyone singing happy birthday to you. You weren't sure what all the excitement was about but you sure enjoyed it.

In attendance for your party were; your father and I (of course), your Grandma Daniels and Grampa Steve, Your Grampy Daniels and Nana Daniels, Auntie Emily Uncle Noel, and cousin Kiera, Your Great Grandma Corliss (Grammy), Auntie Val and Uncle Todd, and Uncle Mark and Auntie Erin. I made you your own Devil's food cake with cream cheese frosting. It said Happy Birthday Teige in red and had a sparkly blue 1 candle. I made red velvet cupcakes for our guests with cream cheese frosting. Some of the cupcakes had red, blue, and green sparkles.

For food we had 7-later dip and chips and empanadas. All homemade. The house was packed with people who love you. You got lots of wonderful gifts.

Your father and I got you Fisher Price zoo animals set, a fabric growth chart with a rocket ship on it, two nursery rhyme books with audio cds, a Kevin Stays Overnight book, and a "big boy" upholstered rocking chair with matching ottoman.

Your Grammy C got you an alphabet inchworm pull toy. It sins songs and teaches you letters and colors. My favorite part of this toy is that it has a phonics mode. In phonics mode when you press a letter it tells you the sound the letter makes.

Your Grandma D and Grandpa Steve gave you a ride on horse that hooks up to the t.v. like a video game. You can also bounce and spin on the horse and it plays songs and makes horse noises. They also got you a cute little pinstripe suit with a tie. It matches one that your daddy has. They also got you a cute yellow t-shirt that says little monster on it and alien pj's with rocket ships that match your bedroom. And a drum with other instruments stored inside and a music cd to jam along with.

Your Nana and Grandpa S. sent gifts for you. Your Nana will be up to see you in two weeks with your cousins Joey and Brianna. I think great minds think alike because Nana also got you the ride on horse that hooks up to the t.v.. Both Nana and Grandma knew you would have great fun with this toy. Nana and Grandpa also sent a cute hat with earflaps that you seem to love (you keep it on). Cousins Joey and Brianna sent beautiful handmade cards. You can tell that they spent alot of time drawing pictures for you. They both sent there love and miss you very much.

Grampy and Nana D. got you two cute little track sweatsuits. One is blue and gold and the other was black and red. Auntie Val and Uncle Todd got you an elmo guitar. Auntie Emily, Uncle Noel and Kiera got you a book set with hide-n-seek flashcards and a set of mirror cards that let you look at your face in an airplane, or monkey or other cute scene. I love the learning activities they provide and the parent guides that came with the set give me different ideas of how to play with you and teach you knew things. They also gave you a set of Nick Jr. shape books that are stored in a shape sorter box and The Boys Book, How to Be the Best at everything. Again, great mind... Kiera made you a sparkly card that she decorated and drew a picture for you. Uncle Mark and Aunt Erin gave you a plush three little pigs set with soft houses that plastic pigs and the big bad wolf hide inside.

Woo, think that was everything. I hope I didn't forget anyone. You had so many wonderful presents it was hard to keep track of them all.

This video was the aftermath of your cake. You got a hang of smashing it pretty quickly and made a fine mess. We had to give you a quick rinse in the shower before opening your presents.

This movie was taken after all the guests had left and you were able to have a nice refreshing nap. When you woke you were able to check out your balloons and decorations a little better without all the excitement. Grandma D. and Grandpa S. stuck around to see you play with all of your new toys. It was a very fun day for everyone!

The next video was taken on your birthday, the day after your party. Daddy had taken the day off. We all got to do some more exploring with your new toys. Best of all Nana finally gets to see you walk.

It was a happy birthday baby boy.

