Birthday

So I suck at writing on a daily basis.  I clearly set myself up for failure by trying to write and post pictures for 31 days in a row. 

B's birthday was wonderful.  I'll try to get the pictures up on Sunday.  My favorite part was watching her eat the cake.  She sat in her chair at the table and I plopped a piece down on the table in front of her.  She played with the frosting for a while before she realized that it was something to eat.  Once she took her first bite, there was no stopping her.  She loved it. 

The day has gone by so fast.  Just like the first year of her life.  It is actually 10:09 pm right now, 2 minutes after she was born a year ago.  I remember everything about that day.  If there's one thing I am proud of as a mom, it is that I haven't taken a single day with her for granted.  I have enjoyed and loved having her in my life and I am grateful for the many days to come. 

Birthday Traditions

Now that Miss B is with our family, it has been fun thinking about traditions to start or continue as a family.  A new tradition that Eric and I will start on B's birthday is the birthday chair.  I saw on Pinterest a cute crown that fits over the back of a chair so I decided to recreate it to make a chair special for our b-day girl.  B seems to like it.

It was super easy to make.  Felt, ric rac, ribbon, pom pom trim, and a sheet of sparkly foam. 

Rubberband Man

I'm going to stray a bit from blogging about B to show you a hilarious, but crappy, picture I had to quickly take of Eric before he could stop me.  I walked downstairs to check on B once more before I went to bed myself and saw Eric playing Xbox out of the corner of my eye.  When he plays with other people, he wears these headphones so that he can hear the game and those he plays with.  Well, I noticed something weird about the headphones and looked over at him.  It looked like he pulled a wire from the headphones across his forehead, but then I realized it was a rubberband.  He stretched a rubberband over his head and the head phones because B had broken one of the ear things.  So I got my iPod camera out and casually walked up to him and snapped this picture before he could stop me.

Sorry it is so bad.  The only light in the room is a tiny lamp and the TV.  But come on, this is funny!!  Oh, I love moments like these because they make me so glad my daughter is half him.  I hope she gets his problem solving abilities.

Less than 1 week

In less than a week my sweet baby will be 1 year old.  Here is my cute little jaundiced baby during the first week of her life. 

I Think She's Turning Japanese

Eric, B and I went out to eat tonight at Kobe's, a Japanese sushi restaurant.  B wasn't able to join us in eating the sushi, but she did get to eat a lot of rice.  With chopsticks!!  Just ignore the pasty lady in pink and focus on the cutie-patootie in yellow.  :)

Sneaking Food

I have a dog, who unfortunately could not make the move with us to North Dakota, named L'il Brudder.  I hope that he'll be able to join us soon but Eric wishes he'll stay with my brothers.  I'm very lucky to have loving brothers who love and take care of my L'il Brudder.  As much as I love Brudder, he is trouble.  I think he chooses not to obey commands because he 100% understands them but won't follow through.  He also loves to try and sneak food off of plates.  He waits patiently until your attention leaves your food and he slowly moves toward it hoping to get a lick of the plate.  One day I noticed Brudder was being a little too quiet.  That's never a good sign with kids and it sure isn't a good sign with Brudder.  I walked into the kitchen to this:

I had forgotten to put away his dog food and he knocked it down to get into it.  Well, I don't know how, but somehow, Brudder seemed to teach B all of his tricks.

She knocked down the box of Cheerios that was on a side table and sneakily ate them.  Not so sneakily though.  She makes quite a bit of noise, but she was hidden between the side table and the chair.  Brudder would be proud.

Dancing Toy

B loves her wind-up toy that dances.  We got it at the Cracker Barrel the first night we moved to Bismarck.  I wish it would dance for longer than 3 seconds.  Sometimes we need more than 3 seconds of distraction.

Skull

So for those who don't know, I have this awesome skull that I bought before Halloween one or two years ago.  It looks like it's covered in rhinestones and I love shiny things. 

I told Eric that I bought it for a Halloween decoration, but that was a lie.  I had been wanting to have some skull decor in my house for a long time, but, knowing Eric, he was not going to like it.  I had to sneak it in somehow.  I knew Halloween would be the perfect time.  I brought that skull home in all it's shining glory and said, "Hey, Eric.  Look at this cool skull I got for Halloween decoration.."  Well, Halloween came and went and the skull stayed.  Eric has complained about it a little bit and I think he's a little embarrassed by it but I love this thing.
B loves it too.  She has proven quite a few times in her 1 year of life that she is my daughter.  She's stubborn, she does what she wants no matter what anybody else says, she loves food, and she LOVES shiny things.  So somedays she decides the skull is the best toy to play with.  And it's fine with me.  It's sturdy and those aren't rhinestones glued on it so it doesn't pose a choking hazard.  And when she becomes a wife and decides she desperately needs some skull decor in her home and knows her husband won't like it, I'll be there with this skull in time for Halloween.

Tutu

I made this tutu for B for Christmas.  I know Christmas is a ways away but I had to try it on her to see how precious she looks in it.  Obviously.  I'll be making similar ones for her cutie little girl cousins for Christmas as well.

Blowing Kisses

One of my favorite things B has learned to do is blow kisses.  Here is a picture of her in the middle of blowing kisses.

2 weeks...

B's birthday is in 2 weeks.  She will be 1 year old.  And since her birthday is in October and today is October 1st, I have decided to do 31 days of B.  You're welcome.  :)  Here is the first:

She's throwing a tantrum because I won't let her smack and hit the laptop as much as she wants, which happens to be a lot and it also happens to be very hard.  Even though my patience wears thin during times like this (they occur more than I'd like to admit), I love her more than words can express.  When she signs "please" for more cheerios, gives me kisses when I ask for them (mmmmmmma), and gets excited at the sight of books, my heart feels too big for my chest.  I'd gladly go through everything I went through and do it over again to keep this feeling.  I'm addicted to it.  Momminess is my drug.