Crackin me Up!

When Thing one and Thing Two need to go outside, Bub likes to stand at the window and do raspberries and blow fishes on the window. It seriously has me laughing outside while he is doing it. And the sound is all him. If you need a laugh today this will do it for you!

One year old shots

It is hard to imagine how much this 23 pounds has changed my life. And the best thing about him is that he is all smiles and so happy! Sorry they are almost 2 months late, but better late than never. Thanks again to Mellor Photography for doing such a great job at capturing his cute personality!

Things that make you go huh

There are many things about being a mother that often make me laugh. One thing that usually makes me smile is play time. I love to play with the toys that often leave me laughing. Baby has two puzzles that the first time I played with them I was wondering what illegal substance the creator(s) were on. They look like two pretty innocent puzzles until you lift up a few of the pieces.
First one is a puzzle of a fire station, police station, and hospital:

(innocent enough)
I enjoy the mother who looks like she just found her children in the lost and found.
I love the exercise training the police are doing... um so which floor do they actually learn to do police things?
Then there is the one legged man of the fire department. (that fireman looks like he can hobble with the best of em.)
Here is another shot of him hobbling to the firetruck... (also is it just me or does that dalmation look like he is half great dane?)


And then there is my all time favorite puzzle....
All looks great on the construction site. It is pretty simple, until you get to the dumptruck....
Dumping dirt from the truck- Good! Worker there to guide him- Good! Lift up the piece and....
What the hell???? Why are they burying those poor miners??? When I discovered this I was laughing so hard I had tears.

Well I am off to look through baby's books now. I am sure there are a couple that have missed the lesson they set out to teach. Hope you all have a great weekend.

The BIG one!

Four days old

Happy birthday (last week) to my little guy! He has made my life so happy and keeps me laughing even more than usual (maybe it is all the faces he pulls, like the one he pulled after he didn't want his cupcake when he touched the sticky frosting. The frosting on his face is from when he started rubbing his eyes after he was 'finished' with not eating his cupcake.). How did one person change this much in just a few short months? Crazy!!!!! 367 days old

Welcome Back!

I made it. I went a whole week (plus some) without blogging. I survived. And now I can't think of anything to blog about. GREAT! I hope this means that I have made the creative part of my brain lazy. Now it has no inspiration.
Let's see what happened last week...
Soder's computer hard drive died. (spending money is always fun, right?)

I got paid in Starbucks to make cookies for one of Soder's co-workers. (Making 'money' is always fun, right?)

We bought Baby a new 'toy' for his birthday. It is a baby hiking backpack for him to ride in. While I don't know how much hiking we will be doing, it is great for when I want to take both dogs on a walk at the same time. (Taking a baby in a stroller with two dogs in tow is a tricky feat, one, that I will not partake in.) So this is actually a 'toy' for me. (also a great workout accessory, carrying around an extra 30 wiggly pounds has to be great weight training, right?)

My mom had her first chemo treatment and so far not a ton of horrible side effects. (she has had some, but not every one imaginable.) But a positive note, if you are looking for beanies (for when she loses her hair) if you buy them in the springtime, you can get some really great deals.

I guess it is good to be back blogging. I am sure this next few weeks will be easy to blog about, we have my first Mother's day, Soder's Bday, some very dear friends visiting, Baby's First Birthday and our Seventh anniversary. Busy, busy, busy, but in a good way.

Walkin' Fool!

Baby took some steps today.... yes, we were setting him up to do it, but we can't just expect him to do it on his own without a camera ready. What a great way to spend a Saturday night.

One more reason to love my mother

Even though last week she was in pain and suffering before her surgery, she still took time to swing by the book store to buy Baby some new books. We received them on Friday, while she was actually in surgery for her cancer. I loved how she wrote in them for Baby. It was a bittersweet package because normally I would call her immediately to thank her and let her listen to baby play with them, but this time I couldn't. Thanks again, Mom! (and Dad). You are the best!

