First Birthday Bash

 Amelia celebrated her 1st birthday in style, 1 done, twice over. The Nieders clan couldn't celebrate on her birthday weekend (and they are 50% of our guest list), so we did a celebration for Miss Millie on Oct 6, and a combo celebration for Millie and Ava (bday Oct 11) on the 13th.

 

A birthday girl has got to wake up with balloons in her crib! She loved them...

a totally new texture, shape, smell... a 12 month old girl's dream come true!

From the first day I met this little love, I've adored her half moon eyes.

Mima and Papa Cooper were our guests of honor at birthday bash #1. It was also an excuse for us to watch post season baseball together and to let Amelia wear her special birthday outfit. I might have splurged... but maybe this will be my only girl's first birthday. Some occasions just call for fancy!

Love that little tutu

Peek-a-boo! She was going through a really sweetsie phase around her first birthday.

It's since passed (wink), but we enjoy these smiles when we can get them!

She was enthralled with the packages and bows.. of course even more than the actual gift.

 I'll love to watch her again at Christmas!

Owen was (of course) right on top of her as she was opening presents. What are big brothers for anyway? Well he was a little bit croupy that day, and he is a frequent cough-so-hard-that-you-throw-up kind of kid. Can you see where I'm going with this picture? Yes, moments, seconds, after this shot he vomited ALL over her present. At least it was still wrapped, and at least we'll have a good story for years and years....

The good thing about her being so little is that she didn't seem to mind at all!

I cleaned up the mess and she sat right on the box. I felt like a hot mess, but I calmed down eventually ;)

Next up was smash cake #1. You can tell this was my second kid because the cake size doubled! Owen never tasted a lick (that I know about...) of sugar before his 1st birthday and he got a small cupcake. Amelia's cake took up 60% of this large plate and she's already had bites of ice cream several times...

 

My foodie was concerned that the cake wasn't getting to her quickly enough!

She's also a texture lover, and she played in it more than eating it.

Look at that clean face!

Daddy encouraged her to eat a little and then she dug right in!

I'd say she did well!

 

I love that she always crosses her feet like this while sitting in the high chair!

Tea for Two?

 

The first bash was a great party !

 

Next Sunday we celebrated Bitsy (2) and Itsy Bitsy (1).

Talk about Tutus... Ava can rock them!

Sweetsie toddler. Is that an oxymoron?

Millie obviously adorned her party pants once again.

 

Carson, Livi, and Lindsey did a beautiful job on the fancy cupcakes. One fun thing about the age spread between the big kids and Ava is that they love her. They helped pick out her presents, decorate for her party, make cupcakes, etc. They're super special helpers!

A girl and her MiMa.

Her Marilyn pose. She loved standing over that vent!

Please, can I go outside and play with the big kids?!

Livi came in to love on her a bit. What a sweet girl!

Ava's present was this rocking horse which, as you can imagine, was quite the hit. It allowed ALL of the kids the opportunity to practice sharing. Owen needs a lot of practice in that area....

Lots of presents for 2 little girls!

Carson and Ava are like two peas in a pod. He will do anything for her,

and she's obviously engaged in whatever he is telling her!

It only took her once to figure out how to open presents. She was set the next time!

MiMa Wade recorded a reading of 'Counting Kisses' by Karen Katz. I think she is one of my favorite childhood authors, by the way! This book has been a HUGE hit for Amelia, she wants to read it all of the time. And she claps when Mima's voice 'speaks'.

She got a grocery cart and food from Mima & Papa Cooper... another huge hit. That night we all sat down to dinner, and Amelia sat in her high chair on the floor and played with her groceries! I got a huge kick out of her pretend play :)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Cry if I want to! You would cry to if it happened to you!

Ah, that's better. No hat and lots of cake. A great end to a great celebration.

 

Thanks, Ava, for sharing your birthday celebration with Miss Millie! We look forward to many October birthdays in the years to come!

 

 

Final Fripp Fotos

It's certainly time to wind down the Fripp fotos, but I couldn't let you go without a few more candids.

 

Love mudslides and low country boils.  

Love this shot of the two of us!

Love this shot of the two of them!

Love this man being such an awesome daddy.

 



Love this cuddle bug.

Love their relationship.

 Love our family (warning.. you may see this shot in our Christmas card)

 Love that we live in StL and our kids have unique and personal relationships with their grandparents.

 

Love sharing life with this man.

Love my folks and their generosity.

Love making memories.

13 Months: Walking

Whelp, I don't even have Amelia's birthday party blog up but here we are at 13 months. And I like to stay on time with these, so we'll just be a little out of order. We've got BIG developments...

 

Little sassy miss is walking and PROUD. And I mean she's walking from room to room and not even pausing to think about it.

 

She gets pretty proud.

Will walk for CANDY she says =)

 

I'm not the normal bather.. but this particular night I was 'on'. As I put the kids in the bath,

all I could think of was Jim Gaffigan's skit called 'Beyond the Pale'.

We are in the 'DOG' stage. Every animal is a dog (gog).

This is the sea lion exhibit at the zoo, and she chanted gog, gog, gog as they swam by.

It was so adorable that I let her stand there for a loooong time.

Owen likes to 'block' where she's going quite often. This is a typical scene at our house.

