Zoo-per Day!

A few nights ago we took William to the zoo for the first time and he LOVED it. Granted, he seemed to be most interested in all the geese that room around the zoo grounds, but I can't say I blame him because they were definitely some of the most active and easiest to see animals there. Nevertheless, we plan to make good use out of our zoo membership this summer--and even this winter to explore the indoor museum! (Anything that gets us out of the house in the dead of winter--and is free with our membership--is a win-win in my book).

Enjoying the flamingos--he probably could have stayed there all night

Look Mom and Dad!! Pink birdies!

No time for taking a picture with Mommy because...

Look how close that peacock is!! (Seriously, there are two or three of these that just roam the grounds. It's pretty awesome)

 

Checking out the parrots

And a tiger!

 

Seriously--these peacocks were pretty much everywhere and let you get super close

This kid is going to be a climber. Thankfully there were only tortoises in this enclosure

Really excited to have a lot more fun at the zoo this summer!!

A Little Problem Solving

A few fun things about our house: It is twenty-six years old. And most of it seems to be in its "original" condition--appliances, furnace, paint, etc. You should also know that the most current (previous) owners were, shall we say, creative. It does appear that they did some updating (mostly with paint), and their color choices were questionable at best. I do think they updated some of the flooring as well--but only some (as in--they laid new flooring in the foyer but not in the closet that connects to it). They also appeared to not be very thorough and careful Do-It-Yourselfers, and you'll probably hear plenty more about that in the coming months (years!) as we transform this into OUR house. But first--the paint.

From the first time we walked in to this house we knew that the orange family room HAD to go. No ifs ands or buts. And while we didn't mind the white walls throughout most of the other common living spaces (not the bedrooms, though--oh no, not the bedrooms. Those are all their own special combinations of color), they were in bad shape and had clearly undergone one too many touch-ups jobs with not quite the same shade of white (or they weren't touched-up at all). So, we selected a neutral, much more palatable shade and bought three gallons (with fingers crossed that it would be enough!). Then came time for the painting. And painting the interior of a house with a split-level floor plan brings with it its own special set of difficulties. But that wasn't going to stop my husband.

In case you can't tell, that is a paintbrush tied to (what used to be) our rake. And this was the "safer" of the two approaches he used to cover this wall; if you look closely, you can see our ladder in the foyer, which he then climbed up and leaned off with his paint-brush-rake to cover the wall from the other direction (and one point I actually had to hold the ladder so he could step onto the highest rung and lean toward the center of the wall). Thankfully, this portion of the wall probably won't need a second coat, but the orange (oh, the orange), definitely will. Fortunately the orange is a little less dangerous to get at (albeit more shoddily done. At one point I noticed that Darrell was getting tan on the ceiling (which we are leaving white), and when I pointed that out to him he responded that he was NEEDING to put tan on the ceiling to cover the ORANGE that was on the ceiling. Folks, he is bound and determined to make sure there is no trace of orange left in his house. And I appreciate him for that.

Leisurely Walks

Going for walks with a thirteen month old--especially when you let him out of the stroller--can be a very slow task. There are pinecones to pick up, dandelions to pull, anthills to destroy, sticks to break. Not to mention all the people and wildlife that distract from the task at hand. But you know what? I wouldn't want to spend my morning any other way. Especially since the weather is finally getting its butt in gear and starting to feel like something that actually resembles spring (summer?). I see many more lazy mornings like this in our future.

PS Yes, I know that it's been well over two weeks since I last posted. I could list a million reasons for my absence, but my new philosophy is Make Progress, Not Excuses. So I'm only going to focus on the former and not dwell on the later. Here's to progress!!

Moved!

Well, we're here, we're moved, we're in. We are far (FAR!) from settled, but I suspect that will be the case for quite some time. Except for our kitchen. That room is pretty much already running like a well-oiled machine. If there was ever any doubt that Darrell and I are cooking/baking people, this should pretty well cement that fact: our kitchen was the last room we packed in our old house and the first room (and so far only room!) we unpacked in our new house. We're still sleeping in sleeping bags (on our mattress though--we were only on the floor for one night!), but just about everything in our kitchen is unpacked. Which was no small feat--we had more boxes for our kitchen than we had for any other room in the house! And I'm already excited about baking my first goodies in this house--who cares if my clothes are in a suitcase for a few more days?!?

