Happy Birthday, Little Button!

Who, me?

Well, yeah, you! You were responsible for tearing up the place today at your one year check up at the doctor's office. But it's ok. We expect nothing less from our CrazyAna!







She had a good time, up until her shots. But before that we found out that she weighs 18 pounds 15 ounces so compared to her birth weight of 6 pounds 15 ounces she gained about a pound a month in her short little life!

She's getting her two top teeth finally, to match the two bottom ones which have been there lonely for about six months. She's growing just beautifully and we're so blessed to have a healthy baby girl.

We celebrated her birthday over the weekend at Grandma's house with her godparents, Ann and Eric. It was a very nice time! I made a little cake for our little button that was decorated with little button sugar cookies. It was so fun to make. Sofia and I have taken to calling Ana our "Li'l Butt'n" and Sofia had the idea of making her a button cake and so we did. Just so she could tear right into it.



There were a variety of emotions as you can see in these pictures. She went from confusion, to joy, to terror and back to joy. Once she got a good bite of that cake she was happy.























It was a wonderful day! I was so overwhelmed by how far we have come in the last year. Ana has been such a wonderful addition to our family but it was not without it's challenges to adjust to adding another little one. So spending a day devoted to sweet Ana was so cathartic. Dan, Sofia and I would go into her room after she woke up from her naps singing Happy Birthday to her and you could just see the pure joy radiating from her smile and coming from her clapping hands at all of the attention. We all just love her so much. Especially her big Sis. The other day in the car Sofia was making funny noises that would make Ana laugh. It's like music for my heart to hear that and then I hear Sofia say, almost as if to herself, "I love hearing Ana laugh." There is so much love in our family and it's grown even more since Ana has joined us.

We are so very blessed. Happy first birthday, our Li'l Butt'n!

Dan's Birthday Weekend and Galveston

Dan turned 39 this year. Can you believe a man who thinks that a sock monkey with a precariously placed tail is worth taking a photo of can possibly be on the brink of turning 40?



Well, it's true. And I gathered all his friends to meet us downtown at our old stomping grounds for a surprise celebration. And he was indeed surprised. It was a wonderful time and I think he was touched with how many people came. People from different times of his life and people who traveled from other cities just to wish him well. It was really, really fun. And he really, really deserved a fun night to celebrate!



We had a great time. And Emi came in with a surprise for Sofia - Matthew! Sofia was so surprised that she was literally speechless. But they had a great time. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to not get a single photo of the two of them.

The next day, after everyone left, Dan spontaneously decided we should spend a night in Galveston. So we did. We stayed at the Harbor House right on the bay. It was so nice to be together, just the four of us.

We relaxed in the hotel room,





walked along the Strand,



and ate dinner outside right on the bay.



The next morning after getting ready



we walked to Sunflower Bakery for breakfast.



On the way we strolled down Postoffice Street,



and went right past the house where Dan and I lived for the first three years of our marriage. It brought back so many memories.



Here you can see our house with the ANICO building, where I worked so miserably, in the background.



We haven't really been back to Galveston since Hurricane Ike came through in 2008 and the most noticeable changes were how clean everything looked since being put back together and the lack of trees. We remembered Postoffice Street being lined with big, old trees. And now there are mostly small new trees or old stumps. It was still a beautiful walk. The old houses really look great for having survived so much over the past 100 plus years. I liked this one.



After breakfast we went back to the hotel, packed up



and headed to the beach. Luckily for me a storm was blowing in so the beach trip was short. Galveston beaches have not changed - they're still full of seaweed and brown water. But Sofia didn't care. She and Dad had fun playing in the sand.



And Ana enjoyed her first trip to the beach. I promised her we'd show her a better beach trip this summer.



It was a wonderful short trip to Galveston. It will be nice to go back again soon.

Parties, Parties, Parties!

My party adventures started late last month when my (pregnant) friend Bobby and I threw a very casual shower for our other (pregnant) friend, Lindsey.



Lindsey has an almost-two year old, Isaiah, who's cuteness has been featured on this blog before, so she didn't need too much stuff in the baby department. But since the next baby was to be a girl we had to shower her with pink stuff and dresses! We had a lot of fun.



Bobby, Lindsey and I all met while working at ANICO in Galveston and we've remained close. We have lunch once a week and were sad to see Lindsey put on bed rest a couple of weeks before Evie's birth. And soon Bobby will be giving birth to her little man and I'll be left all alone with no one but Michael Strickland to lunch with... I'm already missing my friends!!!!

March 13, 2010 - An Over-Scheduled Mommy Calendar Day
On this day, Sofia had been invited to two birthday parties, and me a baby shower. Funny, Dan had been scheduled to work in the ER that day. Coincidence? Doubt it. It didn't matter though, Sofia was a trooper, nary a meltdown and we ended up having a really fun day. I mean, cake three times in one day, how can any kid complain?

10:30 am - We head to a joint birthday party at a Bouncy House place for two of Sofia's friends from school, Kyle and Aiden. It was at the same place we'd been to before for another birthday party and Sofia was rather scared of the bounce house but this time she was far more adventurous. I didn't get any pictures that weren't big blurs of bouncing kids but I can tell you, she had fun!

She got to sit next to the birthday-boy, Aiden, who got his cake first. I noticed what a polite little girl she is as she sat next to him and his big serving of cake. She waited patiently for her own cupcake but I swear to you her gaze did not move from Aiden's cake for a second.



Here's a shot of Sofia's version of a hug. She walks up to Aiden and puts her cheek on him.



