Wordless Wednesday: Bright Eyes

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5 Minutes for Mom

Tiny Talk Tuesday

David has been talking & singing nonstop for days. Maybe even weeks, now. So Monday night, I sat down to video him singing a song. For the first time, he was suddenly quiet! Go figure.

There he is playing with Cousin Will at Elizabeth's birthday party.

I think I got out of the habit of remembering the cute things he says over the holidays. It's amazing how quickly one can fall out of a good habit! Grandma says that David says so much it's hard to remember it all!

Dad picked up David & David said, "David and Dad are good firefighters!"

Thanks to Wee Sing, David is finally singing some new songs, but he still throws in a line of Jingle Bells, Angels We Have Heard on High, and The 12 Days of Christmas in there. New songs he's started singing this week include BINGO, Who Built the Ark?, Deep and Wide.

We walked up the tall hill beside Grandpa's house yesterday. When we got to the top I said, "Look how tall we are!" David said, "Yeah, look how tall I am! I am tall like Jesse!" (Jesse is his 11 year old cousin.)

Elizabeth has added "book" to her repertoire. She is really enjoying all the books she got for her birthday! Here she is enjoying a slice of banana & a biscuit for breakfast.

See more Tiny Talk Tuesday over at Not Before 7.

Elizabeth's First Birthday Party!

I told Dad that in case he hadn't noticed, a first birthday party is more for Mom & the rest of the people who'd come than it is for the one year old! This feels so true to me, because I feel like I've accomplished a lot in this year - I deserve a party! : ) Now, on to Elizabeth. Look at that cute little grin she has playing with the sack! In the background, you can see the back of the I Spy quilt that Grandma made for her.



David blew out the candle for Elizabeth & she thought that was really funny!!! Then she had no idea what to do with the cupcake! I wonder if that's because she's never had sweets before or if she just wasn't hungry?



I think she had a couple of bites before she discovered that crumbling the cupcake was really fun! Then, throwing it on the floor was fun! Thank goodness for Grandpa's concrete floor! It was easy to clean.

To see all the photos from Elizabeth's first birthday, from presents to cake to party guests, click here!

Picture & Doctor Day

Today was a busy day for our beautiful little one year old! We made another trip to our nearest Sears Portrait Studio where a wonderful girl took Elizabeth's one year old portraits. I was really happy with how they turned out. The portrait below is the one I picked for my package. If I usually send you a picture when we have pictures taken, this is the one you'll get after I pick them up in February:

You can see all of her pictures on my flickr. After getting some lunch, then we tried yet another new doctor for Elizabeth's 12-month check up.... and we'll try another doctor for her 15-month check-up, because this guy was worse than the last one we went to! Anyway, all that matters is that she's healthy. She weighed in at 18 pounds, 8 oz. She's 27.5" tall. I have no idea where that falls on the chart, but it doesn't matter anyway.

Throwback Thursday: First Birthdays

Since we're in a first birthday kind of mood around here, I thought I'd show you this 1st birthday photo from April 1974 (I found this photo in Grandmama's closet after Aunt Sissy & fam left):

When I showed it to David, I asked who is in the photo. He said, "It's Elizabeth!" Dad said, "Nope, it's Mom!" David just looked at me like, what???

Stay tuned for more of Elizabeth's First Birthday Week tomorrow! : ) And to see more Throwback pics, visit the Pinks & Blues Girls Blog.

Happy First Birthday, Elizabeth!

Dear Elizabeth,

I am amazed how quickly your first year of life has flown by! That, however, pales in my amazement of you every day. You are so different from David that everything is brand new again. I love to watch you forming words with your mouth. I never knew it could happen so early in life! I love to see the excitement in your eyes when you recognize someone or some thing that you love. I love to watch you work your way across the carpet without actually crawling. I love the look of love you have for me.

I wanted to make note of some things that you're doing as you turn one year old. Your first word was Mama, then Dada. That makes me proud! : ) You can also say uh-oh, Elmo (who you love), Da-di (David), apple, nana (banana), di-de (diaper), t-ka t-ka (when you see a kitty), a da (all done), and yesterday I heard you say Ga-pa when Grandpa was talking loudly across the room. You have attempted to sign milk, up, all done, more, and diaper.

You love to eat oatmeal, blueberries, & squash. By yourself you enjoy eating banana slices, apple slices, crackers, Chex cereal, zwieback toast, and pizza crust. Your favorite drink is Mama milk and water. You refuse to eat green beans, Cheerios, Gerber fruit puffs, and won't drink formula or juice! You have a problem digesting whole milk, so after your birthday we'll try lactose free milk like we had to do with David. Your bottom is happier in cloth diapers. You have 3 teeth on the bottom & 2 on the top look like they break through at any moment.