William's First Birthday

It's only been two weeks since the party, so I consider it a pretty good success to be getting these photos up already (especially considering everything else that is going on...). When I started planning William's party, I had ideas and plans a-plenty (thank you very much Pinterest!). Of course, what I didn't plan on was moving less than a month after the party. Once that stuff started going full swing I majorly eased up on the party knowing that I just wouldn't have time to make it super over-the-top and that I would only stress myself out if I tried. So we settled on a simple Ice Cream Social theme (I had to pay homage to the fact that he was born during the Ice-pocalypse somehow!) and called it good. And naturally, we took way too many pictures, so I'll stop with the meaningless babble that you aren't really interested in anyway.

Our (very!) simple décor and our ice cream sundae bar

Couldn't resist putting him back into this outfit from his newborn photo shoot!

Pretty much the only "craft" project I tackled for the party and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Digging into his gift from Aunt Macy and Uncle Mike

Playing with his new cars with Uncle Mike

Apparently Great-Grandpa got in the way. Whoops

Sifting through all the packing materials to get to the gift from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Nick

Finger Puppet Books!

Not too impressed with the new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa...

But loving his new wagon!!

Wagon rides with his buddy Caleb

Family picture!

As Darrell puts it, food is too precious to William for him to have done any cake "smashing" and subsequent wasting of it. He instead opted to very delicately pick at the frosting.

But, he did enjoy it!!

Almost forgot to put on his birthday hat!

Which was a very short-lived endeavor

Back in the wagon--and outside which makes it even better!

Too cool for his shades

Already picking up the ladies in his new ride

Packing stuff in his new suitcase--he's ready to go see Darrell's family in the Carolinas!

So, there you have it. A crazy day, but so much fun. We're so fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family--near and far--who not only helped us celebrate this wonderful day, but also helped us GET to this wonderful day. Because it does take a village to raise a child--and we've got ourselves a very good one. 

William: Twelve Months!!

Well, it's official: We have a one-year old!! A full-of-energy, constantly on-the-go, starting to develop a little bit of attitude one-year old. It's certainly trying at times, but I don't think we'd have it any other way.

At our twelve month well-visit, William weighed in at 19 lbs, 15 oz, and was 28.75 inches. We did have to make an unplanned doctor's visit shortly after eleven months due to a double ear infection, but that cleared up pretty quickly. He's still wearing size three diapers, and pretty consistently in twelve month clothing, although some nine month stuff still fits as well as some eighteen month stuff (is it too much to ask for clothing sizes to be consistent?!?). As of his birthday he also had six teeth--four on top and two on bottom. All four of the top teeth cut in the span of about two weeks, which was a little brutal to say the least (and resulted in drool EVERYWHERE).

Probably the biggest "new" thing we had to do this month was buy a pair of shoes! I don't know that I would fully consider William a "walker", but he walks often enough and is outside often enough (although in his option he could probably never be outside enough) that we figured it was time to invest in some shoes. And truthfully, I think the only thing holding him back from being a full-on walker (aside from being a little wobbly) is the fact that he can't get himself to a standing position from the middle of the room. Once he is pulled up on a toy (or couch or table or anything), his first inclination is now to walk away from the object instead of going back to the floor to crawl.

Babbling is still inconsistent at best, and it doesn't seem like his "ma-mas" and "da-das" are directed at anything, but that hasn't stopped him from figuring out other ways to communicate. He has the pointing thing figured out, and if that doesn't get your attention, he will grab at your hand and direct it toward whatever it is he wants. He's also started making up games for us to play with him--he'll hand us a block for us to put on his head, shake it off, and then hand it back to us to repeat. Of course, we'll usually end up tiring of his "games" before he does, but oh well.

It's still hard to believe that we've been parents for a full year; as Darrell likes to say he can't believe how quickly the year went but it simultaneously feels like William has been a part of our lives forever. I could probably spend an entire post reflecting on our first year as parents, but I'll save you the sappiness and cliches and just say that it was nothing like we ever expected. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a not so good way, but we wouldn't trade any of it for where we are today.

Still Here!

Life = crazy. There are no other words. But it's all good and I promise that I'm working on getting some intelligent, note-worthy posts put together, but I can't promise how soon I'll get them out. But, things are going so well that I got to break these out today for the first time this year:

And now it's thunderstorming!! Hopefully the week stays this good!