Birthday Recap

I think Christopher had a great first birthday. Conan took the day off, so he got tons of Dad time. He woke up with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" by Mom and Dad. Poor kid had no idea what was going on. Here he is eating breakfast. I got him to do the "one" for a second, but not long enough to get a picture. 

After breakfast he opened cards and presents from family. Here he is opening the one my Aunt Ronda, Uncle Joe, and Samuel sent him. 

Dr. Seuss books! His favorite. They got them for him in board book form, so it'll be much more difficult for him to destroy : ) . He loved it!

Opening birthday cards...

Quick game of Peek-a-Boo.

Our sweet neighbor, Jo brought him a bear that lights up and sings Happy Birthday. Christopher was a big fan. 

We took him to McDonald's for lunch (I know, gasp!). He loves the grilled chicken in the snack wrap (what does Ronald put in there?). We even let him have some fries. 

I think he liked them.

When we got home it was time to devour some of those carrot cake cupcakes Mom made. Conan lit a candle on every one of them. We sang Happy Birthday, blew them out, gave one to Christopher, and he lost it. He poked at it for a couple of seconds and then threw it on the ground. He wouldn't even taste it! Every time we tried to give him a little icing he bawled. Maybe it was the huge fireball that we put in front of his face? I guess that's why you're supposed to only do one candle per year, get kids used to the fire a little at a time. Now we know. So now the LG has two fears, Max and cupcakes. 

The aftermath.

After that we took him to FAO Schwarz to pick out his birthday present. The nice soldier greeted us.

They had so many toys to play with around the store. The caterpillar was one of his favorites. 

This was a cool dragon that had balls inside when you unzipped it. 

Tools. 

Fun activity table.

He loved playing cars with Dad! 

I don't think he realized that he got to take some of them home. Here he is opening his presents. A farm puzzle...

Baa. 

A basketball hoop... for the bath tub!
He's a pro already.

And, a dump truck! He got really excited about this one. 

Until it took Mom far too long to take it out of the packaging. Minor meltdown. 

Then he discovered his favorite part was the packaging itself. 
For dinner we got him his favorite, steamed vegetables and sticky rice from our sushi restaurant. He grubbed sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onion. And then we pulled out those cupcakes again. 

And he was out of there. 

We hope you had as much fun on your birthday as we did LG! We love you!

Happy First Birthday Christopher!

Dear Christopher, 

Today you are one! We can't believe how quickly this year has gone. It seems like such a short time ago they were handing you to us for the first time. We'll never forget those big blue eyes staring at us. We didn't even know all of the joy you were about to bring into our lives. 

We're so proud of who you have become. You've already touched so many people. You make everyone you meet smile (that's saying a lot for some of those mean New Yorkers you make melt!). All you have to do is look up at them and give them one of your classic Christopher grins and they're done. 

It's easy to see how smart you are already. You love reading your books (and eating and tearing them : ) ). You know Da Da, Ma Ma and make just about any noise Dad challenges you to. You can make goals in your basketball hoop and took a step on your own last week. 

We hope you never lose your determination and persistence. You don't let being shorter than everyone is this house stop you from trying to reach high places, squeeze into tight spots, or get what you want- even if it is with a little grunting. You have adapted so well to our new city- probably even better than us. You let us drag you on subways, in cabs, and in all sorts of crazy places and never object (okay, rarely object).

You've made this past year the best. You make us laugh out loud every single day with your new tricks, looks, or your little giggle. You've made us work hard for it- sleepless nights, throwing all of your food on the ground, screaming in the middle of the grocery (and CVS, and restaurants, you get the idea). But, every second of it was worth it to get to be your parents! We're so lucky to have you in our lives. We can't wait to see everything that 1 has in store for you! Happy Birthday Little Guy!

We love you so much!

Mom and Dad  

Christopher's First Art Project

I know, so many posts today! I want to catch up before a little someone's big day tomorrow. I've been told that after kids are one you can't call them baby anymore, it's toddler. Tears. The LG is napping right now, but I've been soaking up all of the baby I can today. 

Here's a picture of his hand and foot prints I was finally able to capture. He definitely made me (and Conan) work to get these. I'm so happy I got them before they're too big to fit on the canvases anymore. Ok, now I'm getting all emotional. Off to make cupcakes!

No go on BBQ

Madison Square Park was having a barbeque festival over the weekend. We've tried a few places around here, and they just don't compare to TX (of course). As we walked over to the park we got so excited- we could smell the pits from blocks away. Unfortunately, so could all of the New Yorkers. The place was packed. Conan tried to go get us some food but it was madness. And, as you can tell from the picture below, a brochure about the festival will only keep a (almost!) one year old occupied for so long. We went to a restaurant close by and got salads instead. The LG enjoyed that because he got to try some crazy new vegetables. He ate artichoke hearts, grilled bell pepper, and beets for the first time. He seemed to like them all. 

On the way home we discovered Christopher now hates the rain cover for  his stroller. I understand, it looks like a big plastic bag. I'm surprised he's dealt with it this long. He and Conan went home while I ran some errands. Apparently the LG screamed the entire way home until Conan took off the cover. I guess Christopher was just letting him no he wanted to be drenched by the rain like everyone else. Crazy baby! Here he is on Dad's shoulders, his favorite.

History Museum, Take 2

On Friday our friends Andrea and Jason from church invited us to the Natural History Museum. Their son, Oliver, is 8 months old. Christopher and I survived the long subway trek to the museum and had a great time. We were there once before when Christopher was tiny with Grandpa Crum and Chevy. I think we both got a little more out of it this time, as I wasn't a terrified mom any more, and Christopher can hold up his head now. 