Happy Thanksgiving

We hosted our very first Thanksgiving this year. It was a huge success! We really celebrated in style. Everything was homemade right down to the cornbread I made the stuffing with. We also brined our first turkey an boy, was it ever good. Neither your father nor I had ever had a brined turkey before. It made for some very moist meat. Grammy and Grampy joined us. I begged your Grammy to bring her famous candied yams and she was nice enough to humor me. We had turkey, stuffing, a turnip galette, pureed squash, rolls, peas, cranberry sauce, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and the aforementioned candied yams all smothered in gravy. We had a chocolate cream pie and caramel pumpkin cheesecake. The only things we didn't make where the peas and cranberry sauce. (I happen to prefer canned cranberry sauce and I love Lesueur peas with mushrooms and onions) You tasted most everything and loved it all!

I regret that I have gotten pretty behind on posting here lately, again. We have been extremely busy. I have a little notebook where I have been writing down our stories but have not had the discipline to post lately. So, I will try to relay some of those stories now. First I want to announce the biggest changes in you. YOU ARE WALKING! You had been taking some steps here and there but this last week you have started walking across rooms and have become much more steady. You are so proud of your new found independence. We are also very proud of you. Also we decided to finally call your first word. Sad that it has taken this long. You have been saying hello since about nine months-old. I was hesitant to call it because you didn't say it all the time, but you definitely use it in context. The first thing we do in the morning is look in the mirror next to your crib. Often you will wave at us in the mirror and call out "huwwo". Sometimes you grace others with your greeting but often you say it just for us. You called out hello to Grammy one day and she was so excited saying, "Did you here that? He just said hello!". I told her you had been saying this for awhile while waving and I thought maybe I was imaging it or being a crazy mother. She immediately dubbed your first word was definitely hello. You also say Hi and have started using the phrase "Oh wow" this last week.

In other news. We had been on a real house hunting tear for awhile. We were looking at houses almost every weekend. Unfortunately we did not find anything suitable in our price range. We did put in one offer which was rejected. We are taking a little break for the holidays. More than anything we would love to have our own house to call home. A yard for you to play in and a playroom for all your toys. I know this dream will be realized someday. It will be that much sweeter because we worked so hard for it.

We also celebrated a first birthday party for one of your playgroups. We did a gift exchange and had lots of fun with the other kids. We got a bubble lawnmower for one of the boys and the lone girl ( there's always one) got you a Touch and Teach Turtle Book. It sings songs, counts and teaches you about animals you love it! That same afternoon we met up at Grammy's for an early Thanksgiving. Yes, we had two. Your Aunt Belinda and cousins Meri and Brady were up visiting from North Carolina. Your Aunt Emily, Uncle Noel, and cousin Kiera also joined us. It was a very long day and by the end of it you had your very first cold. You finally got over this cold today. You also got a flu shot the day before all this excitement. Daddy and I got shots too.

If all the above excitement wasn't enough, we are celebrating your first birthday next Sunday. We will be having a small party with family at our house. We are so excited! We have had your birthday gifts, as well as most of your Christmas gifts, tucked away already wrapped for a couple of weeks now. Your Father and I have been hard at work making some pretty decorations for the big day. I, of course, will be making you a special cake and making cupcakes for all of our guests. I can't wait.

So I guess I am all caught up on big news. I do have some video and pics to share later. (it takes awhile to sort and upload) I really just wanted to make sure I got on here to give an update. Sometimes I procrastinate posting because the prospect of uploading is a little overwhelming sometimes when things are crazy. I promise to get some new pics up this weekend. Really.

Halloween

Yay, it's finally here. Your first Halloween! You have been practicing for the last two months by dressing up in your costume and getting a look at yourself in the mirror. Boy, am I gonna miss this costume when you outgrow it. You really get a kick out of it.Grandpa got you a great ride which we borrowed for Trick-or-Treating. This is the two of you going for a test drive.

You're checking with him to make sure this thing is safe.

We went trick-or-treating with a large group including Auntie Beth, Uncle Rick, and their girls. We keep there pics off of here for their privacy at their Mom's request.

You and me babe. Sadly, we forgot to get pics of Daddy. Who'dya think was holding the camera, silly?

