A year of memories...

Dear Son,
You are almost nearly a year old. It seems like yesterday that you were a tiny 8lbs and 21inches plopped into my arms from your dad's not content until you wiggled your little arms free from your swaddling. You never did like to be swaddled and as an infant you could not stand a hat, although you certainly did enjoy this one, and so did many of your adoring fans.
You crushed records in your first year of life, my son. You rolled over, then again, and then the other way in record breaking fashions. Your little legs tried to walk ever since you would move them in my womb. You walked so early at 9 months and 2 days old, being stubborn like your parents mom you just had to wait those extra two days, robbing your parents of the ability to brag that you walked at eight months. hehe. You got the hang of it pretty quickly and there is no stopping you now.
You slowly developed your vocabulary with sign language and with verbal language. To date in sign you know: milk, more, all done and we are very close to "eat" as well. In the verbal department you know: dada, kitty, cat, and mama - although you have yet to say mama to me. We gave you a long list of nicknames over this last year and have kept track of them here. We tried to provide you with loving understanding justification as to why but for the most part you're just Baby Bear, or Bear as you continue to lose all the baby and turn into quite the little man.
Over the last year you've had a few bonks and illnesses; but you were a trooper through it all. When you're sad or teething, you are still the bravest little guy we know. You absolutely love to play in any water, the color orange, Nemo and no one can keep you away from your kitties. You do a dance when you eat grapes and you love to dance to music. You like to wave to people and you give Pop Pop hugs. You recongize people in pictures and smile at them as if they can see you. You are the joy of my life and I cannot believe that a full year has almost come and gone.
Your dada and I love you very much. Please let this next year go by very slowly. Mommy can't handle too much speed.
All my love,
Your Mommy

Backyard Garden

I've mentioned my black thumb before - in fact since the last posting of me the gardening extraordinaire all but one of the plants have died. Yes dead as a doornail. Mostly due to the fact I forgot to water them. That and the stress of 100+ heat when they never were meant to withstand that also played a part in their demise, so I refuse to take full responsibility. ;-) However, with my son's first birthday party coming up I wanted the backyard to look nice and there was this looming pile of... nonsense in a corner - and I have twice previously gone over to tackle it and said... uh never mind. Wouldn't you? I mean look at it?

Yes, that ghastly pile of whatever was inherited when we moved here and I just ignored it and my husband mowed around it. It turns out once we got to hacking that it used to be a vegetable garden. Or at least there were a zillion little potatoes spawning beneath the surface when I started to hack into the soil... once we FOUND the soil. Yes I thought a little clawing at the weeds would be no problem for me. Um no this quickly turned into a family project and several tools where utilized. The weed whacker was brought out, the spade the metal rake, and most importantly the muscle.

Yes, Loving Husband happily jumped in to assist with the back breaking labor of moving stones broken pieces of concrete, that was at one point a wall, out of the way and then went to town attempt to find the earth beneath the madness. It was found and my oh my was it rocky and potato-y. There were several LARGE spiders that were less than pleased to have their home disturbed, but we trudged on through while Ace played with the dandelions in the yard. At the end of the day, we had a new wall built and an excellent planting surface awaiting some plants.

So Monday I headed to the local garden store and piled my cart with $25 worth of plants. I came home and got to work. As I was digging the holes for the plants I found a TON of rocks and so I set them aside to utilize later as a little decore around the plants. The potatoes ... well sadly they and their roots found their way to the yard waste bin. The end result was this! Even if it all dies, I'm just proud of the general landscaping accomplishment. It looks much nicer out there. Just in time for the BBQ for Ace's first birthday!

The Dentist

Yep that's right. Ace has 7 teeth now (4 on top and 3 on the bottom) and everything we've read says to take them to see a dentist six months after the first tooth breaks through and so... eight months after the first tooth came through we went. I have tried to be a good mommy and brush his tooth, now teeth ever since he's had them. In fact our routine most days is that after I have brushed mine we go to the other room and brush his. I use a little finger brush and he loves it. In fact he fusses when I put the brush away rather than during the brushing. It's really cute. Although I know it won't always last. He'll go through the hold him down phase I'm sure too.

We had a recommendation from a friend and away we went. We arrived at the dentist office and we went straight for the Nemo tank, yes I think an obligatory component of every dentist office these days and while Loving Husband checked us in, Ace and I went on the hunt for Nemo. We found him hiding in some coral. Then we were called back relatively quickly. Ace was given a tooth brush all his own with Tigger on it. He instantly began chewing on it while we chatted with the dental hygienist about our tooth brushing habits.

We then met the dentist. Ace was happy enough with him until he morphed into Mean Blue Mit Man. Yes when those gloves went on and he had to be laid into the dentist's lap, well Ace was to say the least... not thrilled. The doctor inspected his teeth and gums and noted what I had feared that he has indeed chipped a tooth. However, it isn't a jagged chip and the dentist doesn't feel anything needs to be done to it, so it will remain that way. He noted also that Ace's baby teeth are very close together and that likely will result in braces and other dental work down the line. Both my husband and I never doubted that trouble, both of us are dental cash cows, a dentist's pocketbook's dream, I could go on. Suffice it to say, we've had a lot of dental work done.


