Friday, November 19, 2010

DVD Part II - Year One

Life for DVD began one stinkin' year ago today.



I remember it like it was yesterday...... but mostly because I can go back to my blog entry of his arrival and relive every second. It was rather entertaining, from the first phone call from mom at the butt-crack of dawn to the call from dad right after he was born to let me hear him scream :) Little did I know I'd be hearing that scream up close and personal for years to come. Now it's a little different. Like louder and not quite as deserved as traveling down the birth canal for many, many hours. But for some reason I still look forward to hearing him every morning around 7-7:15am. That's L O V E for ya.

On his actual birthday, we took him to a precious new cupcake shop in town called Pinkitzle. I guilt tripped Brooke into thinking she was a bad mom for not giving him a Pinkitzle cupcake on his birthday, so the whole family (new nanny included!) piled into the car for a trip downtown. It was just as fantastic as ever. Candy out the wazoo, glitzy, black and white decor, $17 bows for babygirl heads, taffy spilling over huge cement birdbaths, big pink horses you can pose on, an authentic circus themed party room! ugh. I could LIVE there.



Vincent enjoyed it too, but not as much as his real birthday party. Great grandma, Pops and Mimi came for a small family celebration on Saturday and it was just delightful. I never understood why parents have knock-down-drag-out first birthday parties. I mean, there are at least 17 others to throw that they'll actually remember! Take it easy. But momma/Brooke did well...... if Vin could live anywhere besides Pinkitzle, it'd be in a banana...... so Brooke made him a banana cake from scratch with a cream cheese icing. Y o u g u y s, it was delish.





Ugh, I could steal kisses from those baby blues all day long (p.s. I promise we did more than just feed him sugar for his birthday).

So for the obligatory 1 year update: he's not quite walking yet, but we think it's close - you can feel his center of gravity strengthening when you're holding his hands !! He's eating like an adult already, which is evidenced by the lack of cake on his face above. Great table manners. He knows a few baby signs: "light", "milk", "all done" and "you look beautiful in that outfit, Auntie Ash". Being able to communicate with him is pretttty cool, even when he isn't complimenting me. He's SUPER responsive to the word "no", even if you aren't saying it to him. I often get stage-3-square-mouth cries on accident when I say it too loudly in his presence. It's pretty freaking hilarious. He still goes for the tags on every stuffed animal or blanket he gets his hands on, can climb up the stairs and dismount a couch like a pro. He's developed the most amazingly contagious laugh. I just can't get enough bottle feeds and snuggles and sniffs of his little self.

I can't believe he was a bump on a log 12 months ago and now he's a vibrant ball of energy. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.....





Happy Birthday my babyboyhead Bincent/Vincenzo/other other white meat. Auntie Ash loves the dirty diaper out of you.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words

and since I don't have time right now to give Nikki and Justin's wedding the recap it deserves, these treasures will have to do for now.... I still get goosebumps just looking at them!....
















Saturday, November 6, 2010

My Halloweekend 2K10

There's nothing quite like Halloween in this Oklahoma City neighborhood. I learned that last year when I came to host Brooke's baby shower (which kind of deserves a flashback for the brilliant theme "A Baby Boy is Brewing!" C'mon now, how cute is that???)




This year though I got to see the festivities every day... driving through the streets watching the creepiness unfold...

These people seriously go ALL OUT with skeletons coming up out of the grass, boarding up their windows and caution taping their lawns... one house even built up scaffolding and designed it like a ship for pirates to stand on and scare trick-or-treaters. I can't hardly wait for Christmas to throw up here! With the decorative possibilities and the really, really good chance of snow, it might be my favorite Christmas e v e r :)

So this year, my friend Cody came up and we spent the weekend gallivanted around the city. I got to embarrass my bffl by talking/yelling at her belly in a large crowd of people (dude, I had to teach her baby how to dougie and she couldn't hear me with all the drunks around!)



I've always wanted to be a cheerleader. That's a lie. But I HAVE always wanted to be a Sooner fan, and what better way to show my spirit than to be totally cheesy and pose in a cardboard cut out?? I don't think there IS a better way.




So at some point during that not-so-freezing Halloween night game, the mood struck me to dress up and go out. This was totally UNpremeditated, but I decided the infamous Pocahontas costume needed to see the dance floor this year, so I took one for the team and made it happen. And guess who I ran into on the way to the dancefloor! My buffalo!! What are the odds, right? Haven't seen that guy in ages. He looked really good... a little stiff, but good...





It was pretty fantastic. But not as fantastic as being a total VIP at the Thunder game on Sunday. It's good to know the GM :) And although we're not acting like VIP's in this particular picture, I promise I behaved myself.



I wish I could say the same for Cody when these "ladies" showed up


More importantly though, we had the pleasure of watching this Thunder fan show his enthusiasm, amongst other things, the w h o l e game


It was totally hilarious and entertaining, and also a fantastic reminder of why I'm back in school to become a Registered Dietitian.

So this time next week, I'll be in Houston for Nikki's wedding. So much happiness coursing through my veins, I can't hardly stand myself! And many of you will be pleased to know, I'm not tanning in the tanning beds for the wedding. Instead, I'm advocating backyard tanning in cold weather and changing the old elementary program tagline to... I'm Proud To Be Cancer Free!