Birthday Party recap

Here they are, finally! These definitely took longer than I had anticipated to put up but you know how it is. We’ve been so busy lately that we (mostly mommie) just finished going through all her presents the other day. Jen can’t clear out her old stuff fast enough to make room for the new stuff! I think it's amazing how such a little person can have so much already. But it just goes to show that a lot of people love and care about her and for that we're very thankful.

I hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves. There was a lot going on that day and I wasn't feeling the greatest so I may have missed some of you who came and went before I had a chance to catch up. But I do want to take a minute to thank everyone for being a part of such a special event. It meant a lot to us. Josie may not realize it now, but one day she'll look back and appreciate the strong network of friends and family that has surrounded her right from the very beginning.

I also want to thank my lovely wife, and her sister and parents for everything that they did to make this party possible. A lot of time was put into the preparation and no detail was left out in order to make sure that it all went as smoothly as it did. While Jen spent countless hours making the cake, putting together gift bags for all the little ones, shopping for decorations and setting them up, arranged to have a real live pony there, etc, I had a set of challenging and demanding tasks of my own. I was responsible for entertaining Josie during the morning of and making sure that she napped before her party. She gets pretty crabby when she’s tired, and well, let’s just say I’m a pretty good napper taker. That’s right, not only did I have to watch her all by myself, but I had to get her to take a nap, feed her lunch, play with her, and get her dressed!!! Clearly I had the tougher task.

And after all that, Josie had a great day. She held up all afternoon without getting fussy or melting down. She didn't dig into the cake as much as we had hoped, but with a little bit of help, she managed to make quite a mess. Little Macaroni was awesome, but Josie didn't quite know what to think of him. Perhaps next year,when she's a little older she'll find him more appealing. Same with the opening of the presents. She was more interested in the stuff that she already had. I didn't get quite as many shots as I had hoped because I was struggling with my sickness. So if you took any that you'd like to share, shoot me an email or leave me comment and I'll post them up.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Dear Josie,

My oh my! Who would have thought that a year can go by so quickly? Your Mommie and I can still remember the days of lounging on the couch anxiously awaiting for your arrival. I'd pound on Mommie's belly demanding for you to come out and play with me. I made scary voices and growled at you hoping to get a reaction. I'm sure you figured out quickly that it's just your silly Daddie trying to get you all worked up. Every now and then you would kick and wiggle around but more often than not we were greeted with nothing more than your signature hiccups-a-thons. Just like Mommie, you never quite figured out how to get rid of them did you? It made me laugh everytime.

And then the doctors said you had to come out. They wanted to make sure that you and Mommie didn't get sick so off we went to get the labor process started. They gave Mommie some stuff which should have made you want to come out pretty quick but you had a totally different agenda. Just like your Daddie, you wanted to do it when you were ready and you wanted it done your way. So you decided to hang out in Mommie's belly some more and well, I certainly couldn't blame you. That's where you've setup camp past 8 months and I'm sure you had quite a setup going on in there.

But all of a sudden, you were ready. After confining Mommie for almost 3 full days to that backbreaking piece of mechanical device known as a hospital bed, you made your grand entrance. In a little less than a half an hour, you were outta there. Your first order of business once you were out was to give Mommie a swift kick to the face. And that's when I knew. That's when WE knew, that you were going to be trouble. We've certainly lived up to it haven't we. We're bad enough seperately, but together, we make Mommie want to pull out all of her hair, set it on fire, and put it back on her head.

So here we are. One year has passed. Countless hours of crying, laughing, snuggling, and this is just the beginning. I wish I can do a better job of putting into words how much we love you, but I don't think it's possible. One day, when you become a parent yourself, you'll know exactly what the feeling is like. Each day with you is better than any gift we've ever received. You're the world to us and we can't wait to watch you grow up.

Love,
Mommie & Daddie

We're sick

All of us. Coughing, flem, sinus headaches, runny nose, and throw in a bout of pink eye as well.

We got drugs. We're taking them. Stay tuned.

Check out my teefers!

Sunny Saturday

I love this time of year. The weather is simply perfect, giving us ample opportunity to spend lots of time outside. And that's exactly what we did Saturday afternoon. We ran some errands and then headed to the park. It was actually a bit warm out with the sun beating down right at us but I knew that once the cold hits, we're going to miss the warm weather. As usual, the majority of the time was spent on the swing. It's Josie's favorite thing to do. She was all smiles with the wind in her hair and Elmo in her crotch (she wouldn't let us take Elmo so he went in the swing too.) After swinging, we tried taking her down the slide a few times but we didn't get much of a reaction out of her. I don't think she gets that yet. So Jen took her around the play area while I snapped a few more pictures.

My plan was to lay out in the grass for a little bit and play but no sooner did we lay out the blanket we turned right around and packed it up. She was starting to get fussy for dinner so we got a move on and left. But not before I got a few good shots of my big girl, standing all by herself!





















Exhausted ..

America's Oldest Fair

Fat guy on a scooter, rebel flag apparel, bearded women, mullets, single mother with way too many kids. If you've ever wondered where you can experience all that in one place in less than a span of 10 minutes, then head over to your local Walmart. Now, if you wanted to go on some rides, eat an endless combination of fried stuff, listen to country music all night, and get up and personal to a llama, then where would you go? To the annual York Fair of course!

And Josie got to experience her first York Fair last night. Boy did she have a great time. She laughed and screamed and threw herself around in her stroller the whole time. I'll admit, I didn't have much desire to go at first, but once I got there, I quickly realized how much fun this probably is through the eyes of an 11 month old. We didn't stay long since it was close to her bed time; basically we made a loop around the arena and stopped only to eat. I do wish I could have stayed longer because events like these create endless possibilities for memorable candids.

Labor Day Weekend

We didn't do a whole lot Sunday or Monday, mainly because we were still tired from a long but fun Saturday. What did we do Saturday? We finally made a long overdue trip down to VA to see some important peoples. It was a day filled with driving, eating, feeding, changing, more driving, shopping; the works. Our itinerary wasn't much different than our usual VA trips except for the fact that we left a little earlier and stayed a bit later. We don't get to go all that often so I wanted to make the most out of the day and make sure that everyone got to spend as much time with each other as possible.

Josie did very well. She slept the whole way down, and again on the way to lunch. We first stopped at Uncle Dan's who got her a bunch of new toys to play with. After about 3 min she lost interest and went after his collection of remotes. It was really nice out so we decided to hit up the park that was across the street from Dan's house. I got some great shots of them at the swing and on the slide.

Then it was off to dim sum with my parents and brother. Josie ate pretty much everything that we put in front of her. She didn't seemed bothered by the loud and hectic environment. Usually when we take her out, we're always worried that she'll start screeching and yelling for no apparent reason. At that restaurant though, no one would have heard her.

After lunch, we took a stroll over at Tysons Corner and did a bit of shopping. And I must say, the mall was a big hit. Josie was, literally, at the edge of her seat the entire time. She pointed and laughed and had a great time looking at the people, the stores, and everything else in between. We left Tysons and spent the remainder of the afternoon at my Grandmother's house with the rest of the family. We stayed and went out to dinner with everyone and then left right from there. Up until now we'd leave prior to dinner so that we'd get home just in time to put the baby to bed. But now that she's older, it's nice to be able to stretch the day out a tad every once in a while so that my family can get as much Josie time in as possible.

Right after dinner, we changed her, put her in her pj's and off we went. Mommie gave her a bottle and she was asleep in no time. She stayed sleeping the whole way home and I was able to transport her from the car into her crib without disruption. All in all, it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it.