Most of the time, the boys stared at each other or the bazillion other kids there on summer field trips. I think Christopher liked the cool frog exhibit and the EXTREME mammals were fun too. I'm not sure he quite grasped the concept of dinosaurs, but in the picture below he looks like he's doing "so big". The last picture is us by the bear bones (creepy, I know). Conan has taught Christopher to growl like a bear. It's hilarious. He now does it when he sees bear pictures in his books, when Conan says bear, and even when he gets frustrated with something. We got one little growl out of him at the museum, but I think he really just likes to save the growling for when Dad's around. 

After the museum we ate at the Shake Shack. They had the most delicious burgers. Normally when I give Christopher meat he spits it out and gives it back to me. He gave up being a vegetarian baby for these delicious burgers. We had a great time at the museum and can't wait to take Dad soon. I'll post more about the rest of our weekend later today.

Take Your Baby to Work Day

A few weeks ago on "take your daughter to work day", Conan and one of his coworkers decided it would be fun to show their babies off. Christopher and I ventured into Midtown and met Conan. We had a great time seeing Dad's office and meeting all of his coworkers. We ate lunch at a yummy hamburger place down the street with Matt and his wife and son (who's 2). Christopher was so surprised to get to see Dad in the middle of the day. He also loved the office because it was covered in computer and television screens. Maybe I'll send the LG to work with Dad more often!

Sunday

Christopher was Mr. Personality over the weekend. At church on Sunday he pulled out all of his best tricks. During the first prayer the church was completely silent until Christopher decided to make one of his loudest raspberry sounds. We were in the very front, and I'm sure everyone could here. Our pastor even started laughing. During communion we went to the front and Pastor normally gives him a blessing. This time Christopher couldn't understand why he didn't get a communion wafer. He reached into the container and almost got one. He did the same with the wine, but I was quick enough to stop him from that one. During the last hymn, the LG really let loose. He "sang" all of the words he knows loud enough for everyone to comment at the end that they could hear him. Pastor even told us to write down how funny he was during the service in his baby book so we remember. I don't think we'll forget this one for a while.

Later that afternoon, Max came to visit from Boston. Christopher and I were at the playground so Conan and Max met us there. The LG had his first case of stranger anxiety. He looked at Max for a few seconds, took everything in, and then burst out in tears. I had never had him do that before. I felt so bad, but I couldn't stop laughing. Of all the people Christopher's seen in this city, crazy people on the subway, bus, in Times Square. He picks the guy who just graduated from Harvard Law and couldn't be more normal. Poor Max had to just stand away from Christopher while he composed himself for a while. We went back to our place and as soon as we set Christopher down he crawled over to Max and started playing with him. By the end of Max's time here Christopher thought he was great. It was so nice to see Max, I hope Christopher didn't scare him off from visiting again soon!

Rainy Day

It rains a lot here. Conan said he thought it rained more here than in Austin. I said there was no way. So, we made a bet and looked it up. Now Conan gets to pick the next movie we rent. 

The good thing about the rain here is that most of the time there are breaks in the day when we can go outside. Friday was not one of those days. It rained from when we woke up until when Christopher went to bed. Except for a few minutes when we ventured out for some Dunkin Donuts (it was national donut day, I had to get my free one!), we stayed inside all day.

Christopher got tired of playing with his own toys pretty quickly. It's amazing the things that kids can find to entertain themselves. Here's a recap of our day...

The packing tape was fun to roll around for a good 15 minutes.

He had a great time unfolding all of the laundry I had just folded. 

He loved taking everything out of his drawers.

Unpack diaper bag, Mom puts everything back, repeat times about 3.

I'm just glad we don't have pictures of everything he did to me. He found out both of his hands can fit in my mouth (I'm not quite sure how that happened, I was just sitting beside him and looked over and he put them both in before I could stop him). He banged his head into mine so hard I thought he broke my nose for a second, and I'm glad I have any hair left at all. We were all happy for some pretty weather on Saturday!

Play date at Long Island City

We went to Long Island City with Michelle and her son, Max on Monday. We found the cutest little park. Everything was the perfect size for our little guys. My camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any good pics of Christopher and Max together, but he's the one in the back with that adorable curly hair. They're still too little to play together, but they play around each other really well. Oh, and I've already been told (by Conan) that Christopher's hat is too girly. It did do a really good job of protecting him from the sun. He didn't get burned at all... we won't talk about what happened to me. 

Fishing in the City

The weather was gorgeous here over the weekend, so we wanted to get outside for a while on Saturday. We went to the very tip of Central Park. It's unbelievable how huge the park is. We took a long subway ride to get to the Harlem Meer lake. It's the only place in the park you can fish and it's gorgeous. There were tons of kids everywhere. I think Christopher had a good time strolling around the lake, and Dad got to cast a few times. Christopher found a little girlfriend there. She was probably about three and adorable. She stopped walking with her parents after she saw him. She just kept waving and saying "hi". Christopher was enamored. He kept trying to crawl over me to get to her. I think it was love. I've got to watch out for this one with the older ladies : ). 

We stopped at Bruno Ravioli on our way home. We got Christopher his own order of ravioli and he loved it. He ate almost an adult portion of it and smeared it all over his face, hands, us (see below). We were just happy he ate so much. What a fun weekend!