Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘birthday’

He turned 2, so for his party he had two little friends (plus parents and siblings.) It was the perfect size party and a great time with our friends!

There were lots of balloons on the ceiling and the floor. Blue, green and yellow.

There were cheese and crackers, veggies and fruits, heart-shaped cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, ants on a log, and an assortment of juices. All of Rhino’s favorite snacks. For lunch the kids made mini pizzas. Rhino really loves his cheese!

Rhino loves to color and paint, so after lunch we took out large sheets of paper. There were carefully thought-out blobs of color on one, a beautiful rainbow and mother and daughter on another, gentle strokes of light blue and yellow on a third, then Rhino’s: large marker circles and goopy smears of handfuls of finger paint.

We were going to do presents after the cake, but Rhino snuck away and tore into them without us. I heard from the other room an overjoyed “Elmo! Elmo!” as he discovered his new Elmo microwave! I couldn’t say no then, and let him open up the deluxe Mister Potato Head (40 parts I never knew about!) and tote bag of Play-Doh and accessories. The kids were all mesmerized by the microwave until we drew them away with the cake.

I wanted to make a Blue’s Clues cake because it’s his favorite show. Tanja loaned me a dog-shaped pan and I dyed the batter and the frosting blue and did my best to resemble Blue. Rhino was so overexcited as he danced in his chair and sang along to the birthday song (“happy, happy, happy, happy …”), immediately blew out both candles, and lifted one out of the cake and bit off the bottom of the candle. After we recovered the wax from his mouth, we directed him towards his slice of cake and he wolfed it down in record time!

He’d never seen a party blower before, but it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Soon enough he was blowing it so the extended end would knock his cup over, poke friends in the head, and dip into his fingerpaint (and then roll up again, and extend on the blank paper making little party blower paint marks.) We partied for about two hours and then our friends left and he crashed on the floor, with blue on his face, next to his Elmo microwave. What a party!

I do think traditions are important. In the past years, Matt and I have been lazy about our celebrations and traditions. Now that we have children, I think it is essential that we pass on traditions we grew up with as well as begin and maintain our own. When Rhino turned one last year, we didn’t really have many traditions in place. He opened presents, ate his first cupcakes, and had a little party. I did quickly sew him up a felt birthday hat to wear, which he hated! I want to keep the birthday hat tradition, so this year I made him a felt crown. Both hats are specific to his age; last year’s hat had a big “1″ on it, and this year there’s a “2″ right up front. I’m thinking that next year I’ll start a little earlier (I made both the hats very hastily the day of his birthday) and make a special crown that he can reuse for birthdays. I’m going to get started early on making Heron a special first birthday hat, too!

Rhino loves to color. Scribble, whatever. He still eats crayons, though. We have his first masterpiece hanging in the boys’ bedroom, which he scribbled on his first birthday. He completes many works a week, which we (shh) recycle, but I thought it would be great for the boys to make a piece of art on their birthdays for us to keep. Rhino’s medium of choice is crayon (unless he finds a pen!) but he has used plenty of paint this past year. He loves painting with brushes, and his 2nd birthday was actually his first experience finger painting. Matt had to demonstrate for him and Rhino seemed pretty hesitant. He still doesn’t really like to be messy. He was pretty upset that his hands were covered in paint.

I don’t have many Rhino hand prints. I have ink footprints from the day he was born and Andrea and I gave a clay slab with Amelia’s and Rhino’s hand prints in them for Christmas last year. That’s it. I wish I had started on birthday #1, but this will have to do. I thought I would sew his hand prints. He loved having his hand traced onto paper for a template. We made a whole bunch because he enjoyed it so much! Between making the crown and this appliqued, embroidered hand, it was a lot of work for me in one day. So they were both extremely rushed and sloppy. I really meant for the apples to be rotated and right-side-up but I don’t know what I was thinking (I just wasn’t.) And the outline stitching is so messy — I am terrible at turning with my machine! I know very little about sewing, so it’s possible I’m using the completely wrong presser foot or something. That was very tricky for me. And I cut out the reverse applique kinda messy. It’s still charming, though! I embroidered Rhino’s name above his hand and his age below. I’ll put it in a wooden hoop or something and hang it on his wall. Hopefully I stick with it (or something similar) every year for the boys. Maybe I can use them to make a quilt or something in the future!

So those are some of the traditions we’re working on for birthdays. There will be more, most likely food-related. I loved having a special meal on my birthday, which was usually tacos (which is not what I’d be choosing now!) I received birthday spankings growing up, but I don’t know about using that one … To the one or two of you that read this blog… what are your birthday traditions??

