Birthday Boy!

Our little man is one! Unbelievable! It doesn't seem that it can possibly be so, but it is! We had a birthday brunch with babies from playgroup and a few other of his girlfriends. Everything was monkeys - check it out:

Monkey Invitations

Monkey Decorations (made by Amiya and her friend Aubrey)


Monkey Cake

Kev's Cake



Kev enjoying his cake! He had a very big smile on his face when we sang to him and he picked one ear off the monkey to eat first. Then he very delicately ate bits and pieces of his cake. I was expecting a huge mess, but aside from the crumbs, he did pretty well! You can also sort of see the monkey on his shirt - it was a very monkey day here today!

Kev got some great presents, too, even though it was a no presents affair! A monkey backpack, a book about the zoo, a LeapFrog Fridge Radio and a gift card or two! He's set for awhile now!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Grandma and Grandpa came into town Tuesday afternoon, six days after Grandma's birthday. Amiya wanted to have a tea party for Grandma, so off the three of us went for tea. It was a very nice lunch and I'm happy to report that all three of us used our inside voices and our best manners!

Amiya wearing her tea party dress and jewelry whilst (isn't that a very tea party-ish word?) sipping milk in her tea cup. Please note the partial extension of pinky finger - she's working on perfecting this skill!

This is a fabulous picture of two very proper ladies at tea! I think Amiya really loves her Grandma and her Grandma really loves her! It was a very sweet afternoon!

Cakes and cakes and cakes!

This is my sous chef Amiya helping me out, it's a big cake week at our house. Besides Kev's birthday cake this weekend, I've got a very chocolate cake to go to a friend's teaching staff and a baby shower cake. Both to be delivered Friday. This is the most I've ever done at once and Amiya is loving licking the spatulas and beaters (nothing with raw eggs - don't worry!) and only immediately before they go into the sink - never when they're about to be used again.

When she finished licking the chocolate frosting off the spatula she told me, "Mommy, I'm your little dishwasher!"

Promise

In the event that something happens to me, I would like any and/or all of you to assist my husband in either finding a new wife or, at the very least, finding someone to come and dress our children. I love my husband to pieces and I think he's a very smart guy, but he can not dress our children in coordinating outfits to save his life.

This is an actual Vinay created ensemble. Stripes. Print.
Don't look too long, you might go blind!

Promise me you won't let him dress our kids like this!

Zoo Trip

Kev and Daddy checkin' out the okapi. Kev loved the zoo but only the
animals that were big and obvious.

Kev and Amiya grooming the goats!

Amiya saying hello elephant-style!

Amiya feeding a three ton rhino. I couldn't believe she got this
close to it, much less touched it. But she did!

Happy Valentine's Day (Late!)

A few pictures of our little loves from Valentine's Day:

Kev checking himself out in the bathtub. He does this over and over and over again. Adorable.

Amiya with her crown from her Valentine's card from Mommy and Daddy. And with the highly anticipated Diego Rescue Radio that she earned after a week of no tantrums and excellent behavior when Mommy or Daddy uses the telephone (a big struggle for her).

He walks!

It's been over a week now. We thought the day would never come, but it has! Kev wanted nothing to do with little practice walks here and there. His first steps were not just steps, but part of a baby journey from one end of the playroom to the other. And now there's no stopping him! He's had a few knocks and a pretty strong bump to the head when he fell into the train table, but other than that he's rocking!

And no, our kids don't own any pants.

Tell me this never changes...

Early Monday morning. Very, very early Monday morning.

Amiya woke up in the wee small hours yelling for me. She needed a cuddle. Ok. I crawled in next to her and we snuggled for a few minutes. As I was getting up to let her go back to sleep, she told me, "Mommy, my heart is beepin' so fast because I love you so much."

I almost melted.


Monday night, Amiya's room for cuddles before bed

Amiya and I are laying together, talking about the good parts of her day, getting in good dream wishes and so on. She has her arms wrapped around my neck in something somewhere between a cuddle and a chokehold. I told her that my heart was beepin' so fast because our nighttime cuddles are the best part of my day.

She replied, "Mommy, my cup runneth over."

And that time I did melt.

And then she says, "Anyway, what's my cup runneth over mean?"

It's the way she says "Anyway" that kills me everytime. It's so offhand and nonchalant and so stinkin' cute!

She got "my cup runneth over" from Grandma and she's had it explained to her several times already. I'm sure with Grandma and Grandpa's impending visit we'll be hearing a lot more of it!

Recent Pictures

The general state of our home after Kev has passed through any given space. He loves to empty the drawers of Amiya's dresser, the magazines from our baskets and all the burp cloths and books from the coffee table.

Our adorable little man, asleep on the playroom floor. I brought him in from the car and wanted him to wake up, so set him on the floor in the playroom where Amiya and I were reading a book. He slept for 45 more minutes. Of course, had I put him in his crib, he would have been awake immediately.

Don't you love his little tummy?

I love this picture - he reminds me of a 37 year old man from Des Moines, Iowa who is visiting Cancun and feels the need to wear a tropical shirt. The hair only adds to the effect.

Doesn't it look like he is calming down and getting ready for bed? This is our new bedtime ritual and it works a charm, although it does get him all wound up for a little bit. Dinner, baths, and then we all head to Kev's room where he throws his rings out of the crib and we put them back in. Then kisses and cuddles and to bed he goes like a dream.

Kev loves to jump in his crib, too, and gets some pretty good air. And so far, only one busted lip. Whoever said raising a boy is different than a girl was entirely right!

Proof of Amiya's engineering tendencies - this is the chair she designed so Ellie could join both Amiya and I at the breakfast party last week.

I'm still not sure if Amiya's outfit was Princess or retired Vegas lounge singer, but whichever it was, she wore it to the grocery store and got lots of smiles and smirks.

Amiya and Ellie at our breakfast party. The dominoes and cards you see were our meal - some sort of fantasy sandwich and fruit.

Maybe the outfit was Paris Hilton-like socialite at 6 in the morning?
And finally, Amiya on ice. January was the month to study polar things at school. In Florida, nonetheless. Anyway, her class went ice skating and it was a trip! The kids were pretty brave about all of it and Amiya was a good sport about it. A few falls in the beginning, but towards the end there was less stomping and more semi-gliding.