Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Pie!

It's been one year of the Moo. Manny came roaring into the world in somewhat dramatic (traumatic, for Mama) fashion one year ago today. The time has flown by. In fact, it really hasn't sunk in for me that my little clone is ONE; I'm sure that it will before too long and I'll burst into tears or something. In contrast to any future drama, though, we had a nice, fairly low-key day today. For Jonah's 1st birthday, we had a big party with friends and relatives in Michigan. Manny, on the other hand, spent the day with Mama and big brother and with Dada in the evening. However, it was nice, and I plan to file this day away in my box of happy memories.

Jonah and I made chocolate chip cookies during Manny's morning nap (Jonah LOVES to make cookies, though the time that they spend in the oven is always a bit challenging). Here's Manny, enjoying his birthday cookie. And he took his first two steps today, lunging from the table to me in pursuit of his cookie! Granted, they were the "I'm going to topple forward if nobody catches me" steps, but he definitely let go of the table and stepped towards me! Very exciting. He is our textbook baby.Jonah was nice enough to clean Manny up afterwards (unprompted -- we don't call him "Helpful J" for nothing!).

Before lunch, we went to the park. We were house-bound yesterday, as Manny had a pretty bad cold. Mama can only take so much indoor-time, though, so the park was on the agenda NO MATTER WHAT. Manny attempted the steep stairs -- he's way too daring.
Manny also spent some time in the swing. Doesn't he look sad? His tummy was bothering him, as he showed later by spitting up/having a small vomit all over the climbing equipment. I'm trying to figure out if it's the dairy or the chocolate in the cookies that irritating him (this happened a week ago as well). Wow, I hope it's neither! What a desolate diet, with no dairy or chocolate!
Jonah and Manny enjoy each other's company.

Manny attempted to get Jonah's afternoon cookie. As you can see, Jonah was having NONE of it. Not even on Manny's "birthday time", which is what Jonah went around calling it all day.

Jonah was nice enough, however, to share his apple with Baby. Again, unprompted; he's just that sweet.Unfortunately, I think Manny was holding a grudge about Jonah not sharing that cookie. He bit the hand that fed him! Jonah needs to be a little quicker on the withdrawal. (This photo is priceless. This is my best work, folks.) Not surprisingly, given my hectic schedule as of late, I didn't remember that I needed to wrap Manny's gifts until about 4:30 p.m. (One of the gifts was picked up at CVS last night -- is that lame?) However, Jonah was kind enough to "ease" my burden ("Helpful J" to the rescue!) and give me a hand. Here he's putting Manny's new pup -- a duplicate of one my mom gave him as a baby -- into the bag he picked out. This gift was definitely the hit of the later gift-opening party.

Manny with his haul of gifts. Not too bad for a boy whose family is far away! (And, yes, I know that I need new jeans, Dad.)

Manny was as excited about his birthday gifts as any one year-old I've ever seen; I was impressed. These are his stackable alphabet blocks. In the lower left, you can see Jonah completely absorbed in the books that Grandma Camille sent for Manny. The books were about Clifford the Big Red Dog and a train -- who can expect Jonah NOT to steal them away?

Fun with Dada. Manny loves his Dada. It's like watching a sweet, dutiful puppy follow his master around. Except that this puppy is a little pink pig.

This was supposed to be a picture of Manny being partied-out, but he managed to recover good enough spirits to stop crying and look at the camera. What a tough little buddy. We love you, Manny Moo!

Happy boy

Things have been a little Jonah-centric around here lately, haven't they? Here are a few for the Moo-lover in everyone.

(That strange noise causing Manny to giggle? Mama's hiccups.)

Mother-Boy.

Nature-Boy.

Baby J is growing up.

A few weeks ago, we forced Jonah into a "big boy bed." "Really?" you say. "You forced him into it?" Oh, yes, friends, we did. And by dirty trickery, no less. I'd been talking up a big boy bed for a few days (as a part of my very, very slowly unfolding plan to potty train him), but each time I brought it up, Jonah would say, "No. No big boy bed." All right. But then! Gangee and Pop-Pop came to visit for the weekend! On Saturday my dad and I took one of the sides off the crib, and I said to Dad, "Here, Dad, you're going to have to take the blame for this one." We brought Jonah into his room, talking about the great surprise that Pop-Pop had for him. "Look, Jonah, Pop-Pop gave you a big boy bed! Wow!" As much as Jonah loves Pop-Pop, he was initially apprehensive about the bed. Lucky for us, though, he was so exhausted that evening that he basically passed out in the bed, with no energy to protest, and he hasn't complained about it since. Victory! Now, of course, we're trying to figure out how to prevent Jonah from leaping out of bed at 6:30 a.m., running over to Manny's crib and screaming, "Hi, Baby!" in order to wake up his best pal. This scenario does not make for a happy Manny, though Jonah hardly seems to notice.


Animals on bed; animals off bed; and repeat (endlessly).

Baby coffee

Some people I used to baby-sit for bought their daughter "baby coffee" from Starbucks; it was just a small hot chocolate, if I remember correctly. I always thought that the term was cute, and I've now passed it on to my own child. While Jonah has been to Starbucks enough times by now that he recognizes the logo and will sometimes ask for Starbucks by name out of the blue, he has also consented to being served a baby coffee at home. When Mama makes it, it's just warmed, frothed milk; Dada adds Hershey's syrup. Either way, Jonah loves himself some baby coffee (sometimes with a cookie: here, a Goya Maria).

Season's over

Well, the Sox are out of the playoffs... but we have fond memories of our month-past trip to the park. We scored free tickets from the Kids Club packet (bet they don't have that at Wrigley), which the godparents had passed our way. Some new friends baby-sat Manny so that Gabe and I could take Jonah to the game on September 11. We saw only a few hits, stayed only thru the 7th inning, and the Sox ultimately lost the game, but we did enjoy some tasty ballpark food (steak pita!), saw an idiot from the crowd try to run across the field (he avoided a tazer-ing, but not a take-down), and had fun with Baby J at his second big league game.

Jonah couldn't always keep track of where, exactly, the game was being played. What do you expect from a 2 year-old?Jonah had fun trying to escape down the stairs. I think that this was his second-favorite activity...
...after eating tasty treats. Like this pretzel...
...or this ice cream, which, sadly, he was forced to share with both Mama and Dada. Oh, the injustice!
The awesome night was capped off by a Blue Line ride. It doesn't get any better than this.