It Aint Easy Bein' One

We partied yesterday....in one-year-old fashion, but partied none the less. The Dude shared his b-day with Easter weekend, so the race car party was postponed until Papa K and Grandma V could make it out. We had a group of friends over to commemorate this once-in-a-lifetime experience, opened a ton of fun gifts, ate some burgers, went a little crazy with salt and vinegar chips and ate about 1/4 of the monstrocity cake that we convinced ourselves we needed.

Dude played basketball in the grass and pushed himself around the patio on his Tonka and was doing just splendidly until we put him in the highchair with a big ole piece of cake in front of him. Some people will tell you that any kid will eat cake if you tempt them with it, but our son proved to me yesterday that he is not just any kid. Dude breaks the mold...he has never been so irate with us than when we forced him to get down and dirty with mounds of frosting and sugary goodness. He ate one finger lick of frosting and wanted nothing more to do with the experience. Oh well. I guess we should be grateful that he prefers a dry piece of Wonder Bread over a mouthful of sugary bliss.

Thanks everyone (Grandma and Papa especially) for coming out to party with us!

Launching gvCREATIVE...Check It Out!

A couple years ago I "started" a side business coined "gvCREATIVE." I went so far as to pay for a website and professionally printed business cards. Then we moved to the Mile High City (again), I got a full-time job which didn't allow for much attention to be placed on this budding business and finally the Little Dude happened along. That put the plan for making wads of extra cash on the shelf where its been accumulating more and more imaginary dust.

My current position at Food Bank of the Rockies has fueled my creative juices once again and the Little Dude has given us cause to evaluate how exactly to bring in more spending money, thus I'm giving this another go. This time I have a new tactic. I'm actually telling people that gvCREATIVE exists rather than hoping to be magically discovered by strangers through cyberspace.

The focus of gvCREATIVE is writing, graphic design and amateur photography (family photos, parties, engagement shots etc). I have 7 years under my belt now in the above and love putting my creative skills to the test. Check out my cost-efficient (free) blog site just launched today and if you feel compelled, pass me along to anyone who might be able to utilize my creativeness.

www.gvcreative.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Mile High Easter Photo Collage

A Mile High Easter

The Easter tradition in the Mile High City is to go to Oma B's house and hope for enough warmth and sun to make the annual Adult Easter Egg Hunt possible. 9 times out of 10 our wish is granted. Yesterday was one of those days. We had 2 tables full of good eats, hundered of plastic eggs strategically hidden around the huge yard and dozens of people running around in search for the Peep free eggs. Tim was blessed with the new tradition of finding dog food in one of his eggs, so that was appetizing.

Little Dude was decked out in patchwork pants from Nanna and looked quite charming! Uncle Mark and the Dude and Mile High Dad and little Nolan apparantly made the "what are YOU wearing today phone call." They all looked pretty darn cute in their matching ensembles (see above pictures). Dude participated in the egg hunt in the trusty backpack and laughed every time Dad swung him back and forth. Since he detests rough grass and refuses to even entertain the idea of crawling on it, we had to keep him elevated for this portion of the day.

It was a great Easter 2008! Church provided the opportunity to sing the songs we anticipate every year and hear a message of h0pe and just how blessed we are to look forward to everlasting life. However, we didn't get to sing our favorite, "Up From the Grave He Arose," so we honored Little Dude with a loud and quite obnoxious rendition on our drive home. Ask him about it some time:) Hope you had a wondeful Easter!

The Big ONE

We can't comprehend where the past year has gone. On March 20, 2007, a skinny little baby with a huge egg shaped head and the biggest blue eyes you've ever see entered the world. Little did we know what significance March 20 would have on our lives. 2 weeks later we found out. The Dude is already one! And we look at eachother and know that he'll be 18 in the blink of an eye. I fear that day!!!! Maybe by the year 2020 it'll still be cool to snuggle your mom and sing The Wheels on the Bus when you're 18?

