Gabrielle's First Birthday

Our little baby turned one on Thursday. So far our celebrations have been fairly minor. Thursday morning I helped Liz make cupcakes to pass out to her classmates at school (in honor of Ellie's first birthday of course). Liz had been talking about doing this all week and I kept telling her that I didn't think it was allowed. She kept bugging me about it so finally I just said, "ask your teacher." I thought the teacher would tell Liz no for me, but she said yes (which I suppose is why I should have been a parent and been firm about the answer in the first place--that said, she also made cupcakes for the neighbors tonight). After we dropped off Liz it was off to the doctor for Ellie's checkup. She's healthy. She survived two immunizations and an anemia test.Alaina kept her entertained while we waited for the doc.Gabby's stats: 21 lbs (53%), height (40%). So far she's our biggest one-year-old. Her sisters, Lizzie and Lainey, were 19.5 and 18 lbs respectively.She's still toothless (both her sisters broke their first teeth at 11 months). She isn't walking, but is crawling, standing, and cruising (Liz walked at roughly 12 mo and Laines walked at 13 mo).She copies us--tries to brush her own hair and teeth, tries to put on her own sunglasses, and whatnot. She likes to hand us things and take them back, play peek-a-boo, pretend to hand us something and snatch it back at the last second. Today Andrew tried to teach her to give five. He showed her how to slap his hand, but instead she slapped his face.When she takes a bath alone she likes to slide around the tub, pushing herself on her tummy or standing up and then sitting down quickly so that she slides backwards. She also likes to drink the tub water. Yuck.She still squirms all over the place when we change her diaper, but quiets down when we play this-little-piggie or pretend to eat her tummy. She waves bye-bye and blows zurberts on us (usually our arms). I've noticed her hitting and head-butting (usually her sisters) in anger.After the doctor's office we joined Elizabeth at school for lunch and mini cupcakes. Lainey loves going to lunch with her "sissy."Afterwards she lined up with Liz and her classmates and tried to return to go out to recess with them. I made her leave with me and the whole drive home she cried "I need my Lizzie!"After school (but before hip hop class and soccer practice) the girls and I raced to Costco to purchase Ellie's birthday gift from the family. Lizzie had been begging me to buy this dumb bear for Gabrielle for at least a month. I kept explaining to her that Daddy and I DO NOT provide them birthday gifts, but in the end I gave in.Lizzie and Alaina got carseats for the first, and so far only, birthday gifts. Ellie got a giant teddy bear. Her sisters can't get enough of this bear. Ellie is terrified of it. She wouldn't get near the thing and wouldn't go to sleep until I removed it from her room.Andrew's response when he saw the bear was something like "Why did you buy this? We do NOT need this."

Mt. Vernon

On Tuesday we went to Mt. Vernon for a playdate with friends. The kids were more interested in piling up rocks than looking at animals, but it was fun nonetheless. Plus, my friend, Sharon and I are pretty sure we spotted a "Baldwin Brother" which is my first pseudo celebrity sighting.

My weekend haul

I went to South Carolina over the weekend to gather the last of the personal effects I had stored at my parents home (oh, and some other loot as well). I left Saturday morning and, when I realized that I could be at the Charlotte airport just an hour before my parent's flight arrived, I offered to pick them up. Of course I used up that extra hour and more at a local outlet mall and arrived an hour late. Oops. In the end it was kind of okay because my sister, Julie's flight was delayed by hours so we had to hang out in the area anyway. I was with my family a very short time, roughly 24 hours from the time I met my parents at the airport till I pulled away from their home with a van and trailer full of treasures (or as Andrew might say: stuff/junk/crap). We worked hard. There was no time for swimming, playing pinball, or visiting the local teahouse--all things I will miss. While I was gone Drew was working too. He took Lizzie and Alaina to birthday parties, a soccer game, and church. He also taught my primary class for me. So nice. I was a little nervous about pulling the trailer for over 450 miles, most of them after dark. I thought it would be hard to go freeway speeds, but just as my dad said I would, I was soon comfortably barreling down the road. Things went pretty well, only a couple snags. Snag #1: within a few feet of my parents driveway my queen mattress toppled out of the trailer (we were on our way to Walmart for rope).

