FIRST BIRTHDAY!!

Yep, we threw a ridiculously huge party for Ryder's First Birthday and it was awesome!!!  It was my first time as a mom to plan a birthday party, it was Ryder's first birthday party and it was Marty's first BBQ gig as a Dad, so we were all pumped!  Lucky for us we had LOTS of help pulling off this huge event!! Marty's Dad and Trish came Thursday afternoon and Mom and Nic arrived later that night. We started baking cake at 9:30pm Thursday night and the preparing did not stop until 11am Saturday when the party began!! Nic and Mom make one hell of an amazing cake decorating team! Ryder is soo lucky that his Gramma and Auntie wanted to spoil him with a cake fit for a king!  Trish and I were the "grunts" doing the heavy lifting, furniture moving, cleaning, and the other things that did not involve the cake. We worked as a team all weekend and that was fun!!!

There is no way I can ever thank Mom and Nic enough for all they did to make this cake!!!!!!!!

  

Epic Cake!!

Party House!!

Mom did not stop working to make this day perfect!! Thank you, Mom!!

Nic! She is just an amazing party planner!!! She thinks of EVERYTHing!!!

Ryder and his Auntie, loving the balloons!!

Gramma!!

Us, before, Ryder and I decided Marty should go put on a plaid shirt too!!!

Ooops, Party Foul!! Ryder stuck his foot in the cake.....

The Wright Boys!!!

The cake! Yep, Mom and Nic made him his own to smash!!

He was a little intimidated with everyone watching him, but...

Once he discovered he could eat the messy cake....

..he got right into it!! LOL

One of the party guests stole Mader off the top of Ryder's cake!! LOL

Uncle Hoser (Shane) hand made Ryder his very own bike!! 

Thank you, Hoser!!!!!!!!!!!

SALAD UPDATE

Well, after three and a half days of "salad in my brazier" I am happy to report that...it works!!!!!!! One boob totally back to feeling normal (if that's possible after 11 months of nursing) and the other one is on it's way!! Thank God!! The only complaint, it's a small one, literally, is that they seem to be smaller than when I first started this journey! Like, what????? What? Smaller?????
At least they are healthy and as I've been told more than once in my life.."anything more than a handful is a waste!!" LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYDER

Ryder!! Oh, my God! How did a whole year go by already??? Seems like just yesterday, you were this cute, chubby, wrinkly, tiny baby!

 Now, you're a cute, chubby, less wrinkly, still dimply, walking, babbling, playing, joyful little boy!!! (one I LOVE to photograph)

I can't believe how being your Mom has changed me; made me less "type A," more relaxed, HAPPIER, more tired, less fitness obsessed, more empathetic, more thoughtful, more forgetful, more emotional, more sensitive, more understanding of my own Mom and the Mom's of the kids I teach, more creative, more appreciative of my own body, more scared, more fearless, and plain old, more....better!!!
I had no idea one could love the way I love you! It is a feeling I feel sooo blessed and lucky to finally be given the chance to experience!

Ryder, there are sooo many things, little things and big things, that I don't ever want to forget about this first year. The little things can be easily shadowed by happy memories of the big things, like the first time you smiled, sat up, ate solid foods and walked.  The smiles I get from remembering the little things though, make those memories deserving of a place in "forever too!!"

These are the little things, I never want to forget about you in your first year:

·      The way you crank your head as far as possible to the right when you slept at night

·      The little noises you make when you were just about to fall asleep while you sucked on your soother

·      The way your hands  knead knead when you breastfeed

·      The way you’d rub your eyes or tug on your ears when you are tired

·      The way you smile when you wake up

t  The way you stand in your crib and start jumping up and down when I come in after your nap, or in the morning!

     The way you play shy and flirt with people who smile at you

·      The way you get excited and kick your legs when you think I am gonna take you out of the stroller or car seat

·      The way you curl over to your left side when I lay you in your crib

·      The way you LOVE Scout and how patient she is with you when you grab her lips and her ears and poke her in the eye.

·      The way you are obsessed with the laundry room. How fast you can get there when you hear the door open.

     The way  you take the lid off the dog food pail so you can shovel dog food in your mouth

·      The way you “run” to other kids whenever you see them anywhere 

·      The way you “growl” at everyone. I wonder if you learned to talk from Scout as both of your growls are always happy ones

    The way you like to beeline for Scout’s gross hairy bed just so you can flop down on it and snuggle up to her.

·      The way you giggle and giggle when we tickle your neck at supper time

·      The way you shovel grated apples in your mouth

·   The way you hide behind my leg when you are playing shy with a big smile on your face

·      The way you arch your back in protest when you didn’t want to do something (like get in car seat or high chair)

·      The way you hate getting your diaper changed now that you are a "big boy"

·      The way you LOVE all animals and want to pet them by "whacking them on the head."