Today you are two years old! You are having a great day so far! We are having a family celebration right now and next week you will have a small party with some of your good friends. Last night you went to a party while Daddy and I went to our church Valentine’s Day Banquet, so you were out late and playing hard! You got to color, listen to music, play games, hit a pinata, and have lots of snacks! So you wanted to sleep in this morning. As soon as you woke up, we went to the Weasels’ Den for the Pajama Jam, where you played on the playground and bounce house, had a big breakfast buffet, saw some friends, and watched some Ice Age on a big screen. When we came home, you opened presents from us, from Grandma and Grandpa, and from Grammy and Uncle Ron. You were given some fantastic toys, snazzy shoes, and a Blue’s Clues DVD and CD! We talked to Grammy on Skype while you opened gifts from her, then we traced your hand and you painted a picture. We have more fun lined up for you, but right now you’re enjoying playing with Heron and your new Blue doll.

I thought it would be nice to keep track of some of your favorite things and see how they change from year to year. Love you!

Favorites
Fruit: mandarin oranges; apples
Vegetable: carrots
Snacks: cheese; tuna salad; scrambled eggs; peanut butter
Meal: breakfast
Drink: apple juice
Songs: the Itsy Bitsy Spider; Skinamarinky Dinky Dink
Movies: Aliens vs. Monsters; Potty Power
TV Show: Blue’s Clues
Cartoon Character: Elmo
Book: I Love You Through and Through
Friend: Carson
Toy: Duplo blocks
Stuffed Animal: Yellow Bear you got from Uncle Matt your first Christmas
Playtime Activity: blowing bubbles
chores: sweeping; unloading dishwasher
Place: the Thursday Playgroup room at EDIS

On Saturday, Rhino and I went to a 1st birthday party for Carson and Cole, two babies at our church who were born a week apart.

Rhino had a blast playing with all the helium balloons and their strings (so did the other little kids!) We spent about an hour just watching the kids enjoying themselves before we dug in to hamburgers and hot dogs.

Charren (Cole’s mom) and Katy (Carson’s mom) had kiddie music playing: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, etc. and Rhino spent a lot of time just jamming out to the songs and dancing for the guests. His favorite new moves are deep, repetitive squats with his arms straight out or waving around. The boy is going to have awesomely strong thighs!

After all the food, the boys opened their presents. I gave each of them a hand-stitched felt ball, embroidered with their name and the year. After everything was unwrapped, the kids tossed it around a lot, so I think it was a hit! I still have to finish knitting up some little bear finger puppets as a belated gift. I just couldn’t get it all finished in time!

After presents we had cake! The party was baseball-themed and the cakes were very cute (and delicious!) baseball cakes with a trophy for each boy. Carson and Cole each were given a chocolate cupcake. Cole was pretty unsure about the cupcake, would cautiously take a little nibble from his dad’s finger, and sort of complain or avoid the cupcake for the rest of the time! Carson, on the other hand, immediately picked up his cupcake by its bottom, and shoved nearly the whole thing in his mouth!

It was a great time chatting with other moms, watching the kids play (Rhino loves being around other kids now!), and getting some yummy food! Happy First Birthday, Carson and Cole!

Last Friday was my 26th birthday. We had just gotten home from our Tokyo trip on Thursday evening, so I was really in the mood for a quiet, relaxing day. There wasn’t really anything excited to speak of! Matt was on “Rhino Duty” all day which means that I didn’t change any diapers or get feed him. If I wanted to knit and he was “bugging” me (he always wants to play with what I’m playing with!) then Matt would make sure he’s distracted and entertained. Of course, I didn’t want a Rhino-free day, so I got to play with him and do all the fun things! I got to read, knit, browse the web, and just veg — it was very nice!

Nicole called me up that afternoon to say that she and Mike were taking us out to dinner, my choice! That was super-nice so we didn’t worry about cooking dinner or anything. One of my favorite places to go in town is The Global Kitchen. It’s a cute little place that has a little bit of everything: some Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Italian, “American”, etc. It’s not all amazing, but it’s a nice selection and we like to go on Sunday afternoons because you order all-you-can-eat of about 20 different little plates. They have a whole big room devoted to families with children, which is really nice for Rhino. They have high chairs and a fenced-in play area with a small slide, lots of books, stuffed animals, blocks, etc. Rhino used to not care so much about all the toys, but now whenever we go it is such a blast for him! Mike and Nicole hadn’t been in a long time, so it was nice to bring them back there too. We had never been for dinner, which isn’t all-you-can-eat but they offer larger portions and a much wider variety. I had cheese rolls (they make the best cheese rolls I’ve found and I crave them pretty much every day now!), a big bowl of corn soup (Nicole and I love finding places with corn soup!), and some spicy pineapple pork curry. Delicious! There’s always something for Rhino, too. He loves the little panko-breaded chicken pieces, cheese rolls, some of Matt’s yakisoba, and some of my Thai coconut curry (he eats my cute little mushrooms and eggplant pieces, but mostly loves the bamboo!) It was very nice to go out with Mike and Nicole and was quite a scrumptious dinner!

