Happy thanksgiving!

We hosted my family for Thanksgiving this year, which was wonderful, but a bit anti-climatic after the big birthday bash last weekend. Frank's turkey turned out great and we had a great time celebrating with family. Frankie enjoyed his Thanksgiving feast, especially the stuffing and cornbread! Earlier this week, his school hosted a Thanksgiving lunch and I went up there to eat with him and some other parents in his new toddler class. Let's just say that it was an adventure...and I had to go back to work with food all over my clothes! My son has a lot to learn about eating at a table with the bigger kids.

This year, I am so thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my wonderful husband, who works so hard and makes me so proud. I am thankful for my beautiful baby boy and all of the joy he has brought into my life. I am thankful for my sister, my brother, and my parents for all of their support and all of the love and laughs. I am thankful for all of our extended family and all of our friends. I am thankful for our wonderful home, good fortune, and health. I am thankful that I have a job I enjoy. I am thankful that I am not pregnant or breastfeeding so I can enjoy a lot of champagne this holiday season. And, I am extremely thankful that I am getting on a plane in 3 hours to go on a romantic vacation with my sweetheart! We are leaving for 5 days in Argentina and Uruguay, and I can't wait!! I am going to miss Frankie so much, but he is in the capable hands of Nana and Grandpa, so I am sure that he will be fine. We have not been on a big vacation since our trip to Africa almost two years ago, so we are feeling long overdue. I am looking forward to a lot of sleep and a lot of delicious food and wine!

Cake smash!

Frankie's First Birthday Party

This weekend we threw a big party for our birthday boy. I had been thinking about his first birthday party for months, and I found a really cute cookie monster cake on a local bakery's website and decided I wanted that to be the theme. After a lot of hours searching on Pinterest and Etsy, I decided not to buy the original cookie monster cake and instead to do a milk and cookies/cookie monster hybrid theme and to have a cookie buffet featuring some super cute cookie monster cookies that I found on a random blog. I was feeling very creative and decided to make the invitations, all the cookies, the cake, the door sign, and all of the decorations, except for the cute banners that my friend Katie made for me. I absolutely loved how everything all came together. I was up late baking several nights and I spent a lot of hours making the invitations and decorations, but it was so worth it to make Frankie's first birthday special!

Almost 40 people came to Frankie's party, including 11 of Frankie's friends. We were so happy that so many of our friends and family came out to celebrate with us. Frankie had an absolute blast, and he was not phased by all of the people and he liked playing with all of the other kids. He also loved playing with the balloons. The highlight of the party was definitely the cake smash. Frank did not want to do it, but I told him that we had to. Frankie started off slowly, just picking up the cookie pieces on the cake. But after we sang "Happy Birthday," he went CRAZY and started banging the cake, throwing icing, and shoving huge handfuls of cake into his mouth. He absolutely loved it!!! But he made a huge mess and we had to take him upstairs for an impromptu bath in the middle of the party.

I owe a huge thank you to my entire family for all of their help with setting up for the party. I could not have done it without them! We worked really hard on Friday night and Saturday morning, but we were able to enjoy the party without any stress or complications, which was nice. We had a huge amount of cookies left over after the party, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. I think the favorite was the pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies, which I had never made before. Here are a bunch of pictures from Frankie's big party:

cookie buffet and cookie monster sugar cookies

cookie table!

cookie monster cake

me & my little man

Frank & Frankie

mantle decorations

Happy 1st Birthday!

cookies and milk table

yummy cookie monster cookies--recipe from Katrina's Kitchen

hat and high chair banner

can't have cookies without milk!

drink station

entry table

cookie crisp vase

Connor and Kiera

Allison and Nana

Jayson and Frankie

with Ms. Chelcie

Astyn and Bennett

party hat is on

singing happy birthday

time for cake!

starting off slow...

wahoo!!

making a mess

cake is YUMMY

lots of presents!

playing with all my new toys

Aunt Allison

love my Mama

cookie favors

One year old doctor's appointment

Today I took Frank to the doctor for his one year old doctor's appointment, and I am happy to report that he looks great! We had to wait almost an hour for the doctor, and by the time we got to the shots, Frank was NOT a happy camper. He started screaming the moment I laid him down, and he screamed bloody murder during all five shots. Thankfully he was much better as soon as I picked him up. I stupidly scheduled his appointment in the middle of the day--during lunch and nap time--so he was extra cranky. There is only so much you can do to entertain a busy baby in a doctor's examination room for 45 minutes. He kept trying to play with the trash can, open all the dreawers, and play with the computer. He would reach up on his tippy toes and bang on the keys. Thankfully we made it out of there before he had a complete meltdown.