Snag #2: just after Richmond (seems like we always have bad luck between Richmond and DC) I hit stop-and-go traffic and my van started to overheat. I panicked. I prayed. I called my dad. He told me to put my vehicle in neutral and rev the engine when I'm stopped. It worked. I'm so grateful my Dad knew what to do and that I could turn to him for help (later Drew said the same). The traffic added an hour to my journey and as soon as I broke free of it, I began to spot lightening (naturally). I worried about my un-tarped load. The miles couldn't pass quickly enough. I pulled into my driveway around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning and was in bed by roughly 2 a.m. We unload everything upon my arrival and as Drew lifted the last box out of the trailer the rain started to fall. Once inside, Andrew said, "Thanks for going to get all that stuff." I said, "So, are you thankful for ALL the stuff?" His answer, "Well, I'm thankful for the essentials." The next morning when Alaina saw everything piled in our living room, she cried. I think Drew may have felt like doing the same. At one point during the unloading, when I had just pulled a set of metal stars out of the trailer, Andrew looked pointedly at the stars, then at me and said, "Jill. Why?"

Frying Pan Farm with the Brownies

While Lizzie went to a "try it" class, the little girls and I wandered around the farm and took a tractor ride. Lainey was very upset that she couldn't ride in the stroller (I only had a single seater). She's looking over my shoulder as I type this, laughing and singing, "ha ha, Nina crying."On another note, this morningI learned a great to get out of jury duty: show up with a baby on your hip. I'm excused for the rest of the year.

Library Outing

Yesterday I took the girls to the library to pick up some more books on CD for my drive to SC today (and Magic Treehouse for the girlies).Ellie was tricky.While we were there she learned to shake her head for no, probably because I said it so many times to her. Of course she thought it was positively hilarious when I said no.She loved to have me chase after her when she crawled away, but . . . I think her favorite thing to do was to pull books off the shelf. Towards the end of our stay I took all the girls to the book on CD aisle. Almost as soon as we arrived Alaina gave the CD's on our side a good shove, toppling CD cases off the shelf on the next aisle over. I raced to the other aisle to pick up our mess. On my way back I heard Lizzie say "Ellie! No!" I rounded the corner to see that in the seconds I was gone Ellie had pulled off about nine books on CD to Lainey's two. Argh.

Catching Up: Soccer

We signed Liz up for soccer this year and since two of her friends were on the same team, she didn't even fight us (Andrew's rule of one sport and one art has had Liz up in arms). So far she's enjoyed playing on the Lightening Bolts and we've enjoyed watching her. I haven't managed to take one picture of Liz at a game yet. All the above pictures are from her friend, Karly's dad. Thanks Marco!

Mother's Day

Last weekend Andrew decided to go gather some of our crap (and some loot) from my parents house in South Carolina. He left Friday night thinking he could install a trailer hitch, load up the van and trailer, and return Saturday night.Things didn't quite go as Andrew planned and he didn't make it back till Sunday night, just in time to read good-night stories to the girlies.I was a little bummed to be home alone on Mother's Day, but it wasn't too bad and Drew gave me a rain check on the sleeping-in, the diaper-free day, and the special-request menu.My kiddo were sweet to me. The older girls let me put their hair in hotrollers and Liz made me breakfast (bowl of chocolate icecream and bowl of cereal).Of course later on Liz told me in a not-at-all-angry, just very matter-of-fact way that if Andrew and I ever get divorced she wants to "live with Daddy, because he's fun." I had been explaining why the neighbor girls are only around to play with her every other weekend. I think it was more of a compliment of Andrew than a criticism of me, but it was pretty funny to be told that on my special day (and while I was making her lunch no less).Other Mother's Day moments: Alaina nuzzled up to my shoulder, then leaned back, looked me in the eye, smiled, and said, "I wipe my boogers on you." While we were cleaning up the basement, Liz grumbled, "I thought this was Mother's Day not cleaning day."Instead of the regularly scheduled three hours of church we just had Sacrement Meeting then a potluck lunch which was awesome! It was especially cool because I didn't know that was the plan till I showed up. Also, even though it was Fast & Testimony Meeting the primary kids sang a couple mother-love songs. I loved it.Plus, it's not like Drew didn't do anything to commemorate the holiday. Saturday afternoon a package of cookies and chocolate-dipped fruit arrived for me. I ate it for deliciously, self-indulgent dinner. I also got an awesome back rub and the Vitamix I've wanted for years.