I fall more in love with you every time you smile at me, every time you cry for me, with every juicy & toothy kiss, every moment you're awake and every moment you're asleep. You are amazing, my little girl.

I love you,
Mama

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I have missed Tiny Talk Tuesday while we were taking the Christmas/New Year's days off! And unfortunately, during all the chaos, I got out of the habit of remembering all the adorable things that have been said. I'll have to work harder to take note of tiny talk in the upcoming week.

We have been getting ready for Elizabeth's first birthday around here! (I can't believe it's tomorrow!!) David has traditionally been upset by a large group of people singing the birthday song in unison, so we've been having "Birthday Practice" this week. Elizabeth forgot about yanking her own party hat off when she saw David wearing his, and David is excited about singing the song to her.

I love to hear David's voice say, "E-liz-a-bif" when he talks to her. They're starting to play together more & more. It's so cute!

David got this tent for Christmas, but we hadn't set it up yet because it takes up so much room. Yesterday he asked to set it up, finally. I was amazed at how clean the living room stayed all day... but the inside of his tent was trashed! He was having so much fun in the tent that Mom had this lovely idea that David might want to sleep in it. So while he was brushing his teeth, I moved the tent onto his bed He was, indeed, very excited to sleep in the tent!

...That is until about 10:05, when he came into the living room. At first I couldn't understand what he was saying. Then I finally understood, "I smashed my tent." I went to check it out & sure enough, the tent lay in ruins there on his bed. He said it was an accident, so I'm not sure what happened. Maybe Dad will be able to repair the damage.

David still has Christmas carols on the brain, though I am trying to remind him of the other songs. Here's our dialog in the car last night...

David: Let's sing songs!

Mom: OK. The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...

David: No!

Mom: Down came the rain and washed the spider out...

David: Let's start over!

Mom: Out came the sun and dried up all the rain...

David: And a partridge in a pear tree!
Obviously, I need to keep working on it!

I did a little Tiny Talk Vlog during Christmas. Click there if you missed the video of David reciting Luke 2:11-14. Aunt Sissy noted that David was either talking or singing non-stop while they were here. That's a far cry from the little boy who started speech therapy a year & a half ago!

Thanks again to Mary at Not Before 7 for continuing on with Tiny Talk Tuesday!

Party Planning!

We're getting ready for Elizabeth's First Birthday! It's an Elmo party! Unfortunately, I was only able to find one package of invitations, so not everyone is going to get an invitation in the mail. So here ya go:

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You are invited to

Elizabeth's First Birthday Party!

Saturday, January 12

2:00 pm

at Grandma & Grandpa's House

RSVP in Comments!

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Grandma said she & Grana were discussing what Elizabeth might want for her birthday & not coming up with anything. Then I thought of books! Most of our baby books are in storage, so we don't have many out that are simple & sturdy enough for her to enjoy. So I put together a little wish list on amazon.com for some book ideas. Click the button to see the list.

Dad's First Fire

I mentioned it yesterday, but it deserves it's own post! Dad worked 15 fires in the year and a half on SAFD. Now, he finally got his first fire on FWFD... and it also happened to be the first house fire of 2008! Surely that's a sign of more fires to come this year!

If you're not a firefighter, or a loved one of a firefighter, then that may sound morbid, but when someone loves his job as much as Dad does, it's something to get excited about when he actually gets to do the job!

Not only did Dad get his first fire, but he appeared on Star-Telegram.com AND... perhaps most exciting of all... he appeared on the website, FortWorthFire.com! Click on the Star Telegram link to go to the article & pictures. To see the photos on Fort Worth Fire, you'll need to click on the link, then look for photos #2418 - 2421. Dad's in two of the photos!

New Year's Reunion

Today was our annual New Year's Day Reunion. Grandpa will be blogging assorted photos from the reunion sometime this week. So I'm just going to show you my immediate family. Since Dad was on duty today, we didn't take a family shot. But I got a group shot of David & Elizabeth with their first cousins, and a serious then funny shot of Uncle Bubba's Family and Aunt Sissy's family. Then we got a group shot of Grandma & Grandpa with all their grandkids.

In other news, I mentioned that Dad was on duty today... and he finally got his first fire as a Fort Worth Firefighter! The first house fire of 2008, too! AND mention on Star-Telegram.com! Yeah, Dad!!!

After David heard me telling the family about Dad's fire this evening, he ran over & got out his big fire truck, saying, "David is a firefighter!"