Birthday at the Beach

Esme wasn't the only one in our family to celebrate a birthday recently. (Hint: it wasn't Dave.)

I spent our first day at the beach creating this:

Matthew started asking for a Firetruck Cake around Meg's birthday last year (December). Over the last nine months, he detoured briefly into Shark Cake and Buzz Lightyear Cake requests, but he eventually came back around to the fire truck. (Praise the Lord!) Wee-ooo-wee-ooo! Honk, honk!

We didn't get pictures of the cake presentation and singing... no big deal, since the kids had been watching me work on it (and begging for tastes) all afternoon. Let's skip to the eating part. Hmm, no complaints from Ari...

And no complaints from this guy!

Meg was a riot that night; she was SO excited for her little brother. She was Miss Party Planner, narrating everything, directing people, removing candles, placing presents... transplanting her cousin...

Matthew got a tee ball set.

And that's not all...

I think he's excited about this one!

Let's try this thing on.

My little hero.

And the Birthday Boy went to bed happy in one of his new pairs of jammies from Nana and Grandpop.

More Beach Pics

(That last shot goes in for posterity; not because I like it, but because I feel it's important for my children to be able to look back and know what I looked like.)

(No matter how bad that happened to be.)

The Beach

We've come back from the beach after a wonderful trip. I have a few stories to share in separate posts, plus another set of pictures, but here's the gist: the weather was absolutely perfect. The kids had a fantastic time. The company was unbeatable, the food delish. Thank you, Lord, for such a lovely vacation! You always make it so hard for me to tear myself away...

Esme's Birthday, Part II

Esme will have some more gifts to open this coming week at the beach, when we celebrate Matthew's birthday (and Esme's reprise). But on her birthday morning, we stuck with just two small ones. She had some eager unwrapping-helpers...

Esme was really much more interested in getting the paper to her mouth than she was in the presents.

Voila! My very favorite kind of present.

Time to read 'em.

Classic shot of the kids--Meg reading, Esme gnawing, Matthew goobering.

Happy, happy birthday to our little Rosie! We love you more than we can say!

Esme's Birthday, Part I

On Wednesday our little Esme left her infancy behind forever. She's now a full fledged one-year old. Toddlerhood ahoy!

We tried to document her little birthday celebration thoroughly--so thorough were we, in fact, that I'm going to break our recap into two posts. (If you're looking for a more thrilling series, you really must tune into my aunt and uncle's blog, where the riveting courtroom drama of Perry Mason and his valiant sidekick/wife is unfolding.)

We decided to do a breakfast birthday party for our little gal; she's at her best in the morning (and Mommy had to go out in the evening). Here's the whole family, ready to celebrate!

The birthday girl herself. See what I mean about being at her best?

I broke one of the cardinal rules of Mommyhood and hit her with a whole bunch of highly allergenic foods all on one day. Whole scrambled eggs! Strawberries!

Blueberry muffins with blueberry icing!

She gobbled one and all, of course. And fortunately, no allergic reactions. She wasn't quiiiiite sure what to do with the muffin at first. It was definitely the biggest hunk of food she's ever received at one time.

Hmmm, what's this stuff on top?

Not bad!

Going for it...

Our little iced cupcake!

To be continued...

Amazing Grace

Aaron's judge said yes.

I don't think anyone who's been following my Uncle Rob and Aunt Julia's journey to this point could read today's post without weeping. I know I didn't.

I can't improve on Sandi's succinct commentary. And big hugs go from me to the whole Meyerhoff clan for loving my family and becoming a part of Aaron's story. You guys are the best!

AARON IS A NALLE!!! THANK YOU, LORD!!!

Please, Please Pray

My Uncle Rob and Aunt Julia go to court tomorrow (3 a.m. my time) to try and rescue a little boy. Aaron needs a way out of poverty and loneliness and hopelessness; he desperately needs all the love and care and fellowship that this dear family longs to lavish on him. Please, would you pray for them?

Esme Tidbits: Food

When Esme was still a newborn, I planned to wait until she was eight or nine months to start her on "solid" foods. (I always find the term solid a little confusing, as it's used to describe foods that have been blended to a liquid state.) My reasoning for waiting? Mama's milk is free and convenient--let's stick with that as long as we can! My pediatrician was in favor of this plan... but as it turned out, Esme wasn't!

By the time she was just shy of seven months old, it was clear that this girl was hungry! Mama's milk is all well and good, but when there's not enough of it to keep a growing girl full, well, we have to explore other options. We started with avocado, which was Matthew's first food as well. Here's how it went down:

I gave her the first bite, and...

In summary, "No, thanks, Mama."

After we tried avocados one more time to a similar reception, we moved on to sweet potatoes.

Despite another shell-shocked first reaction, this feeding resulted in a happier baby, and ultimately we were able to sneak the avocados back in, under cover with the sweet potatoes (bwa-ha-ha-ha!). I no longer remember the order of the foods that followed, but Esme now eats these purees: applesauce, banana, green beans, peach, nectarine, kiwi, spinach, broccoli, kale, mango, carrot, plum. For protein, she's had egg yolks, full-fat yogurt, and quite a bit of hummus. She's had bits of fresh pineapple, tiny flakes of salmon, a piece of bread here and there, pretzels, and lots of crackers. After the initial rounds of avocado, she never met a food she didn't like. Oh, and she now loves avocado and eats little chunks of it with her own wee, skinny fingers.