Frank weighs a little over 22 pounds and is just over 31 inches tall--in the 90th percentile for his height and just under the 50th percentile for his weight. He is a healthy, growing baby boy! I was surprised that he only weighed 22 lbs, because he seems to be getting heavier and heavier to me all the time. I am having a harder time carrying him to day care, so he usually walks with me from the elevator to the classroom. He is transitioning into the toddler room at day care after we get back from our vacation, which I know he will love because he is bored in the infant room. We had a fabulous birthday party this weekend, which I will recap and post pictures from later tonight or tomorrow.

My baby boy is 1!

Dear Frankie,

One year ago, your Daddy and I welcomed you into the world, to our home, and our lives have forever changed since that day. My heart has grown exponentially, and my outlook on life, love, and happiness has never been more clear. You are a treasure, a joy, and a blessing, and I am so proud to be your Mama! You have made me a better person, because I want to be a person that you are proud of too. A few months after you were born I made the very difficult decision to change jobs. I made this decision because of you--and I am so happy to say that I made the right decision. Not only do I have more time to spend with my family, but I am learning so much and becoming fulfilled professionally in a way I never was before. I know that being happy at work makes me happier at home, so that I can be a better Mama to you. For that, I am so thankful.

I am also thankful for being present and able to watch you grow. You continue to amaze me all the time. In the last couple of months your personality has really started to shine, and I think you take a lot after your Daddy. You are always on the move, always trying to do everything and to be more grown-up. You took your first steps the day you turned 9 months, and you have not looked back! Now, you are running....and falling! You have had a bruise, scratch, or scrape on your face almost every day for the last month. They are the marks of your rough-and-tumble personality. But little bumps and bruises do not phase you...you are not scared of anything! Even though you are tough and determined, you can also be so sweet. I love when you come up to me when we are playing on the floor and give me a hug. And I love nothing more than picking you up from day care and seeing the huge smile on your face when you see me. And I also love putting you to bed every night and reading you bedtime stories. I hope that you grow up to love reading as much as your Mama does. I love when you go crazy in the bath tub, splashing like you are purposely trying to get me as wet as possible. I even love when you throw your food on the floor or bang your hands on the blinds when your Daddy has specifically said not to do it but you do it anyway. My absolute favorite game to play with you is chase/peek-a-boo....I'm going to get you little buddy!

Being a mother has been the most wonderful gift. I always knew that I wanted to have children, but you can never really know what it is like until you are there. I think having children has made me a much more complete person. I am less selfish and more generous, less and demanding and more forgiving, and less afraid of...everything. A lot of people become more overprotective and anxious when they have children, but I have become much less so.

I absolutely love being YOUR mom, and I cannot wait to continue to watch you grow, and to see the kind of man that you will become. I thank God for choosing ME to be your Mama, and for bringing your Daddy and I together so that we could bring you into this world.

Love, Mama

Early birthday gift

We have been getting a bunch of birthday gifts for Frankie from friends and family, and we have been holding them all until his birthday party next week. But, the gift we ordered for him was delivered yesterday, so Frank put it together today and let him play with it. We got him a Little Tikes playground, and he LOVES it! It is a toy that we hope he can grow into and have and enjoy for many years.

In other news, Frankie has not been feeling well the last few days. He has woken up every night since Thursday night crying, and he has been drooling like crazy and acting fussy. We are not sure if he is sick or teething or what, but I hope that it ends soon and that he starts to feel better. We have a big next few weeks around here--Frankie turns one, then we have his big birthday party, the next week we are hosting my family for Thanksgiving, and then the next day we leave for our big South American trip. We went to a "Night in Argentina" theme dinner at the club last night, and it has made me even more excited about our vacation.

Here are some pictures of Frankie's birthday gift:

Neighborhood Halloween party

On the Sunday before Halloween, Astyn and Josh hosted a Halloween party at their house for some of the neighborhood babies. Bennett, Frankie, and Ellie looked so cute all dressed up! Frankie was all over the place, as usual. it is getting harder and harder to take good pictures of him! Here are a couple of pictures from the Halloween party:

my little stinker

hanging with Daddy

Go Bennett!

pretty Ellie

Day care fall festival

Last week Frankie's day care had its fall festival and all of the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes and paraded around the building. They were all so cute! But none of them were cuter than my little stinker. Frank and I both went up there in the midst of one of my busiest work weeks of my life. I had volunteered to bake cookies for the event (and cupcakes the day before for Frank's teacher's birthday), so on top of my 12+ hours of work a day, I was a baking fool last week. But I was so happy to go and spend the evening with my little stinker! We played games,
ate food, and had a great evening. Here are some pictures from the fall festival:

playing games with Mama

with Miss Chelcie

mommy & me

walking with Daddy

we won a cake!

little stinker

SKUNK

love my Daddy