So is this. Downward facing 'gog' anyone?

This is my favorite pic from Halloween. What's cuter than an elephant drinking a bottle? Nothin.

On the bottle note.... she hasn't had one in a few days. I think we finally made the switch just shy of 13 months. She fought it.... she definitely has more of a temper than O.

She's also far more of a climber than Owen ever was. He was/is a destructor. She is a climber. I'm not sure which I prefer. She sure does get proud of herself, though!

We usually get to the library every other week or so. She's apparently getting quite comfortable. Picked out a book, crawled on this pillow and had herself a little session.

Another blog post preview: Pumpkin Patch. I've heard of a rose between 2 thorns...

so what is this?

A pumpkin between 2 pumpkins?

O was sick this day and it was pouring outside, so we stayed in our jammies and had a movie day. She was so proud and I could just tell she felt 'big'. I can't believe she is so BIG. Where is the time going?!

 

This month's tally:

 

Words (2):

Car- "Ca"

Dog- "Gog"

What ever happened to Mama & Dada?

 

Teeth (3.25):

The first top one came in and I see the white of the second top tooth.

 

Illnesses (2):

Double ear infection and a case of roseola. Misery. The roseola showed up on day 3 of the penicillin for her ear infections. So I'm not sure if it really was roseola or a sensitivity to the antibiotics. We'll have to 'challenge' her again sometime with the meds.

...In case you were wondering, she's a very grumpy and needy sick person. I'm not placing fault, but I am saying that we had a rough 10 days =)

 

Weight (20 1/2 lbs):
She lost a little refusing milk and being sick for 10 days.. she's less than at her 12 month check up. But with the way she eats I think she'll be back to chunky in no time.

 

We love you sweet Millie! xoxox

 

 

Sharking

My dad and Steven both love to fish. These days in my dad's semi-retirement, he and Steven frequently head out fishing on Steven's off day. We've gone fishing on several previous vacations, and it seemed to fit perfectly for Fripp, too. Mima kept the kiddies, and I tagged along with the guys.

 

Here's Capt Eddie's fishin' boat. It was a great size for 5 passengers. He's the only guy who offers charters off of Fripp. Talk about a monopoly!

Fisherman in a Fedora

Ready to catch some big'uns.

Chartering out to sea. I love the green grass in this pic.

Captain E and his bait. Shrimp & squid. Now, I touch gross things all day every day,

but I was glad I didn't have to touch the bait =)

I'll be honest.... it was a sloooow day for catching fish. And it was cold. And windy.

We did a lot of standing around, checking our bait, etc.

But then the excitement picked up. Mike had something good.

Look at the pull on that line. He (the fish & Mike) were both working hard.

It was fun to watch.

Capt Eddie knew it was something good, too, and he pulled out his thick orange glove.....

so this SHARK wouldn't bite him!

It's a bonnethead shark. Same family as the hammerhead, but smaller.

Let me explain something about my husband. He always wins. He does. Pool, bowling, baseball, basketball, fishing/sharking, skiing, swimming. He does it all. He does it all well. You don't want to be his opponent...especially since he's not very competitive. I guess he doesn't have to be because he always wins. Well, he won that day, too!

Here's our catch for the day. Pretty measly but we had enough for dinner.

That shark was delicious. mmmmm

Uncle Steven can always add a little (good) drama.

He was cracking us up using the shark as a puppet.

Ok, the teeth really aren't that impressive..but thanks for biting Mr. Shark!

Sand Baby

If your first and second children are complete opposites, what happens if you have a third? That sentence is supposed to be more about my first two being complete opposites. There is no #3.

 

Anywho... Owen loved the sand the best. Of course. It took him days to fully immerse himself in the water or even play down by where the waves were gently coming up to shore.

 

But the engineer in him really really really got in to perfecting his sand castle. And then he would knock each of these little 'knobs' off one by one and count them!

A sunny silhouette of one of God's finest creations (in my humble opinion, of course).

Here we are eaaasing in to the water holding daddy's hand. You can see how low it is.. Mima is all of the way out there with water only up to her waist. On another note, my mom is an ocean addict. She could literally swim, bounce, and sway in the waves for hours. I love this about her. I didn't inherit that trait, but maybe Millie did.

Owen is a little more like me.. but here he is getting brave!

We bought arm floaties for this trip, and he felt on top of the world! He definitely like pools more than the ocean (at this point). Maybe it's a bit more predictable?

I abolustely love this pic of him running in the sand.

Little Boy Heaven

Quality bonding time with MiMa. They looked for sea shells, burried cars & monster trucks,

covered their feet in sand. You know, the usual. Love this special time, though, and so thrilled they can share it!

 



Owen had some additional first experiences on our trip.

Here he is 'roasting' 'marsh-pillows' as he termed it.

...leading to his very first S'more. That night I think he dreamed about the s'more. He hadn't been able to finish it, and the next morning he woke up, literally in tears. 'I want to finish that yummy 'becial' treat'. So we made another one, and he had no problem downing it =)

Proud of his FIVE masterpieces (just count them).

 

I love watching O experience new things just as much as I love it with A. There's obviously a higher level of development (along with that comes a little fright, I think), but he was thrilled to play all week long with 4-5 doting adults! I can't wait to go again!