Here she is crying when Kyle decides he doesn't want a hug.



Sofia's favorite teacher from her old classroom who she affectionately calls, Fluffy, was there too.



11:30 am - the party is over and I have to drive 30 minutes south to get to Bobby's 2:00 baby shower. In hopes that Sofia would nap on the way I gave her the forbidden-except-in-your-crib-paci. It worked! And she got in a 20 minute nap.

We still had some time to kill. So I headed to Babies R Us to get some more presents for Bobby and then Sofia and I stopped at McDonald's for a mommy-daughter lunch. It was fun!

2:00 - Bobby's shower. Sofia had fun bringing all of the presents to Bobby



and playing with all of baby Hodge's new toys,



and helping herself to the snack table.



5:00 - we headed even further south to celebrate Mackenzie's 4th birthday. Mackenzie's mom, Kristy, is yet another one of the ANICO girls I worked with. She and her family live in San Antonio now but were in town visiting her in-laws where the birthday party was held.

We walked in and both of her girls were wearing the exact same shirt as Sofia. It was completely unplanned and completely hilarious! It was impossible to get 3 children under the age of 4 in one picture but here are Sofia and Mackenzie in their matching shirts,



and Sofia and Cameron, who are only 9 days apart, in their matching shirts. So cute!



Sofia had a blast with the girls! It was a backyard dream for her too with swings and bubbles and yet another bouncy house.





Baby Nolan had fun too,



and even let Bobby practice holding a little boy.



And Sofia got to eat her third piece of cake in one day!



Sofia fell straight to sleep when we got home and I fell straight onto the couch with a nice, cold adult beverage. It was a fun day, from 10am - 9pm, nonstop! I wasn't sure what to expect out of Sofia but she was really great all day. All in all it was a fun mommy-daughter day!!!

January Happenings

Here are some of the fun things Sofia was up to in January...

Happy Birthday ... Again!

Having a child born on December 25th will probably prove to be complicated the older this little girl gets. I absolutely loved the idea that she was born on Christmas day. Her birth, a surprise happening on Chirstmas day, had so much meaning to me and it was a beautiful way to end a horrible year. So it always bugged me a bit when strangers would lament the fact that her birthday was on Christmas. "Poor girl," they would say, "she'll get gypped on presents," or "she'll get lost in the shuffle, etc."

On the way to the hospital in total shock and surprise I said to Dan, "I can't believe she'll be born on Christmas Day." and his immediate response was, "Well, we'll have to give her a birthday party in the summer with her friends." Who knows if that's what we'll end up doing; I think every year will depend on the circumstances and her own wishes. The first year it didn't matter - she was too young to care - and we had a big bash at Bobo's house. This year was a bit more low-key. It did prove to be more work since there is so much going on with Christmas preparations too, so that's partly why it was more low-key.

I think we'll always celebrate it on Christmas night but as she gets older and makes friends we'll decide how to celebrate it with her friends. This year I just decided to put her cute little birthday cake dress back on and bring some cupcakes to day care. I left the camera with Sherry, one of her favorite teachers from her old classroom and let her document the "party." I also sent a little present so she'd have something to open. It was very impromptu and last minute but I'm guessing it will be the last year I can get away with that!













Children's Museum with Isaiah

Thursday nights at the Children's Museum is free so my friend Lindsey and I decided to take the kids to play. The Museum District is right by the Texas Medical Center and since both our husbands work there we had a little family date night. Sofia absolutely adores Isaiah so it was a lot of fun for all of us.











They had these cool chairs you could sit in and pulley the kids up. Sofia cried bloody murder so this is as far up as she got. Isaiah is a brave little boy though and went way high.





Afterward we went to dinner together where the kids went crazy...



and the dads showed off their dorkiness. It was a really fun night!



Nolan's Birthday Party

Sofia's favorite friends at school are all little boys: Kyle, Nolan, Aaden and Bennett especially. So when she was invited to Nolan's 2nd birthday party I knew it was something we couldn't miss. The party was at a Bounce House facility and I thought she'd LOVE it but alas our little princess was scared. I thought maybe forcing her to go down the slide would prove to her just how fun this place was. But that didn't really work. Check out her face in these pics. She's like, "Get me outta here!"







It was funny though that once we got her around her friends and she saw that they were having fun she was alright. Already succumbing to peer pressure... at such a young age. But, whatever works! Notice how much happier she is in these pics.







She looked like such a big girl sitting around the birthday table. This was the first birthday party she'd been invited to and I felt like she was such a big kid now.



Her boys, Aaden, Nolan and Kyle.



Her sweet daddy helping her with her cupcake.



More cupcake, mommy?



Riding the Train at Hermann Park

It was a beautiful day one Sunday so we decided to take Sofia to ride the train at Hermann Park. I underestimated just how much she'd love it. She cried when we left, talked about it for days after (the crying and the train - she always talks about when she cries) and is now in love with trains. So the other day, sick of Barney, I put Thomas the Train on for her and it seems she now has a favorite show. She calls it Phomas. The only problem is that the entire episode all she does is point to the screen and say, "Train, mommy, train. Green train, mommy, blue train, blue train, mommy. Blue train sad. Train has a boo-boo. Elephant! Oooh, train, mommy. Train!" So it looks like we may be back to Barney soon since he's like a hypnotist who keeps my kid quiet. Mother of the year, I know!

I digress; here are the cute pics from the train...








And On a Final Note...

Why would Snoopy need that tiny ol' cowboy hat when it would look so cute on little Sofs? I love that smile!