Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

On your first birthday we...

...ate breakfast - silly fruit/cheerio faces on toast (you had yours on french toast),

...put on your fancy birthday outfit, dropped Luke at school, and went to the store to buy you a BIG balloon,

... came home and you played with Brother's trains while he wasn't looking :),

...picked Luke up from school, packed a lunch and took a walk to the park,

...Luke made sure to pack you a pink lollipop,

...we swang on the swings,

...and slid on the slides,

...after our big afternoon and nap, we met Day and Paw for a celebratory dinner at Aqui's,

...and came home to video chat with Grandma and Grandpa,

...we all sang "Happy Birthday to you" and you had your first cupcake,

...and you opened some presents (a new kitchen, doll highchair, and ride on car)

What a special, fun day.

Happy first birthday, sweet Mia!

A Potty Party

It is with great excitement (and relief) that I announce that Luke is now "almost" officially potty trained (I say "almost" because, as is to be expected, we still have a few random accidents - usually with #2)! The crazy thing is that, just as so many mommies who have come before me have said, it really just happened on its own. That's not to say that we weren't still trying. We had just sort of settled into this "new normal" routine that included very regular questioning on the topic, "Luke, do you need to use the potty?" To which he nearly always replied, "No," and then we would end up taking him to the bathroom anyways, and he would go.


I'm not really sure what happened, - maybe it was just maturity and the abilty to recognize the feeling that comes along with having to "go"- but I started to notice Luke just heading to the bathroom on his own more regularly. It was then that I suggested that if he could go a full week without an accident that we would celebrate with a "Potty Party." He was super excited and decided that all he really wanted for his party were chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles and a candle to blow out.


SO, after a full week without any accidents, we celebrated the (little) man of the hour!

Yay! Not sure who is more excited about this achievement, Luke or Mommy & Daddy (umm ... probably the latter!). Luke is still wearing a diaper or pull-up at night and nap, but he seems to wake up dry now as well. I suppose I'll have to get really brave one of these days and let him go to bed in underwear - YIKES, still sort of a scary thought, so for now we'll just enjoy this HUGE accomplishment!

Christmas Day

A few final Christmas pictures from after Christmas dinner at Day and Paw's

A special Christmas cupcake was waiting for Luke:

Loving playing with Uncle Todd: