One Year Old

My baby, my little boy, is one year old today. You see that tiny little foot up there? That foot and and the other one are now big chunky feet that can't stay in a pair of shoes due to the thickness of them. Those thick feet go right along with the big body that my baby now resides in.

How can it be that one year has passed already? I still pretty much feel the same way about his birthday as I did two months ago. You'd think time would make me get used to the fact that his birthday is here, but I simply cannot believe that my baby is a year old. I look at him and think, where did my baby go? I swear it was just yesterday that he was placed in my arms and I breathed him in with all of my senses...

• His smell, oh so yummy, warm and new.



• His taste, kissing a fresh born baby's plump little cheeks tastes like heaven.



• His touch, that soft, warm, fuzzy little baby skin so fresh and new. Feeling his body lying gently on mine, skin to skin, sharing our warmth with each other. My fingers gently investigating each of his beautiful baby parts...touching his nose, his cheeks, his hands, his ears. The feel of his peach fuzz hair on my cheek as he sleeps on my chest.



• His sound, boy did his lungs work. My ears got to meet him before my eyes did. The doctor even exclaimed that he had never heard a baby that loud. But he had other sounds...his soft breathing as he would sleep and his gentle cooing during and after nursing.
  


• His sight, this makes me cry as I think of it. This is the most precious to me. After being the last to meet my daughter when she was born, the sight of my son, moments after birth, is such a gift. I can still see his chubby wet little body being held up in the hands of the doctor for me to see. Seeing the face that I had waited the entire pregnancy to see was amazing. That image is forever etched in my mind.

So what did I learn today? Today's lesson is a lesson I have been learning over the past 4 years of parenthood. It is a lesson that I have especially learned this past year. Time is precious. Time is fleeting. Cherish each moment. I know that in the blink of an eye, he'll be a grown man.

Happy birthday, my little one. I sure do love you!

Pink Dolphins

"Pink dolphins live in the South China Sea. They look pink because of red blood vessels near the surface of their white skin." I didn't even know there was such a thing as pink dolphins so I surely didn't know that about their blood making them pink! Kinda funny, I learned something today from my kid's new toy!

That above quote is from the tag from the Animal Planet dolphin that my daughter picked out today at the toy store. I went there with her to let her pick out a special present for her brother just from her. After she found a gift for him, I let her get this dolphin for herself for being such a great big sister. Yes, I know, I'm a sucker! She does love that Pink dolphin. She named her Princess Kaloosta and she has been showered with kisses and introduced to all of the stuffed animals in her room. Currently Princess Kaloosta and my own princess are sound asleep snuggling together in bed.

Date Night

Tonight my Hubby and I had a date night. We had planned on going to a MOPS parents picnic but decided instead that a night out by ourselves would be better. We already had a babysitter so it worked perfectly. Dinner and a bookstore...not too exciting but that is definitely our idea of a great night out without kiddos.
We went to the Olive garden and it was the first time that I have been there and not gotten a pasta dish. I tried their mixed grill and it was delicious. The meat tasted great but it was the sides that were to die for. The grilled veggies were yellow squash and zucchini. Mmmmm, so good. The perfect dish to have while waiting for all those summer veggies to grow. The other side was Tuscan Potatoes. I think that I could have just had the potatoes and I would have been happy. They were so-o-o-o-o delicious! I stepped outside of the box, I tried something new and boy, was it a good experience. Lesson learned, indeed!
Then I found a great book on the clearance shelves at the bookstore. It's called Storytime Craft Book by Kathy Ross Sir. It has a craft to go with each of the many familiar fairy tales, nursery rhymes, stories and songs that are included in the book. I am so excited to get going on this book. The illustrations and instructions seem to be very clear. The kiddos and I are going to have fun time discoving new crafts to go with our storytime favorites. I love finding a gem of a book that I've never heard of before. Such a pleasant surprise. Finding it for $5 is just icing on the cake!

More Freezer Paper Stencils

I already confessed that I have a new addiction. That addiction is only getting worse. If I see any piece of plain material, I envision a stencil on it. When I see a cute picture, I envision it in silhouette. Needless to say, I am really enjoying exploring what I can do with freezer paper stencils. Today we were to attend a birthday party for a special little girl. I decided that I had just enough time to make her a birthday shirt.

