We celebrated Blaine’s first birthday with a delicious halibut dinner (with a side of blueberries), followed by singing and birthday cake.
And after dinner there were presents, of course! Blaine went straight for his new monogrammed comfy chair from Mom-Mom and Doc — he loves it!
We tried our best but Blaine would just not sit still this morning… so here’s my favorite of the batch, plus some others. He looked very sharp in his new shirt from Gram! Too bad he got applesauce all over it at daycare.
Last weekend was gorgeous – perfect fall weather. So on Saturday, 10/5, we headed out to Remlinger farms to pick some pumpkins, navigate a corn maze, and drink some hot apple cider. I just love pumpkins and foliage and Halloween and everything about the fall! Parenting dream fulfilled. Here are a bunch of pictures:
PS – Thank you to Aunt Suzanne for the beautiful hand knit sweater that kept Blaine warm on this crisp fall day!
On Friday 10/4 we had a group 1st birthday party for PEPS at the Children’s Museum at Seattle Center. All the kids had a great time with the exhibits, and we even managed to snag a group photo:
Andrew and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on 10/2! Andrew bought some beautiful dahlias for me (same as in my wedding bouquet):
We waited until the last minute to try to get a babysitter and came up short but Andrew prepared an amazing dinner and it felt extra special eating at our new dining table!
Here’s Blaine with his friend Apollo at Apollo’s 1st birthday party on 9/29. They were staring out the window at a helium balloon and Blaine was saying “ba” repeatedly, so we think he might have been referring to the balloon. Maybe! He also uses the “ba” sound to refer to the balls we have, but doesn’t use that sound otherwise. So it’s possible!
9/28 was a particularly rainy Saturday. In the morning we braved the rain and walked out for brunch at Vios Cafe. Blaine really loved his waffle and playing with all the toys in the kids’ area:
In the afternoon we took a family outing to the Coop market and Blaine enjoyed his first ride in the shopping cart:
Otherwise we just played at home!
Here’s Blaine demonstrating his stair-climbing skills. He enjoys it so much he’ll climb the entire flight of stairs pretty much any chance he gets:
Blaine’s mastered his sad face for occasions when he doesn’t get what he wants… mostly when we don’t allow him to play with our smartphones, or laptops, or remote controls, or other electronics. Here are some examples:
In fairness, I think he was also teething at this point! He now has 6 teeth! 4 on top and 2 on bottom. Poor baby! These pictures make me wonder why I was taking pictures rather than cuddling that sad little face…
We’ve been attending a lot of birthday parties in the last few weeks. On the weekend of 9/21 we attended three parties!
First, Hannah celebrated her 2nd birthday (and had a delicious cake involving Blaine’s favorite… blueberries):
Later the same day we went to April’s 1st birthday party (where Blaine wowed us by stacking some wood blocks):
The next day we went to Lucia’s 1st birthday party. Blaine was in a romantic mood and tried to give the birthday girl a big kiss! What a sweetie.
Here’s a pic of how Blaine likes to sleep these days (9/17):
It’s been a struggle in the last month or so with napping and night sleep, but it finally seems we’re getting back to a schedule with one mid-day nap. We’re worried it’s a bit too early for him to make the transition from two to one, but he’ll have to do it for daycare anyway, so we’re going with it!