On Saturday we had Mike & Nicole and Liz + kids over for dinner. We did a strawberry and kiwi appetizer (which Josh and Aime inhaled!) then meatloaf, potatoes and green beans. I can’t find my favorite meat loaf recipe, so I sort of winged it this time. It was very tasty, but really fell apart. The whole thing was finished off, at least! And Rhino probably ate twice as much as I did — he kept demanding more meat loaf! It may be one of his favorite foods (the only other thing we’ve seen him act like this towards is lasagna.) Matt wanted to bake me a birthday cake on Friday (he says he’s never baked a cake before!) but because we went out, I suggested he wait until Saturday. He made my favorite boxed cake: strawberry with white whip frosting. And he added cute little flower sprinkles! It turned out very well and was so sweet of him! When the Armstrongs and the Kisers come over we usually entertain with a Mystery Science Theater 3000. This time we watched Space Mutiny, one of our favorites! Josh and Aime kept Rhino amused most of the night. It’s so much fun having kids over and seeing how he reacts these days. He likes to chase them around and do whatever they’re doing. It was a nice night hanging out with friends and a very pleasant birthday!

We hadRhino’s first birthday party at the Weasels’ Den, which is such a great place for the kids! We rented a little barn-kind-of-place for 2 hours and Rhino was so ecstatic the whole time we were there! He had a blast crawling and cruising around the baby area, which is full of padded mats and castle pieces, mirrors, and giant building blocks. The Armstrongs (kids: Josh (5) and Aime (3) ) and the Kisers showed up for the festivities. We had pizza and pasta, chatted a bunch, and did presents and cupcakes.

Rhino received a gift certificate and cute card from the Kisers, a bunch of wonderful books in a pretty bag (Rhino loved the bag, hahah!) and an animal memory game from us. He was a little more interested in tearing the wrapping paper than he was for his little birthday celebration, but he was mostly interested in the ribbons and bag!

I wanted to make cupcakes again because it just seemed to make sense for Rhino to have his own little cupcake rather than a piece of cake or a mini cake just for him. I wanted everything to be colorful for him, so I wanted to make the cupcakes as colorful as possible, too. A few months ago I found a tutorial online for making pretty swirled cupcakes and had been waiting for an occasion to try it out. Thankfully the BX had a great assortment of paste food coloring! The technique is really very easy and turned out wonderfully! Our home just gets so warm that often the frosting would be too runny when it came out of the bag to make pretty, firm stars. Most of them looked pretty good, though! Rhino didn’t care either way, he just gobbled his little cake up!

It was a nice, small first birthday party and Rhino seemed to really enjoy himself the whole time. He didn’t get crabby at all and really likes being around Josh and Aimé. The Armstrongs and Kisers are our best friends here at Misawa right now, so of course it’s always nice for us to spend time with them, too!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

You’ve made it through the first year — hooray! I have known that “time flies”, but I really can’t believe how fast your first year has zipped by!

You’ve recovered completely from the trip to the States and now you’re your usual self. You’ve gotten to the point where I can say now that you are sleeping through the night. You’d often wake for short, frequent nursings, but you’re pretty much finished with that now. We’ve also set you up with your own little mattress on the floor next to ours, so you won’t be sleeping (crawling, kicking, sprawling…) with us when your new brother or sister arrives. You seem to like the little bed more than the big bed!

You’ve become a bit more of a trouble maker lately! Daddy had brought home a package of napkins the other day and left it on the kitchen floor, which was obviously an invitation for you to partake in the napkin fun! You are getting a bit sneaky, too, and will push the limits to see how much you can get away with. Even though you know “no” and that you aren’t supposed to be playing in the trash or grabbing in Daddy’s bag of chips, you’ll still try to when we aren’t looking and check to see if you’ve been caught yet!

You’ve become so affectionate lately! You understand “hug” and will give us big hugs often. You even hug all of your stuffed animals. You’re learning “kiss” now, too, but haven’t yet mastered it. You don’t quite know how to pucker, so when you kiss us, it’s with a wide open mouth and dangling tongue! You’re so sweet and sometimes harass us with sloppy kiss after sloppy kiss! Most of your stuffed animals also now have crusty mouths and noses where you’ve practiced your affection on them.

