Father's Day with Grandpa and Daddy

Sunbathing with Uncle T and Auntie S

For the first time in quite a while J, E and I were able to celebrate Father's Day with my family now that we are all together in Northern California. We decided to keep things simple and spent the morning at church, then relaxed by the pool and barbecued in the afternoon. It was the perfect Sunday. 

E with Auntie S

E with Nana

Watermelon Monster

E has been putting all her newfound skills from swim lessons to good use around our house. She practices her tight lips and back floats in the bathtub; she even makes me sing the ABCs just like we did at swim lessons. She is awfully brave and tends to think that she can really swim by herself. 

Don't worry Momma, I got this!

Quick snack on the steps

Practicing her underwater swimming from Momma to Daddy. Kicks and all!

Father's Day with Daddy!

Last year, J celebrated his first Father's Day with some of his best friends at a brunch. But this year was completely different because E is so much more involved than she was at eight months. This year, J asked that we spend Saturday on the lake to celebrate. This request worked out perfectly with the recent acquisition of our boat and that the forecast called for 105 degree weather.

I was kind of apprehensive about how E would handle being on the boat for the majority of the day. She has been on a boat before, actually, it was almost exactly a year ago. She HATED the life jacket that she was required to wear at the time because the style restricted the range of movement for her neck.

2011

 In preparation for many hours spent on the boat this summer, I shopped around for a life jacket that would work for someone of her weight, but didn't have the attractive around-the-neck feature. Toys R Us came through for me. We tried it on at home a week or so before and she seemed pretty excited about it. 

2012

We packed up the night before and got up early in order to take advantage of E's most wakeful hours. I wasn't sure if she would be willing to nap on the boat, or just fuss until we got her in her crib at home. You see, E is not the kid that will fall asleep wherever she is whenever she is tired. She sleeps in her bed, and only in her bed (or pack n play at daycare). She hasn't granted her Daddy's wish of peacefully falling asleep while snuggling on the couch or in our bed since she was just a little fry.

The day far exceeded my expectations! E had a blast; she hung out with her Aunt and Uncle, didn't try to take her life jacket off, and seemed to feel very comfortable on the boat. She would even ask to sit on J's lap while he was driving. Maybe she'll be driving the boat while he wake boards behind it in a few years!

It was the perfect day to celebrate the perfect Daddy for our daughter. J has always been very involved with every stage that E is going through. He is more than I could have dreamed of as a father for my children and a partner in the journey that compares to nothing else. He is attentive and devoted to that little girl. Everything else falls away when she is in his arms.

Nakey Baby!

I am fortunate to be able to stay home with E on Fridays. When I went in to get her from her nap on last Friday afternoon, I was greeted by a sweet little naked baby who handed me her wet diaper and told me it was dirty. Thankfully she hadn't gone to the bathroom in the crib, but she thought she was pretty hilarious! 

Maybe now that she can take her diaper off by herself, she can start changing it too!

One for the Archives: Birthday with Momma and Daddy

On E's first birthday, J and I took her to the Long Beach Aquarium. We have a large fish tank at our house and she has always loved watching the fish and we figured that she would love to experience everything on a much larger scale.

The Long Beach Aquarium isn't huge, so it's perfect for someone that is E's age. It's a place that you could stay all day or walk through in a couple of hours and go grab lunch at one of the great restaurants nearby (which we usually do).

It was awesome to spend the day together, just the three of us, at a place that none of us had been to before. One of the best things about being a parent is to see things through your child's eyes and to experience things with him or her for the very first time. It's amazing and humbling every single time.

20 Months!

E is growing up so fast. At this stage in her life, she continues to want to try to do everything by herself and thinks she knows best. But we are having fun showing her everything that we can offer.

E, at 20 months you:

-Love to high-five and fist-pound as part of your normal goodbye routine.

-You are doing a great job eating with a spoon and fork.

-You threw your first major tantrum; you really don't like to be rushed through your morning routine.

-Daddy let you have your very own popsicle instead of sharing with him on a hot day on the patio.

-You love to draw outside with sidewalk chalk and inside with colored pencils. You have even surprised Momma with a beautiful mural on one of the walls in the house.

-You have grown out of your first pair of Converse Chuck Taylors,we definitely need to go shoe shopping for a new pair to keep with family tradition.