     The way you carry around your yellow school bus

     The way you "organize your books" carrying them from one shelf to the next.

I    I know we have sooo many more memories to make. I look forward to every adventure! Here's to the future.  I love you!

    “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”   Elizabeth Stone

R

               Love, Mommy!

CABBAGE

Yep, I am sitting here typing this while Ryder digs with his new shovel in the plant by the window (he is having way too much fun for me to stop him...wait, he's eating it...hang on....)
I am also sitting here with cold cabbage leaves stuffed in my bra! I know it's an old "Wive's Tale" but even the doctor today, suggested I try it before returning to see her.  While Ryder has recovered nicely from the weaning process (wait, the only one of us experiencing trauma and needing recovery is me.) I continue to experience physical discomfort, however, I am putting faith in the cabbage leaves. Legend has it that if you put cold cabbage leaves in your bra, everything will feel better...I will keep you posted.

UH OH, THE PLANT JUST WENT OVER!!!! Funny how "fun" usually turns into a mess...guess that's why I measure fun by the amount of mess to clean up when fun is done!! Love it!!!!!!!! :)

PMS

It's over!! After 11.5 months of "nursing," Ryder, he is weaned.  For him, the process seemed easy, like he barely noticed that his milk supply now comes exclusively from a plastic nipple. He is happy to be eating most solids and drinking the Homo Milk.  Me? I am NOT happy!! I've been an emotional, hormal, weepy disaster! Physically, my boobs are hard as rocks, lumpy, tender and sore as hell. I can barely hold Ryder against me at all! Owie!!!!! Emotionally, I am a wreck!  My baby doesn't need me as his source of food anymore, (yes, I realize that's always been the ultimate goal,) he's turning ONE in a few days, I am heading back to work in less than three weeks, and I'm moody, irrationally grouchy, happy, then sad..an emotional wreck!! Yep, if feels like PMS, something I havn't experienced for almost 2 years now, and I didn't miss it one bit!!!  I wonder if I even have any tampons under the sink..oh great, this is gonna be fun (again, yes, I know this was always the ultimate goal: get my pre pregnancy body back, even the bloody parts...)

A WEEKEND WITH THE COLES

March 8th, was Max's 2nd birthday! I cannot believe he is two already!!! Last year, I had to miss his first birthday party as I was super pregnant, like ready to pop! There was no way, I could fly to Colorado to celebrate with Aim and Shane, but this year, I was not gonna miss the party!! Mom came to Calgary so that we could fly out of the same city together.  It was nice having an extra set of hands ready to help with my own busy little almost one year old!  We arrived in Colorado on Thursday afternoon and spent the next 4 days loving two of the cutest cousins ever and soaking up sister/mother/daughter time!!

 Ryder "helped" Gramma at the airport!

Ready or not, Coles, here we come!!!!

We were sooo lucky to be able to fly in early enough to see Max enjoy his birthday cupcake! Yummmy!!

 The weather was fantastic!  We got to go to a park almost every day!

 Max was sooo good about sharing his sand toys. Ryder did a lot of watching, but by the end of the trip

he was "digging" too! 

 Ryder learned sooo much from his big cousin Max!!!

Ryder did his best to follow Max everywhere!!

Ryder didn't learn to ride a bike yet, but he sure loved watching Max show him how!!

It didn't take long before Ryder, was sliding all by himself!

 We spent one morning at the most amazing Bookstore! The kid section was awesome!!

 Ryder had tonnes of toys to choose from, but he mostly wanted to play with Jasper and the "chuck it!"

 Just hangin' in the sunshine with Auntie!

 Max had this amazing train table in his livingroom! Ryder preferred to destroy the track. He wasnt really "into" making the trains go round and round, but Max sure was! :)

 There was lots of times for Gramma cuddles and stories!

 My favorite night, was the one where the three of us "built" the birthday cake, Max would get to enjoy at his party!  Ofcorse, we sure missed Nic's expertise on the design, but we hope she's proud of what we managed to create on our own...Nic, you were missed big time!!!

Yep, it's Thomas!!

 The party was soo much fun! Great food, great family, great caos..

 ...oh and a great deal of blood!! Poor Ryder! He tripped and wacked his face on the train table!! 

This was his first split lip. The first time I saw blood come out of his face!

The first time we were both in tears together!!!  After a popsicle the swelling went down and he 

didn't even get a fat lip!!

 Ryder recovered in time to watch Max blow out his candles! 

Yummmy!!!!!

 Elodie and Julie came to celebrate too! 

 Awwww! This melts my heart!! Seriously! How adorable is this? 

The "big" two year old!!! I love him!!

The almost one year old!! I love him too!!

Thanks, Aim, Shane and Max for makin' memories with us!! Here's hopin' your bathroom recovers and  your lives are back to normal!! Thanks, for making room for us and all our caos!!