Run!

Dashiell and I walked down to the park near our house yesterday to enjoy the lovely warm afternoon. This was the first chance we've had to let him run around outside, and though he was hesitant at first, he soon got the hang of it and was off like a shot! I spent 30-40 minutes chasing after him, making sure he didn't step in dog doo or run into the street or eat leaves and branches (there were tears involved when I put a stop to the leaf-and-branch eating). The above picture was taken prior to all the running when he was trying to figure out what this whole park business was all about; the video obviously is when he warmed up to the idea of playing in outside. I think the thing he loved the most was the dogs--one of our neighbors was walking his dog around the perimeter of the park and Dash kept running in the direction of the big doggy. Whee! And as one person put it upon seeing this video, Dash is definitely starting to live up to his name!

Almost done!

The photo book project continues, and I'm happy to report that it's almost done! I think I've included all the photos I want, except for any that are taken in the next couple of weeks (such as the b-day party photos), now I just need to figure out how to condense it more so it's not 45 pages long! I haven't actually priced it out yet but that's got to be pretty spendy!



Now that Dashiell can walk that is all he does--he paces the floor constantly! Living room - kitchen - dining room - living room - kitchen - dining room - couple of laps around the dining room table - living room - couple of laps around the ottoman - kitchen - short break to play with the tupperware - dining room...it's dizzying! But what's weird is that I feel less like I need to follow him or watch him at every step since he's always moving, which gives him less opportunity to get into things he's not supposed to get into! We've blocked off the stair, so he's safe from the most dangerous spots in the house. As long as I can hear him walking I know he's ok. Of course as soon as the footsteps stop I'm on him like glue but that hardly ever happens! He's just busy, busy, busy!



We're running out of ideas of what to feed him now that he's eating finger foods, so we're taking suggestions! We try to feed him whatever we're eating but in general he's not very interested in pork chops or asparagus (though he does try everything! And we'll keep on re-introducing everything until he like it!). So far his go-to meals are toast, grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches, and broccoli, cauliflower, and cheese quesadillas. I tried adding refried beans to the quesadilla yesterday and he wanted none of it. He'll also usually eat pears or peaches, though some days he decides to boycott them. We've had ravioli a couple of times, too, with some success. Who knew that feeding a toddler (is he officially a toddler since he now toddles?) could be so challenging! ;-)

Here's another oldie-but-goodie picture. He looks like such a proud American in his camo romper on the flag quilt...

Old and new

Still going through all our old photos and came across this one, which was taken about 10 days after Dashiell was born:

Look at all that hair! He doesn't have nearly that much now!

So this photo album project is kind of fun now that I've uploaded all the images I want to use. It's super easy to do, plus it gives me an excuse to reminisce. In fact I'm also listening to the playlist we created for the delivery room (which we titled "Welcome Aquaman"--haha!). I actually listened to this quite a lot right after Dashiell was born, during all those midnight feedings and all the times I was feeling overwhelmed at having this new being to care for. And in hindsight, no wonder I had a bit of the baby blues! 90% of the songs are totally mopey and depressing--what were we thinking?? I think we overdid the mellow mood we were trying to create...

I'm attaching a couple more videos of Dashiell walking around that I thought were pretty funny. They're short videos I took on my phone to send to Rick while he was working. In the first one he's not wearing any pants because he spit up on them during dinner so I figured why bother putting new pants on him? Plus he looks cute in his sweater and diaper. :-) I just like how he feels the need to get as close to the lens as possible in both videos...

Enjoy!

The Project

I thought I'd make a compilation photo album for Dashiell's first birthday, sort of a best-of album of his pictures. I wanted to use Shutterfly and make one of those albums that have a couple of pictures printed per page and is bound together in a nice book--David (Rick's bro) uses those for portfolio books of his photos, and a couple of friends have used them for vacation books and such and they always turn out so lovely. I figured it'd be better than hodge-podge collection of photo albums we have now. However, I didn't realize how many of the pictures we have are "best of" pictures! Our kid is too cute! ;-) So far the pictures I've chosen for the album number about 200,(which is less than a third of the pictures we have) and I haven't added any of the professional shots we've had done in the past year. I was going to ask others to send me some of their favorite photos but now I just don't know--seems like the album is already going to be over 100 pages even after editing it down! I just don't know how I'm going to make this more manageable. There are too many pictures to love! So now I've got this huge Project to work on, which I'm sure will turn out great, even if we may never be able to afford to print it!

But since I've been perusing all of Dashiell's photos, I wanted to start sharing some of the oldies-but-goodies again. These all were taken at the hospital. The one with the red hat was taken by David and was a family favorite right off the bat.

Enjoy!

-Suzi

Only a month to go!

First, credit where credit's due: The current header photo of the blog is one from our recent photo session with Megpix photography. What a cutie!

I just can't believe Dashiell is going to be one year old in a month! ONE MONTH!!! How is that possible?? My little guy is growing up way too fast! :-) What I totally love about him getting older is that it seems like he's more and more fun every day. Yesterday he was helping me fold sheets (as in, I was folding them and he was unfolding them for me) and he just started laughing when I pulled out one of the big sheets to fold, anticipating a game of peek-a-boo. Which of course meant taking a break from folding and tossing the sheet on Dashiell, then on me, then back on Dashiell. Who knew that having a kid is a big excuse to put off housework so you can play instead? What a great deal! And he really is trying to be more helpful now. We were sitting on the kitchen floor eating yogurt nibbles and he took one out of my hand and fed it to me. Which was kind of gross but sweet, regardless. Now I just need to convince him to vacuum the living room or empty his diaper pail, something useful like that.

I've been slowly getting organized for Dashiell's bday party--and no, we haven't sent out the evite yet so don't think you aren't invited! That should be going out this weekend, and we're inviting pretty much everyone so if you don't get the evite by the middle of next week shoot me an email (I've definitely got a bit of mommy brain so I do forget things/people/events/etc). We're doing an "under the sea" theme, and will hopefully have our aquarium set up again by then! In that spirit, I attempted to make a "fish bowl" cake this weekend. Since this is my first attempt at decorating a cake, I'd say it wasn't *too* bad. Not yet worthy of a birthday party but it was a learning experience. The first thing I learned was to pay attention to the lines of the board that's holding the cake! The second is that I should make it an aquarium (9x13 cake) instead of a fishbowl, which would give me more room to work. I used Goldfish graham crackers and mini Swedish fish for the fishies, crushed graham crackers for the sand/rocks, and gummy worms for the plant life. Gotta figure out how to get the crushed graham crackers on in a less messy fashion, and while the gummy worms kind of worked, I might try something else for plant life. And even though I love the Swedish fish for being so bright, I think I might go with a couple different Goldfish varieties instead. I bought some "happy 1st birthday" candles so I don't have to try to write anything, but I did buy some cake decorating/frosting tips so I can try a little embellishment on the sides or something. I think I might make another test cake this weekend. So much for losing those last 5 lbs of baby weight before Dashiell's first birthday!

Videos!

Quick post with some short videos! The first video is of Dashiell scootching--this is how he's been getting himself from one place to another for a couple of months now (plus crawling, but this is more fun...). The second is Dashiell walking! This video isn't great since I was standing up when I took it and Dash is much shorter than I am, plus I started laughing when I realized that the video would also include a good long look at Rick's bum (clothed, but still...). Sorry Rick. ;-) Enjoy the videos!