Eliza's First Birthday Party

Oops

Look who I just found climbing the stairs for the first time.

I've Said It Before...

And I'll say it again: one-year-olds are totally rad.

Today is Eliza's birthday, which means, as of this morning, I'm done breastfeeding. I could take Tylenol right now. I could even take Nyquil! I could go on vacation and leave her with my parents. The possibilities are endless.

Eliza only weighs 16 pounds, so she's still my sweet little baby. She still smells delicious, and she still loves me more than anybody else. But she can play by herself and laugh at Liam all day long, and she has enough hair to do all kinds of fun things with. I love this age!

Happy birthday, Ellie! Thanks for the freedom.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wherein Wet Clothes Are The Least of My Worries

Me: Liam, why are your clothes all wet?
Liam: Because I just got a drink outside.
Me: What do you mean outside?
Liam: I got a drink out of the white thing outside.
Me: What white thing outside?
Liam: You know...that white thing that's connected to the house.
Me: Do you mean the hose?
Liam: No, the white thing!
Me: Why don't you show me?


Oh, that white thing.

Black Eyed Peas' Youngest Fan

A couple weeks ago a Black Eyed Peas song came on the radio and Liam said, "Hey! This song is from G-Force!" After it was over he asked me to turn "♫ tonight's gonna be a good good night ♪" back on. I told him I couldn't because we were listening to the radio, but I flipped the station anyway, and lo and behold, that song was on again.

Then yesterday he asked me from the back seat of the car if I would turn on his favorite song, "Bumble bee, bumble bee, bumblebumblebumble bee."

I wonder if it's time to start listening to better music in the car.

Mini Splash Pad

Even though I've been married to Ben for almost 8 years and he's been working in the swimming pool industry the entire time, I never would have guessed that he could build and program a water feature all by himself.

But check it out! He totally did.




Hopefully his next project will be a more permanent one in the backyard.

Liam in February

I feel like Liam has been growing up too fast lately. I expected Eliza to change a lot this year, but I didn't expect Liam to change that much.

This morning I went through the photo archives to see if I'm just imagining things.

February 2006:


February 2007:


February 2008:


February 2009:


February 2010:


It's true, right? He went from four years as a baby/toddler to a big kid who works the universal remote all of a sudden. I feel so old.

No Longer a Slave to Betty Crocker

My mom's frosting recipe goes something like this: "Take a couple tablespoons of butter, add a bunch of powdered sugar, add a tiny bit of milk, and then a little vanilla, then more milk or powdered sugar if you need it..." I've tried it a few times, but it just never works out for me.

I made cupcakes for New Beginnings this weekend, and I really needed a reliable frosting recipe. So I went to my good friend The Internet, and I totally found one.

I ended up with a whole bunch of extra frosting, so today I made a cake and started practicing for Eliza's first birthday.


I know, I know. I won't quit my day job. But it was so much easier than I expected. It reminded me of my teenaged cookie-decorating days working at Mrs. Field's, which reminded me of the giant buckets of frosting we kept in the back room, which made me wonder whether anybody ever got sick after eating a cookie that had been decorated with year-old, stored-at-room-temperature frosting.

And that reminded me of the conversation Ben and I had recently, where we compared his first job at Subway with my first job at Mrs. Field's. Both of us loved washing dishes because the faucet had a sprayer with super high water pressure, but neither of us remember ever using soap.

Eliza's First Sign