Water Baby

V loves to swim. He's totally fearless.

And REALLY, have you ever seen a cuter baby? I'm just saying...

I am still woefully behind on pictures from the birthday- V and I went to Baltimore to see Anne and Dennis which cut way down on my blogging time...but here's a cute snapshot of my little water baby in the pool at our swim class on Saturday morning.

Good news, bad news

Good news: Louise's house went under contract!

Bad news: I drew the short straw and spent today driving to and from Bedford.

Pics from the weekend to be posted as soon as I have five minutes to call my own...

Jacques Penne: the first year final chapter

So today, we got the last month pics taken with Vake. It was really a little sad to realize that weren't going to be seeing our buddy Lindsay once a month any more.


Look at the big boy shoes on my little munchman.

Happy first year, little man- it has been a GREAT ride and I wouldn't trade it for anything. You're the best thing your dad or I has ever done.

Exercise Class

In an attempt to give Taren a little break from the February at-home everyday winter blahs, we signed the boys up for gymnastics class. They think it is spectacular and it helps them get out...
I love the monkey bars. Just like my Uncle Neil loves monkeys. And bars.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Aquarium From Uncle Brook

Vake LOVES aquariums...and he LOVES this aquarium from Uncle Brook. Who is also a birthday boy this week!

Thanks Uncle Brook.

E and I are having a crazy week- we think we are going to need to buy a new car, although we are going to try to gut it out with the Audi until April. In other new and exciting news, I reupped with Weight Watchers to try to lose the last 25 odd pounds.

And it is Lent. I am giving up wine I know for sure and chocolate I think...

Crazy Weekend.

Seriously.

Punctuated by moving all of Louise's stuff into Westminster Canterbury (Alison); car problems again! (Alison); Mardi Gras luncheon prep (Eric); Romeo and Juliet tickets with our neighbors (Alison and Eric); Sunday School (Alison); Mardi Gras brunch (Eric, Alison and Vake) and moving Louise in (Eric, Alison and Vake).

And then one lost cell phone. (Alison)

Seriously.

We'll have pics of V playing with his new toys from his birthday up hopefully tomorrow...

Quotation of the Day

From the nurse at Dr. Schweiker's office.

"He's making his own growth curve."

That's right. Still off the charts for all three. Weight: 30 pounds six ounces. Height: 33 inches.

Who's One?

Birthday Boy!

What a day! We woke up to this!!!!
And Mommy wound up having an unexpected snow day!!!! We went to lunch with Taren, Huff and Grandmary at the New York Deli on Cary Street. Vakie and Huffalicious split a grilled cheese and some chicken fingers. Yum. We wanted to stay for birthday dessert but someone was too fussy...

Then we came home and played for a little bit. And tried to take a nap but were too revved up about the birthday.

So we rested while Mommy got the animal menagerie on the table.

Sorry this pic is so crummy- it is the dining room chandelier all gussied up.

After our nap, we changed into our par-tay outfit to wait for Daddy, Grandmary, Aunt Martha, Uncle Neil, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Rob and Henry and Cornelia.

And then we had dinner- lasagne. Yum.

And all of a sudden, it was CAKE TIME. Dee-licious. Daddy and Mommy made me a German Chocolate Cake. With the "family" recipe from the back of the box.

And everyone sang a song to me. And then I ate cake.

Everyone seemed to have fun even though the house was freezing.

And then I got to open my presents.

Uncle Neil got me a dragon. His name is Custard.

By 4 p.m. on 2/10/2009

Fresh Out of Babies at Six North

It's sad but true. I'm fresh out of babies here at Six North. Can you believe it?

I love my little boy and I cannot believe how much he's changed this year- take a look at this slideshow from 2.10.2009.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Waiting Room

Last year at about this time, Eric was getting Buz and Ned's Barbecue for our friends and we were making a pool to try to decide how big Vake would be. Martha was the winner- although I have no idea what she said she thought the weight would be.

Eric and I had been to the doctor's office earlier that day for an ultrasound- they had told us that Vake was so big (11 pounds 11 ounces) that they would not permit me to try childbirth- it was going to be a scheduled c-section all the way. (It turned out that they guessed about two pounds too heavy but who knew?)