We have planned for your birthday party to be next weekend because your birthday weekend falls on Valentine’s Day and lots of your friends mommies and daddies all ready have plans. Daddy and I wanted to do something special on your birthday anyway, so I made you some cupcakes and you got to open gifts from your grandparents! Unfortunately, we didn’t have too much time for festivities because Daddy was at work all day and then we had a church banquet when he got home, so we had your little party over his lunch break. You weren’t so interested in opening presents — maybe because we were hastily tossing them at you! You know how to unwrap gifts pretty well, but this time you just wanted to tear one tiny piece off at a time and inspect each bit. Daddy and I ended up unwrapping everything else for you! You received some really nice outfits, a couple CDs you like to dance to, and some fun toys! Daddy and I gave you a wooden xylophone, which you haven’t quite figured out yet. You like to tink the keys with your finger instead of the mallet, or use the mallet backwards and at a whole arms distance away from the instrument. You’ll get it!

You also had your first taste of chocolate! I made you some yummy cupcakes with chocolate frosting. You were mostly interested in licking all the frosting off the cake and playing with it and made a bit of a mess! You finished the whole thing and seemed pretty pleased with the whole experience! The next morning was Valentine’s Day, so we had a little teddy bear and small box of chocolates for you. You had a piece and liked it, but didn’t beg for any more. I had also given Daddy a bigger box of chocolate truffles, which was left out on the coffee table. You only needed 10 seconds to open the box and shove six truffles into your little mouth and all over your chest! It was definitely time for a bath and you were pretty wound up with sugar the rest of the morning!

It’s been such a wonderful year with you, Rhino, and Daddy and I are looking forward to another fun year with you! Happy birthday!!

Lots of Love,
Mommy

Dearest Rhino,

Today you are now one month old! It has definitely been the most amazing month of my life. Your birth was the most beautiful event I’ve taken part of. Labor was hard, but Daddy and I were well prepared. The very second you were born all the pain drained out of me and I was filled only with love and joy. Daddy and I screamed with excitement and cried tears of happiness as we held you for the first time. It was definitely love at first sight.

The month has flown by so quickly. Daddy had ten days off work when you were born so he could take care of us. And you had a lot of visitors! Aunt Jen, Daddy’s sister, was also here to help out and spend time with you. She decorated our apartment for your arrival, took a lot of pictures of you, and helped Daddy and I out a whole lot. When you were almost two weeks old Grammy, my mommy, came to visit you from Colorado. We took you out to a restaurant for the first time (Chinese food), went to Santa Barbara, had your first bath, and had your two-week pediatrician visit. Grammy also helped Daddy and I out tremendously by cooking some yummy dinners and doing lots of cleaning. While she was here, you went to church for the first time and were dedicated to the Lord. There was a little ceremony in front of the whole congregation where our friend and church elder, Jim, said a very nice prayer for you. Grammy had the video camera to record the whole thing. She did a terrific job and we were very pleased to have a video of the event to share with people who couldn’t make it. But when we got home to look at the video, we found that Grammy never actually was recording! She felt very bad, but it funny now and there will be plenty of videos of you in the future! The day after Grammy left, Grandma and Grandpa (Daddy’s parents) flew in from New York. They brought lots of gifts from family and church members back there. While they were visiting you were held and played with all the time. A bunch of ladies from church also threw you a party where you got so many clothes and nice things! When Grandma and Grandpa left, we got a little break from guests to just spend time with you alone. Then yesterday Pop, my daddy, came in from Texas to meet you. You, Pop and I took another trip to Santa Barbara to pick up your birth certificate and go out for pizza. We also visited the base where Daddy works. Today is my 25th birthday, so Pop took us all out for a nice dinner where you were very good! Pop will be here a few more days before going back to Texas. Other than family members, my friend Denna and her 18-month old son Tyler came to meet you. Tyler loved spending time with you, holding you (with me), patting, and kissing you. You also met people from church who have come over and you have been to our weekly Bible study. You sure have had an exciting month of meeting new people!

You sleep a lot and don’t cry very much. Sometimes you sleep in the bassinet, but usually you sleep with us. I didn’t used to think we’d want you to sleep in the bed with us, but now I wouldn’t want it any other way. I love cuddling up together as you feed, then drift off to sleep. I love even more waking up with you as you stretch and grunt yourself awake. You eat a lot and have grown so much! In the three days you were in the hospital when you were born you lost 10 ounces. By your one-week appointment, you gained it all back and then by your two-week appointment gained 9 more ounces! Everyone thinks you are going to be very tall, just like Daddy. Most people also say you look just like Daddy. I think it’s because you have dark hair like him. We looked at some pictures of me when I was about your age and were very surprised that you look a lot like I did. So now we think you look like both Daddy and I — you have the best of us in you!

