One Year Ago Today...

...I became a mom again. This time to the sweetest, happiest little boy. This year has been beautiful, full of smiles and laughter.  Sure, there were times when my wonderful boy was sick and I wished he was feeling better, but it has been a great year all around. I've done my best to document it--here, on my phone, in my scrapbooks, and on scattered scraps of paper where I jot down a cute thing that I don't want to forget. And I don't want to forget anything. If I have alzheimers when I'm older, I'm going to come back to this year and re-live it every day.

I'm going to re-live watching the sun rise over our backyard wall, fall through the shutters and land on my sleepy-eyed boy eating his breakfast while I rock him. I'm going to re-live snuggling up to him in that same rocker every night and singing silly songs to him to get him to calm down enough to sleep. I'm going to re-live that first day when I saw him smile and no one believed me until he smiled for the hospital photographer and she snapped the picture. I'm going to re-live his funny little laugh and how it changed and grew over this year. I'm even going to re-live his bites.

There's nothing I want more than to spend time with him. I love teaching him new things. He's a fast learner. Yesterday, he was running for a stool underneath the desk in the kitchen. The desk is just forehead height--he can see under it, but he can't walk under it. And he ran smack into the drawer with his forehead. He was so stunned--he couldn't figure out what hit him! Later that day, he ran for that same stool, but he screeched to a halt about 6 inches from the desk, bent his knees and summo-wrestler-walked underneath it to get the stool! And that pretty much sums up life with Thor. He runs full-tilt, learns from hard knocks, but he actually learns from them. I am so lucky to have him in my life.

I Do Not Own a Kindle

...and I hope I never do.

I crave the smell of a well-worn book, the weight of it in my hands; all of my favorite books I discovered through loans from a friend, that minor but still-significant ritual of trust; I need to see it on my shelf after I’ve read it (and I don’t mind if others see it too); and what is a classic if not a book where I’m forced to rediscover my own embarrassing college-age marginalia? -- Michael Agresta

Walking

For some reason, the last post wouldn't let me add more videos. So here is another of Thor walking. He is a stubborn little thing. He was running all over until we whipped out the camera. Then, nada.

11 months

I can't believe that Thor is 11 months old already! He took his first steps on April 3. Now, he is pretty steady on his feet. He walks most of the time and only crawls if he starts to get tired.

We spent the day outside since it was so beautiful. Thor spent the day eating grass.

 He looks so old in this one!

 Daddy and Thor very serious:

 Haha!

More teeth pictures

Thor is getting two more teeth on top. I tried to get pictures of them, but he hates to show them off. You can barely see his top teeth in this one:

  This is a good shot of the two bottom teeth:

And here you can see the top front, the right incisor that is almost fully in, and the left incisor barely poking through (if you look closely).

Don't let their size fool you--those suckers hurt. Today I tried to cut his fingernails and the whole time he was biting my arm like a puppy.

Sabre's Prom

Sabre was on the prom committee this year. She thought up the theme herself--Classic Hollywood--and found the venue herself--the gorgeous roof top veranda of the Arizona Natural History Museum. She came up with the centerpieces--frosted vases (that she frosted herself) with a roses arrangement. She practically planned everything. And it turned out beautiful!

She worked that day until 4pm. We really had to hurry. She came home, took a shower, I did her make-up and we ran over to get her hair done from Pat. And wow did it look amazing!

Sabre and Pat:

 the back:

She got dressed at the salon and we had to run over to the museum so she could set it up. She bought her dress herself and it looked great on her. These pictures were taken in front of the museum.

She was very nervous about how everything would go. People were expecting a lot of her. But she pulled it off like a pro. Everyone thought all the details were great--she even had a red carpet with velvet ropes as people walked in! Great job Sabre!