My baby was impressed with the white stuff on the grass outside the window today, and in short order, was demanding (by banging on the window by the front door) to go outside.
We had a few snows last winter, but she was too little to experience them. So, this was her first real snow. She did great until I was busy taking video of my son sledding and I neglected to see that she’d done a face-plant into the snow (something I DIDN’T get on video). That pretty much ended her fun, but here’s a video/picture documentary of her first snow experience.
Her snowsuit is one of the items I saved from my older daughter. I absolutely loved it and couldn’t part with it once DD had outgrown it, so it was placed into the box labeled “clothes I can’t part with.” Now I’m so glad I held onto it.
My DB celebrated her first birthday last week. Recognizing that she wouldn’t remember anything about this milestone, I didn’t plan to buy her much. But I still wanted some presents to stack around her on the floor so that I’d have some cute pictures for her baby book. Plus, she was starting to get bored with some of her toys.
I saw this adorable toy advertised on television about a month before her birthday, and it’s every bit as cute as the ad and video show. It’s called the Fisher-Price Little Superstar Sing-along Stage (say that fast three times). DB loves it, and is even starting to “get” that she can activate it by shaking the microphone. It costs about $45 from Amazon and a little more at Toys R Us. Watch the video here. It comes with cards printed with the lyrics to all the songs so you can learn to sing along. It’s a keeper.
Her brother and sister wanted to pool their money and buy DB a present for about $25. After some Internet searching (and recommendations from Amazon based on our previous purchases), they chose the Playskool Busy Ball Popper. She is equally enthusiastic about this toy. In fact, she may like it even better. As you can see from the picture, the balls pop up and sometimes hover briefly before rolling down the maze, all while playing music.
Busy Ball Popper
I wanted to do some cute invitations for her party that could serve as “party favors” for grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I stole the idea of a photo bookmark from one of my husband’s co-workers. I ordered it here at iPrint. I was able to put a picture on the front and the back, as well as text, for less than $15 for 25 bookmarks. They shipped in about a week and were printed on nice card stock. I’d definitely order from iPrint again. (FYI — my husband’s co-worker used the bookmarks for his son’s first birthday party, too. He did a book theme for the party, and the picture he used on his bookmark was of his son reading his favorite book.)
I did a few other fun things for her birthday, such as decorating her high chair and having her pictures taken at a studio with a birthday cake and balloons. Now, I just have to figure out what I’m going to get her for Christmas! Ideas?
I finished a large freelance writing project this week and delivered it to my client on Wednesday. So, of course, the kids and I had to celebrate. On Thursday, we ran some “catch-up” errands — including my trip to Kangaroo Kids mentioned in this post. On Friday, my older children each invited a friend and we went to the Ballwin North Pointe water park. We were joined by one of my dear friends from high school, who remains single and has not taken the parenthood leap yet. It was so nice for me to have company/adult conversation while I entertained DB in the baby play area. And my girlfriend seemed to really enjoy spending time with my baby.
I plan to write more later about the differences in our lives and my observations about that, but I wanted to share these fun pictures, first.