I was anxious but not too anxious. Mostly I just felt sick and humongous. And pretty relieved that someone was going to make the whole pregnancy process be over!!!!

The scheduled c-section is weird that way- I was admitted to the hospital at 1 and by 3:25 we had a baby. Eric went to work that morning. I thought about going but changed my mind when I realized that Anne could make it.

It was a beautiful day the day Vake was born- not like today at all...

Unbelievable that it has been a year.

The Snow! The Snow!

This weekend, we caught the blizzard, part II. I will tell you that one thing that I NEVER miss about Philadelphia is the weather. At the end of the day, I hate being cold and in Philadelphia, the snow/cold seemed to last and last.

By Sunday, we were able to get back out and we drove over to see our friends Chuck and Julie- they live near CCV and invited us to do some sledding!

Daddy and Vakey were the first to give it a shot. Here they are "prerun" waiting to head down the hill.

Halfway down, picking up speed and looking professional. Vake DID not like getting snow in his face, but liked the sliding.

Then it was my turn with Vake. I am NOT A GOOD SLEDDER. And poor Vake and I got turned around so that we went down the back half facing up the hill. I was screaming which of course totally scared Vake to death.

But we did get a cute "presled" picture out of it. Thank God no one took a post-sled pic!

Nap Schedule...

We are in the process of moving from two daytime naps to just one. Yuck. Sometimes little V can manage, sometimes he cannot and like today, we are stuck in a funny no-man's-land of putting him down for a nap at 11:30.

Anyone with good ideas on the whole nap scenario? Like when you dropped the morning nap and how it went? I'd love to hear from you...

It's almost that time of year again...

In less than two weeks, Eric and I will celebrate our second anniversary and in less than a week, Vake's turning one! What a fun series of celebrations we are having!

And, this week, I swapped emails back and forth with the cute cute woman who was our wedding planner on Orcas. I love what she did for us and how the wedding was totally Eric and me, but with an attention to detail that I never could have had from 4,000 miles away. I love that she "got" both of us (probably due to the fact that she is a New Yorker living the Pacific NW).

If you have time, check out her blog...http://patinafloral.typepad.com/

Alfalfa

Someone's been going to bed with wet hair...

Comments now available!

Ok, Eric and Neil complained that they could not comment on the blog- apparently I had it set in a way that, while it eliminated anonymous comments, also meant that you had to have a google account.

Send me a comment! If you want...

Heads Up on the Kids Layne Sale

Hey- just got this update for Jennifer- I am so excited for this sale- it is the DAY AFTER TOMORROW...

The Kids Layne sale location has been moved, our new location at Willow Lawn Mall is located beside Nostalgia Plus, near the Barksdale Theater. Between running a small business and motherhood, we are learning to be flexible and roll with the punches (even the really hard hitting onesJ)- so please tell your friends and we are so sorry for the inconvenience.

WEATHER NOTICE:
We will be keeping an eye on the weather this week. Our preview sale on Thursday night and public sale on Friday will go as planned. If the weather forecast changes and conditions are unsafe, we will let you know if our sale hours change.

Thurs Feb 4: Preview Sale- Premier Consignors & Premier Volunteers: 5-9pm
Preview Sale- Consignors & Volunteers: 6-9pm
Preview Sale- Marketers: 7-9pm
Fri Feb 5th: Pregnant Moms and (not-so-pregnant) Grandparents: 8am-7pm
Public Sale: 9am-7pm
Sat Feb 6: Public Sale: 8am-5pm
Sun Feb 7: Public Sale: 9am-1pm

Tick-tock

Vake's fascinated by clocks. Truly fascinated. Who would have ever guessed that his first word (after Dada, naturellement) would be tick-tock. He seems to know EXACTLY what noise the clock makes- totally different from most of his happy babble.

I had a snow day today: Taren and I held down the fort all day long- every day that I spend with her is another day that I respect even more everything she does and does in a good mood.

Vake's so fun and so funny right now but very needy. And a constant motion machine. Who wants whoever's playing with him to be fully engaged- he's extremely intense and has no sympathy for a desire to read or do something else...

But here's little pumpkin telling the world what the clock says.