Otis Has His Day August 31, 2009

After just over a year our guilty consciences caught up with us and we finally did something nice for our dog, formerly known as our son, Otis. The day Elly came home was a sad, sad day for Otis. He was catapulted from human status to dog status in the blink of an eye.

A nearby pool allowed dogs to come for a swim. Otis was in his labrador element. Anyone who has visited our home knows that Otis has manic tendencies so as you might imagine the combination of water and tennis balls was almost enough to make his head explode.

Hopefully the memory of this swim will get him through the long days of toddler Elly chasing her best bud Otis around the house.

Elly’s Going to College One Day August 26, 2009

I read this blog post from the NY Times about taking your kid to college and I got tears in my eyes. Reminder, my daughter is 1. College is eons away.  Yet I still cry at the thought of it. Uh oh. I smell a future breakdown coming on.

Jamie will probably be slipping Xanax into my drinks for days leading up to the drop off, and who knows how long after. So, in 17 years, if I’m acting a little loopy and uncannily happy, you’ll know why.

Aside from the part where you will no longer be living with your baby, what gets me in the post is how your child will have no idea how you’re feeling until he/she goes through it with their own children. I remember thinking about that when I gave birth too. You have no clue how much your Mom loves you, until you become a Mom yourself. Goodness, I better stop before the waterworks come on again! I’m off to take a Xanax.

Pacifiers Vs. Parents August 23, 2009

I knew my daughter loved her pacifiers but I didn’t know she loved them more than me until recently.

I happily went in to get my sweet baby girl out of her crib after nap, looking forward to the way she stands up and puts her arms up and around me as I lift her out. This time, she did not put her arms up or even crawl towards me. When I asked again if she wanted to come with Mommy she crawled away, well, as much as you can in a crib. I figured out this must be because typically once I have her in my arms I take passie out of her mouth and put it back in the crib and we say bye bye to it, Baby, and Luna. The same thing happened again the next day, so I called Jamie in to try, but she had the same reaction. She’s actually still in the crib now, it’s been 2 days.  Kidding of course!

I think we are in for it whenever we decide it’s time for the Passie Fairy to come. Everyone always says something like ‘have you ever seen a kid in college that still uses pacifiers, of course not!’.  Will Harvard still accept her if she insists on using her pacifier? If not, I guess there’s always Yale to fall back on.

Elly’s thoughts: Maybe if I avoid eye contact she’ll leave me in peace with my beloved passies.

Teeth Are the New Gums August 21, 2009

Elly has finally sprouted teeth (2 bottom ones, partly up) so I can push those visions of my daughter as a beautiful bride, saying her I do’s, minus pearly whites, out of my head (hopefully the ones of her crawling down the aisle will be gone soon too). I’ve been told that the later babies get teeth the less likely their chance of getting cavities. I hope it’s true, but have a feeling was just being told that so I wouldn’t feel bad about my toothless baby, gosh Southern people are nice!  

We’ve thought the girl was teething at various times starting at the age of 4 months. Oh, Elly was up crying at 2am inconsolably, must be teething. Oh, she’s only content while being bounced around, must be teething. Oh, Elly will stop crying if you carry her around all day singing ‘If You’re Happy’ in the key of C repeatedly, while giving her an IV drip of crushed puffs mixed with applesauce, must be teething for sure. Now I REALLY can blame any sort of fussiness, sleep issues and general un-cooperativeness on this teething thing. Time to pull out all the teethers, maybe now she will actually get some use out of them, especially the $20 giraffe we have named Sophie (no not actually a real giraffe despite the price).

I know you can’t see the teeth in this picture, but they’re there, I promise!

First Birthday Part 5: Dinner and Cake August 18, 2009

This is the final installment in our first birthday series. I know my readers are crushed, but I always like to leave them wanting more.

 We took Elly to Red Robin, her favorite place to go eat (even though she hasn’t actually ever had anything off the menu). As you know from studying previous posts it was the first restaurant we ever took her to and we love it because it’s loud and kids can have meltdowns without anybody batting an eye.

They sang happy birthday in a special Red Robin way which involved no singing but had lots of clapping and shouting.  They also gave a sundae to the birthday girl that Jamie and I ate since Elly has a dairy issue. I tried to ignore the daggers shooting from Elly’s eyes.

We gave the whole singing happy birthday and eating cake thing another try once we got home. It went better than at her party, but still didn’t seem to be the most enjoyable experience for Ells.

We had fun helping Elly celebrate her 1st birthday and are still coming to grips with the fact that we now have a 1 year old. This has been an incredible year that no one could have possibly prepared us for. I am really happy that I became a Mom and feel so blessed that Elly is my daughter.

When we’re out and about people are always stopping us to say hi to Elly and they often comment about how quickly children grow up. In my head I’m all, yeah, yeah, but she’s just a baby, I just had her. But after seeing how fast the 1st year went, I can begin to understand what they’re talking about.  I am going to try to continue to savor each moment. Even the ones where she’s up at 3am crying for a cuddle, because one day Mommy’s cuddles (and everything else about Mommy) will be SO embarassingly mortifying, so I better get them all in now!

First Birthday Part 4: The Aquarium August 16, 2009

We took Elly to the aquarium on her birthday to help her celebrate. We saw lots of sea/freshwater life including fish, turtles, sharks, and even a rare albino alligator named Luna. Jamie faced his mortal enemy, the moray eel and he’s been having nightmares ever since. Oh wait, no he’s just been up in the night because Elly insists on waking at 3am crying inconsolably until her sucker parents pick her up for a good cuddle. I’m blaming it on teething for now.