This is my first one using an X-acto knife. On the others, I have used my Fiskars cutting tool. It was incredibly easy to use and I am pleased with the result. I did the bird with the X-acto and the letters with the Fiskars tool.

Then, I used the left over bird scrap to make another shirt. This created the negative image of the original bird from the toddler shirt. I hadn't tried using the scaps for the negative image before but today I thought I would give it a try. It's a nice way to use the left over scraps. Blogger decided that this picture needed to be vertical. I've spent way too much time trying to get it horizontal...grrrr.

Not sure where this shirt is headed. Perhaps the mama of the birthday girl would like it.

Visitors Flying In

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Today we had a bunch of visitors fly into our yard for a visit. We normally have quite a few birds around our yard. We have two bird feeders that are visited quite frequently. The back half of our yard is wooded, so we check out the birds daily. On a typical day, we see Robins, Cardinals, Red-winged Blackbirds, Chickadees, and Blackbirds. Those are our daily visitors. They are my daughters friends. She loves looking for them.

Today, she spotted a Robin sitting on our fence. When it turned around, it had the biggest, puffed out belly I have ever seen on a bird. It's very hard for me to tell the difference between a male and female Robin. I would guess that it was a male because it's colors were really vibrant. My daughter is convinced that it was a mommy Robin with a baby in her tummy. I tried to research to figure it out and I learned a lot but I'm still not sure if it was a male or female. Here's a great site with information about Robins.

Last week, we put out our daughter's hummingbird feeder that she received in her Easter basket. We didn't buy the pre-made nectar from the store, we decided to try to make our own. We mixed 3 parts water with 1 part sugar. Well, it worked. Today we had a hummingbird at the feeder! Our daughter was so excited! Her bird books talk about how small they are and how they hover. She was so excited to see it in her own back yard. She called Daddy at work and both sets of grandparents to tell them about it! We learned that Hummingbirds like homemade nectar and they actually exist in our backyard! Here's the best picture I got...

Then, we saw a female Oriole trying to untie the twine on our nature tent. She sat up there pecking and pulling at that string while my daughter and I sat at the kitchen table and watched. She thought it was hilarious watching that Oriole tugging at her tent. It was fascinating to watch! Years ago, my father-in-law swore that he saw an Oriole in our yard. It kind of became a joke about the elusive Oriole. Both my husband and I have thought that we caught glimpses of one but we were never confident that it was truly what we saw. Well, today we saw it. Orioles exist in our backyard as well! I learned about the differences about male and female Orioles here.

Sorry about the grainy pictures. My little camera is fine for daily pictures but it definitely isn't for capturing pictures of birds from a distance.

I am so happy that we had all of these visitors today. I only hope that they return often. That would definitely make my little girl's day!

Paper Problems

Have you ever gone to the closet to get a new roll of toilet paper only to find out that it's all gone? That happened to me. Not wanting to make the trek to the store, I asked my hubby to pick some up. He was already headed to Aldi and figured he could buy some there. They only had their off brand...not the brand we would normally buy. He picked some up anyways thinking it was better than nothing. Honestly, it's the worst stuff I have ever used. Gas stations have better toilet paper in their bathrooms. Heck, even outhouses have better! It's like using the tissue paper used for gift bags. It's bad. I learned today that some things are fine to buy generic but TP is not one of those things.

My Little Drummer Boy

Oh, man, do I wish I had pictures!!!

My hubby had the day off today and we took a trip to my favorite restaurant. It was yummy and good but that's not what I learned.

On to the good stuff...

I learned that I've got myself a little drummer boy! Didn't know it but he loves drums! We went to Guitar Center after lunch to drool a little and spend some time in wishful thinking land. While my hubby was engulfed in trying out effects pedals for his guitar, the kids and I wandered over to the drum section. There was a fantastic employee who gave both kids a set of drumsticks and encouraged them to bang away. Truthfully, she did this. I asked her repeatedly if it was OK and her response was that all the things in that section were meant to be banged on. Well, you don't have to tell my kiddos twice! We banged and banged and banged! I knew my daughter would love this...she's done it before. But I wasn't sure about the baby. He LOVED it! Anything that came within arms reach became a drum for him. He got the concept right away and I think he could have stayed there all afternoon. After today, we are definitely going to try to have a Sound Box made for him by his birthday...he'll love it!