Oh, how you love rattling Sammy's cage.

I had to include a closeup of those beautiful baby blues.

And another one. Vroom...vroom... look at you manning that wheel. A pro already!

Eventually, you ended up in the stroller. I should mention that Daddy had to run back a couple of blocks to get it.
And then you fell asleep. This was your first big outing, way past your bedtime. It was worth it!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Another Sunday at the Park

This will be my last catching up post of the night. I am pretty tired and I am happy with the progress I have made. This is an important lesson I hope to learn so I can teach you: progress not perfection. I've already explained how I feel about Sundays here, so let's get on with the pics.

Goodnight.

A Vist with Aunt Ellen

I am quite ashamed that during a visit with a good portion of the family your father and I managed to miss any opportunity of taking their photos for you. We are so used to shooting you we really missed the boat on this one.
Your Aunt (o.k. she's your Dad's aunt but, I don't think she'd appreciate the "great" title) was up from North Carolina visiting and the best shot we managed to get was this one with her foot in the background. Nice, huh?

You were really enjoying this rocking chair. It is your Uncle Bob's (another "great" guy), he's a little big for it nowadays so you got the honors.

You were having a ton of fun rocking.

We did manage to get a picture of you with Grammy. Oh, and the back of Uncle Mark's head. And that's why I have this blog, to celebrate everyday with you and fill in all the little details I missed.

Catching Up

Technical difficulties have stalled my blogging. To make a long, boring story short, Karl had to back up all of our files to another hard drive, wipe this computer clean, and reinstall everything. Not fun. I am back up and running now. I did realize as I started to post that I had to reinstall CS3 and our camera software first. So now I will do my best to catch up before something else distracts me.

These pictures were taken after returning home from Auntie Beth's birthday party. You were so well-behaved. I thought the loud and large crowd would scare you but you were quite the personality. You were crawling up to complete strangers and climbing up their pant legs, flashing your best, aren't I adorable?, smile. I think you are just very comfortable there. You love playing with Sammy ( the dog) and all the attention Auntie Beth and her girls shower on you.





I sometimes wonder where you get the Evil Knievel streak from. I don't think I was that much of a daredevil. You have been scaling the couch for sometime. And now this....

Suddenly all of your toys have become step stools or climbing structures. Actually I have become an obstacle course for you, you love climbing over me when I lay on the floor.

I am not looking forward to the days when you start climbing trees!

Sundays are for Family

I miss the old Blue Collar laws. Once upon a time Sundays were for rest, relaxation, and reconnecting with loved ones. Stores were not open to lure one with retail therapy. We are making a conscious effort to revive the tradition.

To spend one sacred day with the ones we love.

To slow down and cacth our breath.
To enjoy the moment

To have fun.

To be together.

Safety First

When we moved into this apartment we knew we had a very important project to deal with ASAP. Our uncovered radiators were hot! Now that Teige is pulling up on things, including the radiators, this become a very urgent problem. We needed some radiator covers STAT.

We started looking around online and found that radiator covers start at around $150. With 5 radiators in our place this was not an option, especially in a rental. We found some plans to construct covers online. Sadly, our tool supply is pretty limited.

Thankfully, we have a very handy man in our family. Grandpa (a.k.a Steve, a.k.a mom's better half ) spent the better half of last week constructing these covers for us. (Karl helped a little)

Aren't they beautiful. Such an improvement not only to Teige's environment but also the entire aesthetic of our place. I wish I wasn't too lazy to search for a before picture for you... but I am. We are so pleased with the end result. Thank you Steve, thank you for selflessly offering your expertise, time, and resources, thank you for giving us peace of mind for our child's safety, can't say it enough thank you.

Apple Picking

Last weekend we went apple picking with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Kiera. It was alot of fun. This weekend we will be making apple crisp with our pickings. If you have any good apple recipes please send them my way.

If you want to see more pics of Teige please visit my mom's blog here. She has some great pics and videos through Grandma's eyes.