Tagged!

I was tagged by my friend Jenny. I'm supposed to post the fourth picture from the fourth folder in my photos and tell about it. I actually have photos in a couple of different spots, but I'm going to pick one of the spots and go by fours (fourth folder, fourth subfolder, fourth photo).

Ha! Well, I might try a different location, 'cause this one is pretty lame.


This is a cheapie digital camera that I sold on ebay a few years ago. As you can see from the picture, it offers a whopping 1.3 megapixels. I also seem to recall that it had no LCD screen. Awesome.

And a different location:



Aww... This was a couple of days after Christmas last year at my parents' house. Sara was just a few days shy of two months old, and Ryan was just shy of two years old. I like how he still looks like a baby here. Tanja was in heaven with her arms full of babies. :)

I'm supposed to tag four people, so I'm tagging Elizabeth, Anna, Dawn, and Lisa.

America's Next Top Model?

On Tuesday Larry and I took Sara to get some one year portraits taken. Baby Girl was NOT having it at all, to the point where I aborted the mission and made an appointment to come back the next day.

On Wednesday Sara was much more cooperative, and we got these shots:


The photographer was so impressed with her that she invited Sara to come back and do a photo shoot to come up with a sample portrait she needed. Yep, she's our little model. ;)

First birthday party

On Saturday we had Sara's first birthday party at Neff Park in La Mirada. Our theme was "our little pumpkin." In the interest of keeping the party size manageable, we limited our guest list to family and friends with small children. Despite those limits, though, we still ended up with over 30 adults and over 20 kids.

The weather gods did not initially cooperate, and it POURED rain about fifteen minutes before her party was scheduled to start. Thankfully, the rain cleared up and the weather more or less held for the duration of the party. Special thanks to Grandpa (Larry Sr.) for helping me clean up after the rain, to Brian for taking most of these great pictures, and to Anna and Kim for talking me down from my agitated post-rainstorm state. :)

Well baby visit, books, and a recipe

Sara had her one year well-baby visit today, and the doctor said she looks good! Her head circumference is now "only" in the 90th percentile, her length (29.5 inches) is in about the 60th or 65th percentile, and her weight (22 pounds, 10 oz) is in the 75th percentile. Dr. G asked me a few times about her belly and whether I feed her healthy foods. I promise I do!

In other news, I haven't written about my readings in quite some time. Right now I'm reading my way through the Little House series, which I'm really enjoying. After that, I'll be moving on to a couple of parenting books I've purchased of late to prepare me for the toddler years. After that, maybe I'll finally get around to Atonement but I can feel more Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum titles calling my name...

I haven't posted any recipes in ages, which doesn't mean I haven't made anything new. My most recent new favorite has been pumpkin risotto with prosciutto. Yum!

One year old

Sara's twelfth month

Wow. I'm feeling more and more lately that someone has hit the fast-forward button on Sara's development. Obviously she's crawling like a champ these days, but she's also starting to cruise on the furniture, climb the stairs, and empty cabinets at any opportunity.

Meanwhile, her language really seems to be exploding as well. Just a month or two ago I wasn't sure she understood anything we said to her, and while her expressive language is still pretty limited, her receptive language skills seem to be going crazy. On the expressive front, though, she's definitely saying "ball" and has become much more consistent about "bye bye," too.

As her first year draws to a close, we are also phasing out our nursing relationship. As of this writing, I have begun to drop Sara's bedtime nursing session and have introduced whole milk. If all continues to go well, Sara will be fully weaned sometime next week. I must admit that I have been loving the additional freedom, but I am so very grateful to have been able to breastfeed for this long for both of our sakes.

What an amazing journey the past year has been! Happy birthday, baby girl!

Baby's first Halloween

On Thursday (at Mommy & Me) and Friday we celebrated Sara's first Halloween. She was a trooper about wearing her ladybug costume, and I managed not to cry all over myself as I thought about how last year's Halloween had been my last day as a pregnant person. We spent this Halloween over at Tanja and Eric's just as we did last year, but this year our little baby girl was squirming around outside the womb. ;)