Little Dude and I chatted this morning and decided that this is a really fun time for us and we're just gonna stay the ages we are. At least for a while. He was cool with it since the biggest worry he has in life is getting his Tonka stuck on the rug (evidence of this in the video below). Or trying to figure out how to get tape off of his fingers. That's a real struggle for him, so naturally I enjoy the game.

His big day was spent at Daycare while Mom and Dad worked. I had a meeting at night, so that sums it up! He's none the wiser though. His daycare gave him some graham crackers, so that was enough excitement for turning one. The big birthday bash (not so big really) is next weekend, so cake in face pictures are to come. Who knew how stressful a one-year-old birthday party could be to plan! We can't have balloons as to avoid a constant zombie state from Dude (he can't keep his eyes off of them and does NOT welcome them as friends). Grandma V and Papa K are coming for the party, so we eagerly anticipate their arrival! I'll update the blog once the festivies come to a close next weekend.

Have a great Easter!

A Bouquet of Beautiful Women & a Tiny Gift From God

I took a drive up to Evergreen last night to meet baby Olivia, the precious little gift given to our friends Jen, Tom & Tommy a couple weeks back through adoption. 2 weeks have now passed, meaning that parental rights are now officially granted!

Jen's amazing friends threw her a baby shower to top all baby showers. The miracle of this little girl set the stage for an awesome evening. The food was delicious, the atmosphere magical, the company warm and inviting and the presense of this tiny girl with huge brown eyes topped it all off. Jen told their story through tears and confirmed for all of us that through faith, anything is possible. Jen's Gram who passed away last February had told Jen that she would send them a little girl from heaven in February. On one of the last days of February Gram did just that. Olivia is a beautiful gift to their family...directly from heaven. How cool is that?

Diego's House of Balls Takes Residency

When my mom needed an idea for a gift for Princess P and Valociraptor (he turned one yesterday!), we hit the home of Great Deals and Greater Mullets for inspiration. And we found it. A plastic, blow up Diego house complete with 50 plastic balls. A house of balls per say. I knew what our dear friend's reaction to this jewel would be, so I naturally encouraged my mom to gift the children with this fantastic find. Cara's face showed her make-believe enthusiasm immediately, but she couldn't deny the sheer joy that this house of balls provided the kiddos. I smiled through the whole ordeal.

It's 2 weeks later and guess what is now set up in our play room? Our very own Diego's house of balls. How could we deprive our Little Dude of the house of ball fun? And to top it off, we also threw in 100 extra balls to make it that much more playland like. Thank you GiGi and Grandpa Jerry for the birthday check which made all this fun possible. I know you wanted it to go toward a Calvin College Fund, but this was much more pressing. Dude finds much satisfaction out of taking each ball out, one at a time, screaming and throwing them all over the room.

I fear the days when Dude starts vocally expressing what he wants. We learn from Wessums and Cara. 3 year-old Princess P desperately wanted a ludicrous life-sized Unicorn, but they rejected the desire. Or so we thought. We met at the driving range last week and out of the car popped Princes P clutching a brand new, larger than life, purple unicorn named "Unicorn" of course. I can't imagine what additions to our family we'll cave in to in the years to come!

It Is Finished

We celebrate today as we scoop out the last bottle's worth of more precious than gold Similac Advanced Formula. As the Dude got older and the ounces increased, the white powdery stuff depleted faster and faster, causing our bank account to do the same. Whole milk will be Dude's new best friend as of this afternoon and we'll smile as the cashier scans a $3.50 item each week as opposed to the $26 craziness we've smiled through these past 12 months. Turning one....it's a beautiful thing.

My Mohawk n Me & Other Stuff

For months, we tried so hard to make the few hairs on the Dude's head visible. The tiny little mohawk was the most effective style, so we stuck with it. Now that the Dude has maybe 200 hairs on his 90%, off-the-chart head, the mohawk won't seem to go away. No matter what we do to it, the rocker in him rears it's personality through that little spike on his noggen. It was especially mohawky yesterday, so we did a photo shoot.