We got Elly a souvenier at the aquarium gift shop, her own stuffed albino alligator. Luckily they didn’t make it realistic looking because the real Luna is NOT at all cute. Are red eyes ever cute? I think not. She hugged it tight as soon as we handed it to her. Aaaaaaawwww (said in high pitch)!

First Birthday Part 3: The 10-Minute Slide Show August 15, 2009

Here’s the slide show that we played at Elly’s 1st birthday garden party. It’s set to some sweet tunes so make sure your volume is up.  Click on the ‘Best Year Ever’ link to watch the show.

Best Year Ever from christine mottram on Vimeo.

1st Birthday Part 2: The Party August 12, 2009

We had lots of family and a couple family friends over to help us celebrate Elly’s 1st birthday. We especially appreciate our out of town family members driving down for the special event.

Our guests enjoyed a menu of nuggets, fruit kabobs, veggies, and sweet treats. The signature cocktails of the day were  Arnold Palmers and Stoli with pink lemonade, both refreshing on a hot day. While everyone visited and ate, Elly’s Uncles set up ladderball in the backyard. There was a killer match between Elly’s Grandpas and 2 of her Uncles (The Olds vs. The Youngs). The Youngs took it by a hair.

Papa Keating & Uncle Ryan

After eating, it was time for presents! Elly was spoiled with new toys, clothes and other baby items. It’s been great having even more around the house to help entertain Elly. But nothing can deter her from her old favorite activities; playing with tea bags and crawling to Daddy’s office. *Tangent Alert* It doesn’t help that the door to the office is glass so she can see in. Also, the door won’t stay closed unless it’s locked, and it only locks from the outside. So, yesterday Jamie said I could lock it to keep her out, I told him just to yell when he needed out. Elly and I were playing upstairs and I hear this loud knocking and Otis barking, so I assumed someone was at the front door. The knocking continued and the lightbulb finally went on and we rescued Daddy. He looked pleased.

The slide show that almost wasn’t, luckily was. Jamie was sweating bullets when he couldn’t get the slide show that I had poured over working. We’re still not sure how, but it did end up working and I’m so glad it did. It was fun to reminisce over Elly’s 1st year with our loved ones. Our music line up for the show was almost as sweet as Elly: Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison), She’s A Rainbow (The Stones), Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Iz), All You Need is Love (Beatles). Don’t worry, not the full songs, the show was about 10 minutes long total. I didn’t want to have any guests sticking forks in their eyes to stay awake, too messy.

Elly is an aspiring professional eater. Eats anything you put in front of her and fusses as soon as it’s gone. You really haven’t lived until you’ve watched this girl have a meal. So, naturally we assumed she would dive into her cake and basically go nuts since I am anal and have only allowed the child fruits, veggies, meats, breads and cereals. Well, I think she cried through a lot of Happy Birthday and didn’t eat any cake until I cut it up and started feeding her. She finally started feeding herself but it was all very ladylike. I think she prefers a nice plate of peas to cake! Now I really must question whether I am her Mother. I was willing to overlook the whole blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin thing, but not liking cake?!

The kids invited to the party departed with this box full of garden themed favors.

The party was a great success and one that Elly is sure to appreciate and remember for years to come…if we lived on another planet…where babies were aware of such things.  

 

1st Birthday Part 1: Party Prep

I know I haven’t been posting much lately, but the coming posts that focus on Elly’s birthday are sure to be mind numbingly long, which should make up for lost time. Enjoy!

I certainly gave Michaels, AC Moore and Joanne’s some good business as I got ready for the big bash.  My inspiration for the party came from the Hostess with the Mostess blog that had featured a garden party 1st birthday theme.

I started with the invitations. Unfortunately, many a tree was hurt in the process of getting the invites just right.  I also wanted to pick a fight with my paper cutter on several different occasions but decided against in on account of the sharp blade and all. Our friends and family got a kick out of the custom stamps we used from zazzle.com.

 

Once I had decided on a theme (garden party) and colors (robin’s egg blue-or as Jamie calls it, blue, apple green, and various pinks)  the projects began. I’m really not sure how people did much before the internet was around. I mean, how would I have known how to make tissue paper flowers, or a cupcake stand, or a birthday hat? I couldn’t have possibly used my own brain to think up things like that.

one of our flower arrangements

 

I wanted to add a sentimental touch so I decorated a box to house note cards where Elly’s loved ones were to fill out their hopes and dreams for her. We plan to read them with her when she’s older. Maybe on her 16th birthday, we’ll see, I guess I have some time to decide. I also made a slide show with pictures from the past year.

 

 

In true Southern style we ordered a nugget platter from Chick-Fil-A, 200 deep. I made some side dishes, with the help of my Mom. She saved the day by running out at the last minute to get the milk that was needed to make some mac and cheese, thanks Mom!

flower and butterfly cookie favors

Since Elly has a love-hate relationship with dairy I was on the lookout for a dairy free cake mix or recipe. I actually found an easy box mix at the grocery store made by Cherrybrook and it tastes pretty good. I used Pilsbury frosting which doesn’t have any dairy in it. Everybody else got cupcakes which my Mom baked and I filled with vanilla pudding and decorated. I love that you can buy pretty premade sugar flowers for decorating.

Stay tuned for pictures from the party as well as Elly’s 1st birthday!