After the exam which seriously was less than 5 minutes we went over a few good habits to try to stick with and add into our routine and then Ace received a bath toy - an orange(ish) frog. Between his tooth brush and his frog he was in heaven. He held onto the frog the whole trip home (we took the blunt eye gouging, throat gagging stick toothbrush away for the car ride.) It was really cute. So overall, Ace while not a fan of MBMM but liked the dentist well enough.

MOH - The Bridal Shower Invitations

Another installment of MOH duties this time: the bridal shower invitations. Yes the shower itself involves, planning, prepping, inviting, organizing and gathering. With the help of the Mother of the Bride and a few future sister-in-law(s) helping with games the event itself is sure to be excellent. As the MOH though I tasked myself with sending out the invites for the exciting event and it gave me a great excuse to break out my stamping and scrapbooking stuff to do it! My good friend Stacy is a whiz at all things crafty, I have yet to find a crafty thing she fails at. And she posted several months ago these delightful invitations and I fell in love. They were my inspiration along with a cute little "shower" stamp that I found at the local stamp store.

$25 worth of paper (note the colors matching the wedding, along with a little somethin' extra) and $8 for the cute stamp and I was ready to craft away. I needed to make 35 invitations and that included one for myself and one for the bride as keepsakes. My husband graciously watched our son on several evenings in order for me to cut, punch, stamp, sew, color, glue, etc. these lovely invites. Stacy with ink in her printer kindly printed out the inserts and by Saturday less than two weeks after starting they were all complete, stuffed and addressed and they went out in Monday's mail.

They were a lot of fun to make and I hope that the bride loves them as much as I do.

Wordless Wednesday

Boys and their computers.

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5M4M

Climbing

Yes, we've reached the next phase in mobility and independence (and gray hairs for mommy) with the new skill of climbing. Yes, Ace is learning every day that the art of pushing with his knees and feet will get him to higher places. He still hasn't yet attempted to get onto the couches, but we're only days away, as he's more than capable of doing so. At the moment he hasn't used his new found skill to get into any additional mischief. The barriers and gates are holding strong against our mini-terror, but time is fleeting in this household and we'll be requiring red alert levels of baby proofing in a few weeks days time.

We're so proud. And so is he, below is a video and picture of him at a cafe I didn't get the climbing up onto the bus, but I did get the excited face in the picture and the great enjoyment of his height conquer. Oh and check out his cute little shoes :) he's doing so well walking in his shoes now!

No Throw Review & Giveaway

If you have a baby over the age of six months you at one point have or will be blessed with the mommy version of "bend and snap" meaning your child will throw something out of the stroller and you will have to bend down to retrieve it and the game begins. Then there are times that you weren't so luck and you come home missing yet another bottle or sippy cup.

No Throw is the solution! A company started by twin sisters who are mommies to active kids! Yes, and whom better to test a product on than their own kids. No Throw was developed by these ladies after several frustrating car and plane trips. And what an ingenious product it is indeed! According to the website:

Our product is for 3 months +. We have designed a velcro strap that will fit tightly around and hold onto children's bottles and sippy cups. The NoThrow's leash styled handle can be slipped over the seat belt that are attached to your child's car seat, stroller, bike seat, high chair, baby-backpack, you name it!.

Tightly attach the Velcro strap around your bottle or sippy cup then slip your leash style handle over the seat belt before you buckle your little one into the car seat, high chair, bike seat, stroller...where ever your baby sits.

The Review:This product is wonderful. I received it several weeks ago and use it on a daily basis. My only problem is that I only have one! It is on my to-do list to pick up another, as the one that I have currently travels from the car seat to the stroller and so on. It would be great to have on that lives on the stroller. I not only hook up Ace's sippy cup, but often I will hook his toys onto it so that it cannot be tossed aside. Because the dropsy game is one of Ace's favorite.

The designs that they have available are adorable and the price is really great! Only $5! You can purchase them at Walgreens or online, here! Every parent has a favorite item as their children grow. When Ace was small that was his boppy. Nursing him it was a must have. However, NOW I'd have to say this is one of my favorite baby items. Perfect for a shower gift!

I highly recommend stopping by No Throw and picking up one or two for yourself and a friend.

Win it! No Throw has generously donated a No Throw to one A-Priori Mommy reader!

How to Enter:
1. Leave a comment! Your first entry it's that simple! (1 entry)
2. Visit No Throw and tell me which design you'd pick if you won (1 entry)
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Please leave a separate comment for each entry (i.e., if you blog about this giveaway, leave three separate comments stating that you did. Your comments are your actual entries.)

This giveaway will end September 1st at 11:59 PM PST. Winner will be chosen via random.org. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is chosen. US & Canada entries accepted. Winner may choose from available stock the No Throw of their choice.