Mile High Dad had the weekend of all weekends in Park City with 9 grown up dudes, celebrating biggest bro's bachelor party/post elopement bash. A monster house was rented, mounds of good eats were had, the slopes were hit - hard, resulting in soreness all over, arcades were played, I'm sure plenty of "wife banter" went back and forth and brother Nick went home a happy man. I'm pretty sure they all went home happy men. My hubby looked forward to this dreamy weekend for months and it definitely didn't disappoint.

My lovely mom (doesn't she look fabulous for being a grandma of 2 grandsons and one grand dog?) came to the Mile High City to stay with the Dude and me, which made the weekend much more enjoyable for me, thus making Mile High Dad's weekend that much more enjoyable. Mom and I watched the Dude progress literally in front of our eyes. He learned how to wave, say "Yeah!," sit on his Tonka Truck and push his way around the house and climb up the flight of stairs (not so happy about the latter). I thought we might get away with being the one family on planet earth to not invest in those plastic contraptions that cause you to fall flat on your face trying to climb over. I can already predict many injuries for this incredibly athletic and ridiculously graceful 5'10" Mile High Mom as a result of trying to maneuver my way over the soon to be gates from he**...Babies R Us.

Nanna turned out to be the first person to date that the Dude passed me right on by to get to. He would look at me, look at Nanna and the decision was very clear. I was chop liver for the weekend. I'm actually okay with that! I find enjoyment in his willingness to cast me aside when something better comes along. It's healthy. He didn't know what hit him today when he was stuck with little ole' me. We miss you already Nanna!

An Overnight Sensation

Don't ya wish you could wake up and magically take on a newfound talent? It's amazing how little people have this figured out. On Friday night, Little Dude could not stand up on anything other than us...and he needed to use our hands to make himself vertical. But he ALWAYS wanted to be vertical, so that posed a problem for him and a slight annoyance for us.


At 9:30pm we heard crying from the race car room upstairs (dude's theme) and walked in to find him standing up in his crib not knowing what to do next. We laughed and were a little scared that this would become a new sleepy time habit. This morning he decided that he no longer needs our hands to elevate himself and is standing up on all objects, stationary, moving....whatever. He's even trying to stand up on toys that only stand a few inches off the ground. He also gets up on his knees constantly, which he never did before. The "crawling" thing came before figuring out the whole knees concept, so he still army crawls everywhere he goes. We're wondering if now he'll figure out that the knees are meant to be a part of the crawling equation. Little Dude is like a new kid, which is pretty miraculous to watch as a parent.


Yesterday brought heavenly 75 degree temps and sun, so we loaded up food, juice, goldfish, stroller, change of clothes, diapers, toys, camera, sunblock...you get the idea...and went with the masses to the zoo. It took 30 minutes and a lot of patience to park (good thing Mile High Dad was driving), which made us that much more excited to fight the crowds with stroller in tow. This was our first "family" trip to a place designed for screaming children and sippy cups. Tim was feeling pretty cool that we now are "one of those couples with a stroller and cheerios on hand." Wessums and araCay joined us with kiddos and the two little dudes had a blast looking at eachother. They're getting to be quite interactive with eachother now, which makes for fun times. Little Dude came face to face with a curious and playful monkey. The monkey enjoyed the interaction far more than my son did (see the video). It was astonishing the number of children at the zoo. And disturbing how many 6-7 year olds had passifiers stuffed in their mouth. As araCay says, "Time to cut the chord people."

At our house last night Princess P (3 years old) emptied the entire toy chest in the office, plopped the boys in the middle of the chaos and closed the door. She wanted to take care of her boys and protect them...from what I don't really know, but she felt pretty good about herself. I kept peeking in and Little Dude would be climbing on Valociraptor, they'd share a toy with eachother, hit eachother and Princess P would tap them on the head and tell them not to hit eachother. She would then call Little Dude "Riley" because she thinks that is a special thing to do. It was really very endearing.


Today (Sunday) it's snowing. Welcome to Mile High Schizo weather. Enjoy the videos!