Daddy and you are getting along very well! He was worried before that he wouldn’t know what to do, but he is an expert at taking care of you! He is a pro at diaper changes (and asks to do them to give me a break!), holds you in the shower while we clean you (yes, you take showers now!), and talks to you and plays with you all the time. You are very lucky to have such a wonderful, loving Daddy and we are so lucky to have such a sweet baby!

It is a very exciting time for our new family. Daddy was supposed to be transferred to a new job just a couple weeks after you were born! The job is in Japan and that isn’t a good idea to move right away, so we asked to have it bumped back to the end of March. So now we are getting ready to move to Japan for about four years! Your grandparents aren’t quite as excited for us, because they just met you and now they are going to miss you a lot because you’ll be much farther away. We will take lots of pictures and videos of you for them and you have all ready used a video camera over the internet to talk to your grandparents. We will visit when we can and they will even come out to see you! Japan should be a very neat place. Daddy has always wanted to visit there and now we get to live there and see lots of new and exciting things!

We thank the Lord every single day for blessing us with you, such a beautiful, healthy boy. You have made us so happy and we are so excited to get to know you better and grow with you. We will do our very best to take care of everything you need, to love you completely, and to help you grow healthy and strong in body and in faith. We love you, Rhino. Thank you for making us a family!

Love,
Mommy

It’s Rhino’s 1-month birthday! The time has really flown by so quickly. I feel like we just brought him home yesterday. Maybe it’s because we’ve had so many visitors and haven’t really settled into our own routine. I’m looking at his birth photos and he all ready looks so different! We measured him and he’s about 23 inches (but probably someone inaccurate) and don’t have a reliable way to measure him. He’s all ready outgrowing some of his clothes!

It is also my birthday today. Hooray, I’m 25 now! Papa flew in from Dallas last night and will be visiting with us until Monday. Rhino, Papa and I drove down to Santa Barbara this morning to pick up Rhino’s birth certificate (yay, it’s finally in!) Then Papa took me out for pizza in Goleta before driving back up. We picked up Matt from work then enrolled him in the military system and went to get his passport photo taken. At first the photographer told me to have him up against the wall. Considering he still has a floppy neck, that didn’t seem like a good idea. He decided to put some white cardboard on the floor and I put Rhino down. For the photo, he had to have open eyes, looking towards the camera, head straight, couldn’t have any arms or hands in the photo, and I couldn’t be propping him at all. It was pretty tricky and we went through a lot of shots, but we finally got an acceptable one!

We tried out a new restaurant, Lompoc’s Blacksmith Steakhouse, for my birthday dinner. It was a nice place that Robb and Janeece recommended to us and we had never known existed. Rhino was nice and quiet for a little while, but then started to get a little fussy and let out a few shrieks. We had a few women come over to coo over him and tell us all about their babies. Matt held him most of the way through dinner and it was amusing watching him try to cut his steak with one hand! We all had steaks and corn chowder, which was pretty yummy. They serve three desserts: cheesecake, chocolate cake, and tiramisu. We decided to get one of each to take home, then split them over the next couple days. Yum! It was a busy day, but nice to get things done. Definitely a good birthday!

I had to go to the dentist this morning, so Matt and I went out this morning and combined that trip with another one to Solvang. We left Rhino with Mom and Dad, went to the dentist (I had to have a filling repaired), then drove out to Paula’s Pancake House. We had breakfast there about 6 months ago and thought it was fantastic and have been talking about going back ever since. I think we hyped it up in our minds a little bit too much, but it was still a wonderful breakfast! It was nice to have another little break from babycare — and no, we didn’t just talk about Rhino the whole time — and I know Matt’s parents were more than happy to hang out with him for a couple hours. And I left more milk for him this time.

Jen came back up this afternoon to take Mom and Dad back down to LA in the evening. They had planned an early birthday party for me, since my birthday’s in a little over a week and they won’t be out here to celebrate. Mom baked me a cake and they sang to me. Jen got me a wood carving set because one time when she was out and we visited Michael’s craft store, we saw it and thought how neat it would be to learn to whittle! I’ll have to carve something cute for Rhino! Mom and Dad got me Ratatouille (actually, they gave it to me the other day so we could all watch it together!) and Alice in Wonderland.