Little Artist

Keeping Wilson busy while I prepare dinner is harder then any full 8 hour day in the office. Tonight when Michael walked in the door at 5:35 PM, he asked me if I was ok. I exasperatedly told him I was fine, just tired. Then he asked me how long Wilson and I had been home. I looked at my watch and realized it had only been 25 minutes! 

I had been chasing W from the kitchen to the living room while he asked for snacks and turned the TV on and off. Just before Michael walked through the door, I had found a great way to occupy the little guy. We were planning and art project. I have a bunch of blank canvas around the house, just in case I get the bug to do a painting (something I wish I made more time to do). So I taped the letters L,O,V and E onto 4 of them and gave Wilson the crayons. 

After dinner-where Wils chose to only eat sweet potato-we headed outside to start the real artwork.

The finished product isn't too bad. It will be a cute addition to the basement play area!

Hot Dog!

Wilson clearly has a favorite food.

Melt Down

Lindsay and I have been friends since  my senior year of high school. We lived together for a bit in college and have shared in many of life's milestones. We were both engaged within the same week. We were bridesmaids in the other's wedding, just 6 weeks apart. We found out we were pregnant about 8 weeks apart. And in 2011 we gave birth to our first born children just 3 weeks apart.

Last weekend Lindsay, her husband Jamie (who is also Michael's fraternity brother) and their sweet baby girl, Zella drove from KY for a long weekend in VA.We were so excited to get to spend some time with the kiddos together!

On Saturday, after a nice long nap, we put the kids in their swimwear and let them play in the yard with the baby pool and water table. The grown ups were so pleased that the backyard was shaded and with the nice warm breeze blowing, we were quite comfortable. We gave each of our soaking wet kiddos a yummy popcsicle to enjoy. Everyone seemed to be happy to have a treat.

Until they got cold! Zella and Wil looked at one another and began to cry. We kept saying "what's wrong? You both have a popsicle." and tried to help them. They kept looking at each other as if to say "We're still mad, right?"  THEN we noticed they were shivering. Between the wet bathing suits and frozen goodies, they were FREEZING!

Man, we're good parents! ha.

 We had a wonderful time with our friends and can't wait to spend more time with them again when we visit KY in December!

First Haircut.

Wilson had his first official haircut last night. It was one year, to the day, from when we brought the little man home from the hospital.  I had my regularly scheduled appointment with Michelle at Trendbenders and we packed up lots of snacks and brought Wilson along.

 Michelle has been cutting my hair for 5 years now. I went to her in January of 2007 to whip my head into shape before our wedding and I've trusted her ever since. At my last appointment we discussed Wilson's first haircut and she offered to do it for us free of charge. Such a sweet lady! (This was great, because Michael had been saying I was going to have to attempt to cut Wilson's hair on my own. No Thank You!)

Michelle even gave Wilson his first lollipop as a distraction.

One Year.

All Moms say "They grow up so fast!" And boy are they right. All day long I've been thinking each hour about what we were doing a year ago today. Life changed in an instant when Wilson entered the world at 6:54pm. 

At one year, Wilson is walking and sometimes running every place we'll let him. He still falls down A LOT but that doesn't seem to stop him. He can say Mama and Dada and several other words that all sound a like to most people. Official one year stats will be determined tomorrow at our baby well visit. 

 He is such a happy sweet little boy.

I got a little sappy and put together this slideshow of the last year. Enjoy. 

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar PARTY!

Yesterday many friends and family joined us to celebrate Wilson's first birthday. My sister flew in from TN last week to spend some of her spring break with us and help us with our party prep. Boy, are we ever lucky to have Aunt Katie! She is busy going to grad school to earn her Masters in Elementary education and she can decorate like it's no one's business! 

Here are a few shots from the day.

Welcome, Friends!

The party is right through here.

Aunt Katie posted the entire story on the wall for everyone to enjoy.

 

Yummy snacks.

Cake, courtesy of Wegman's. Fabulous personalized cake flags, courtesy of our pal, Ashley.

Special small cake for the birthday boy!

"Guest book" copy of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Birthday Cake Martinis for the grown ups. Water, Lemonade, and fresh squeezed "Caterpillar Juice" for the not so grown ups.

Seat of honor. Complete with Kentucky bib for game day!

Adorable wrapping paper, colored by Colin.

The shopping cart was a hit with all of the kids. The animals from Noah's Ark got several rides...and bites of cake.

oops. We almost forgot about the balloon caterpillar.

Almost One.

We are busy with plans for Wilson's FIRST birthday party. Along with the house projects, we've been planning for food and friends to celebrate with us in less then two weeks. This past weekend we went over to our dear friend Katie's for a little cake smash photo session. Katie has been building her photography portfolio for the last few years and she is really doing an awesome job. Here is the sneak peek she gave us. I can't wait to check out the rest. The session was so.much.fun!

I also created this canvas for the front door on the big day. I wanted to do something cute and themed for the party and this was really easy. I used dotted tissue paper for the back ground and Modge Podged that, the main part of the sun, and the one. Then I painted the sun's rays and the caterpillar crawling from the hole. I plan to trim the edges with blue ribbon and hang it with a big green bow. I finished this while Wilson took his nap yesterday afternoon and when he saw it he was very excited!

Slam Dunk.

It is no secret that we love basketball in our house. Michael has talked about playing ball with Wilson since before he was born. Last night he brought out the Fisher Price Basketball Goal to give it a try. 

11.

Wilson is 11 months old and the 1st Birthday party planning is in full force! He has been walking for about 3 weeks now and is practically running some days. The baby babbles are non stop but he still only really says three words. Mama, Dada, and Dog.  This little guy LOVES to eat. He started eating "school" lunch and really enjoys it. It has been a lot of fun to take him to a few restaurants and order from the kids menu. He does a great job and leaves a nice little mess :-) It seems that his favorite food is either blueberry muffins or blueberry bagels.

Wil has had a few ear infections over the fall and winter. Just this morning he woke up with a croupy cough and we took him to the doctor to discover yet another ear infection. :-( He is a real trooper though. You wouldn't even know he was sick if it weren't for the runny nose and wheezing. Poor little buddy.

One Small Step.

I know we always talk about how quickly Wilson changes, but it really is true! On Monday evening we tried and tried to get him to take a few steps on his own. He had done it by "accident" a few times and they have been practicing at school. But we had not been very successful in the practice of walking from Mommy to Daddy. 

Yesterday when Wilson came home from 'school' we were enjoying some play time in the basement, before a yummy dinner of black beans and shredded chicken for the little man. All of the sudden he started taking one step between the sofa and the ottoman. Then again between the sofa and the bean bag. I grabbed the video camera to try to catch it.

Immediately after we shot this video and I put the phone down, I sat down on the floor to play some more. That's when the little guy took 5 whole steps in a row between Mommy and Daddy! We were so very excited. Big night in our house. Very big night.  

10.

It is hard to believe that in just 8ish more weeks we'll be celebrating Wilson's first birthday! He still isn't walking but he has taken a couple of steps on his own. Mama has some mixed emotions about this next phase too. I can't wait to see him on the go but I can't believe he's getting so big. He is chattering up a storm every day with  "ba ba ba la la la ga ga ga ah ah ah." And he seems to pick up a new sound every day.  Unfortunately our little man has made quite a few visits to the doctor lately. With the winter in full force, he has had his fair share of ear infections. He really is a trooper though, and remains his chipper self most of the time. We're lucky.

This months photo shoot was the toughest one yet. Here's the blooper reel.