Something happy to watch

Instead of lingering on the sad/frustrating lets focus on something happier, mainly Baby. He has started to dance and it is funny because he actually has songs that he enjoys and others that he doesn't. I know it is long, but who doesn't love a:Justin Bieber and b: a baby entertaining himself.

Mommy and me swim classes

This morning was our third Mommy and Me swim classes. While the classes aren't promising to teach my 10 month old how to swim, it is meant to introduce them to the water at an early age and teach some safety techniques. (teaching them to wait to enter a pool and how to float on their back until you tell them to sit up are just a few things they have taught us.)

Today, we got to teach them to go under water. Well, maybe 'teach' is too strong of a word, more like dunk our children at the count of three. Baby did a great job and no tears were shed. He didn't even pull any odd faces or anything. I was very impressed. It is an odd feeling to know that you are doing the right thing, but it feels so wrong because they don't understand what the heck is happening. (similar feeling when your baby gets their immunizations.)

While the guilt has subsided, the best reward for all involved is a nice nap when we get home. And while my guilt won't let me lay down, my little tadpole is sound asleep in a fleecy warm outfit covered with his favorite blanket. In my book that is a well spent $50 for classes.

Where have I been hiding?

I have been hiding on the most famous street in all the world. I have no idea where the week has gone. All I know I have been watching this to get my baby to eat.


A lot. I have watched this a lot.


Also this one gets stuck in your head like some happy little burr.


I guess I will continue to be distracted by this kinda stuff for the next little bit. But it is a good distraction, because it means that he is growing up. And learning and becoming his own little person. And while I am sad that the last nine months have flown by I am super excited to see him turn from a baby to a little boy.
So if I disappear again and you are wondering where I am, you know where to look.

Last Art Class

This Sunday was Soder's last art class. (he would love to take them all the time, but since the wishing fairy hasn't been around lately, this will have to do it for him for a while.) So this Sunday was Baby and my last 'exploring' weekend. (at least our last one with just us.) We started at the same art store, located below the Petsmart in U-village. We got our coffee and scone (Baby's new favorite thing ever). Since I didn't want to wait around for the stores to open at the mall like I did last weekend, we decided to take a drive. A while back (way back in the summer), Soder and I had taken a drive around and had found this yacht/sailboat club in Ballard. I decided I wanted to see the water today, so we drove around to find that same place. I eventually found it (after about 20 minutes) and decided to take a walk along the water. It was a little drizzly and cold, but it was nice to be out and walking around. I love to look at all the boat and read all the names (like The Dude, Soul Catcher, Arthur, The Raven, and Fishful Thinking) . I don't know what I would name a boat if I had one, but that thought kept me busy for most of the walk. It was a great time to just relax and walk along with my little jabbering baby. Before I knew it, it was time to leave and try to find my way back to Soder.
I know my way around Seattle (and the outskirts) pretty well and can get myself out of pretty much any problem, but Ballard is a whole nother story. I swear that the streets in Ballard move around just enough to get me completely turned around (this did happen when we visited in the summertime as well). What should have taken me only 20 minutes to get back took me almost 35. (Maybe this is the reoccurring theme of my explorations of Seattle, I get lost a lot more than I realize.) I had a great time and was only a couple minutes late picking up Soder.
Even after getting lost, I can't wait to go back and explore when it is all sunny and warm... I hope that day comes one day.

Shhh, don't tell Soder!

While I was doing a bit of spring cleaning today, I let Baby play with one of Soder's toys. In case you don't know, my husband loves comics and superheros and 'collects' some of the action figures. He isn't like those crazy collectors that keep them in the boxes, but he does keep them on a shelf and doesn't usually play with them. I have warned him that this would be changing, and now it has. (The one that Baby is playing with is one that has no tiny parts that can fall off.)

It looks like he is contemplating how to go about getting Wolverine.

Wow, I wonder what Adamantium tastes like?

Huh, tastes very plastic-y.