-Momma gave you your first timeout for intentionally throwing crackers on the floor.

-You had your first injury (with blood) while out to lunch at Madison Bear Garden. You slipped on the picnic table and cut the inside of your mouth. There was a lot of blood, but thankfully, not too many tears. You were a  tough little cookie. 

-You have an amazing vocabulary and pick up on new tasks and words very easily.
-You are regularly using almost 50 words.
-You can point to most major parts correctly when we ask.
-You love looking at pictures of animals and telling us the sound they make. We just play along and let you think that giraffes growl every now and then.

Within the past couple of weeks, you have really been working hard on figuring out how to put your pants and shoes on by yourself. Sometimes you will sit quietly in your room and empty your entire pajama drawer so that you can work on getting each pair of pants on. I just have to make sure I pop my head in every few minutes, because complete silence might mean trouble.

We are loving this phase with you. Even though sometimes it's hard to interpret exactly what you want, you are so gracious in showing us what you are trying to say. I can't believe your birthday is only a few months around the corner.

For the Archives: E's Bee Day Party

The original date of this post was October 19th, just two days after E's first birthday party. I guess I got way to busy to finalize this post at the time, but can't go without recording it here.

J and I decided to throw and all-out bash at our house to celebrate E's first birthday, and surviving our first year of parenthood. After searching endless party blogs, I finally stumbled upon a theme that I loved: Bee Day. The entire party was bumble bee and honeycomb themed, the invitations, decorations and, of course, the cake!

I won't bore you with the details, cause I'm sure you're dying for pictures. I had a wonderful friend agree to photograph the party so that I didn't have to worry about missing any of the priceless moments with our girl. All images © 2011 Jennifer Leanne Photography. I highly recommend this practice to anyone planning an important celebration. It's so important for parents to get out from behind the camera.

E at 18 Months

I can hardly believe that 18 months have passed since the first time that I held E in my arms. I have conquered most of her milestones with joy, but this time around was bittersweet. Although, I have to admit that I am working on a photo project for one of the walls in the new house which required me to labor through EVERY SINGLE PICTURE that we have of E. It was awful. If awful means turning the laptop around to your husband every 60 seconds to ensure that I wasn't the only one drowning in this pool of emotion.

We are on our way to living with a two-year old!

-E at 18 months you are such a spitfire. You are figuring out how to communicate all the things you want with words and gestures, but when you can't accomplish that, you stomp your feet, back into a corner and whine a little bit louder. Hopefully I can keep a smile on my face through this phase.

-You weigh 23 lbs. and are 32 inches tall. Seventy-fifth percentile for height!

-You are doing great eating with a fork and a spoon, of course we still end up with a mess, but at least it's a cute one.

-You have all of your teeth except your two-year molars. Your top K-9 teeth are coming in now and we might just have a summer free of teething.

-You enjoy helping with some of our household chores; especially emptying the dishwasher and putting laundry into the washer or dryer.

-You are talking up a storm. Your vocabulary includes more than 25 words, but you will make a decent attempt at saying anything that we ask.

-You recently started mimicking 'momma' behaviors. You love to wheel your baby dolls around in a little stroller, feed them a bottle, pat them on the back and give them kisses. It is the sweetest thing.

-You love to be independent and do anything that makes you feel like a big kid. You often refuse help or only let an adult give you minimal help with a task until you can follow the lead. 

-One night during a particularly bad teething episode, Daddy showed you a video of Barney on the computer. Now you just might be OBSESSED. Sadly, J and I have learned the words to all the songs and added a Barney box set to our DVD collection. Go ahead and laugh, but Barney has saved us during a recent eight-hour car ride.

-You still love to read books. I love watching you pick up a book and chit chat your way through it or fly through the pages. Reading is one of my favorite times with you. You will sit on my lap, or snuggle up close to Daddy, or climb over Grandpa to sit on his left side for the second book of the evening after you enjoyed the first on his right side.

-You are a dancing machine. You love to dance anytime that there is music playing, at home or in the car. You have mastered the art of getting Nana to turn on music on her cell phone for an impromptu dance party.

You continue to challenge me and teach me about the depth of love, even if we are just laughing our way through it.