No place to go

On Sunday, Soder has been taking an art class. It happens to be in Seattle and this week, since I was a good girl and finished all my work before Sunday we went along with him. After a long discussion between baby and I, we decided that we would go and hang out at Gas Works Park, one of our favorites. It was so great to get out of the house and actually be in the city. This has been a long, long winter (so far) with many days filled with rainy goodness that has kept us trapped in our house (that and the fact that there isn't very much extra in the bank account to go and wander around aimlessly. I find when I wander I spend, and when there isn't any to spend it is better to stay home.) It was cloudy and thankfully didn't rain on us. We were able to take a few pictures and wander around, through the tons of goose poop and mud. It was a great time. We still had time to kill before we had to pick Soder up, so we took a little drive up Queen Anne Hill. It is seriously such a great area. I loved all the stores and neighborhoods. I was scouting for a park up there (for when we have some visitors this spring), but didn't find it and ended up driving around longer than I had expected because I got a little lost. My partner fell asleep on the way back to where we were picking up Soder so I didn't do any more fun exploring, like get a cup of coffee. So our exciting adventure ended up with Baby asleep in the back, and me reading my magazines in the car while we for class to get out. Regardless, it was a great time to be out from these four walls. I really needed that, and I think the cabin fever has left for at least a few more weeks.

Saturday Night = Movie Night

We have always loved watching movies. It was the closest thing to our hobby. Now things have changed, but are kinda the same (most of the movies we want to watch aren't very 'family friendly'). We still try to do movie nights, usually on Friday or Saturday, but now they are usually more kid friendly. Like this weekend, we watched the movie Ponyo. It was pretty good with a lot of great voice talent (Tina Fey, Matt Damon, and Liam Neeson), however, it was originally a Japanese animated movie. The story was pretty fairy tale-ish, but the characters they had in it were a bit odd. (those Japanese are a crazy and imaginative bunch!) There were a couple of head scratching moments, but overall it was a cute movie.The best part of the night was definitely the popcorn. I have been giving Baby a lot more new foods and so I decided to give him a few small bits of fluff off the popcorn. He loved it. And took it really seriously. If I didn't move fast enough he would get mad and bounce off my lap and try to grab his own handful of popcorn. I love introducing him to new foods, and this was definitely one of his favorite. I have the feeling he is going to love movie nights too!

I love how he looks like, "Dad, can't you see I am busy eating popcorn, can you get that camera out of my face???"

Just because he is so stinkin' cute

I seriously don't know what my deal is with taking pictures of him in laundry baskets. I am a weirdo, I know. The picture below was two months ago in the same basket. I guess he just always looks so cute in there.

The faces they pull

I was playing a 'fishy' game with Baby the other day and Soder was able to video some of it. It is about 45 seconds long, which for me will be followed quickly with my mother and father calling me saying they saw the video on my blog. (which to me is so cute because they are getting more tech savvy everyday.) I love the faces he pulls and just to clarify I was clapping by his face and not snipping his nose every time.

Faces of Motherhood

All those faces from feeding him one cracker... no wonder I am so tired at the end of the day, I am all expressions!

Rainy Days

This last week has been so rainy. So that means no walks for us, which means by the end of the week we were going crazy. On Friday all the toys were pulled out. All the book on his little shelf were read and we were sitting there with cabin fever. I usually don't care, but this week was a tough one. Next week can be as cold as it wants, but please, for my sanity, please be dry!

FINALLY......

Took me 3 months to complete and now it is ready for Santa to fill it with goodies. Now that that is finished I can relax for the rest of the holiday. (I haven't even started to work on Travis' one, but that might just be saved for either child number 2 or when I have time in the middle of summer to work on it.)

Ho, Ho, Ho?

So hopefully he feels different about Santa after he get all his presents. My sister said that a picture of him crying would be much cuter than a picture of him smiling. (we didn't really have a choice because all he did was cry.) She was right.