Andi's First Birthday!

Cake!  Little girl has mama's sweet tooth!

I know that I am SUPER late posting this, but for those of you who may have come looking and found that the website was down for a few months, that is why.  Apparently the company that owns the blogging site changed hands and implemented new formatting policies that my blog wasn't meeting, so they temporarily shut it down.  This has now been fixed with some new formatting and I'm trying to play catchup.  Andi's first birthday was only 4 months ago...

We invited a whole slew of friends and family over to celebrate Andi's first birthday party.  My parents were in town from FL for the weekend too and Andromeda had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Papa!  Since we were anticipating a lot of kids we were hoping to have most of the festivities outside with our yard games, bubbles and play dough in the goodie bags, and a large collection of sidewalk chalk set out for the kids.  Naturally the weather did not cooperate and so to make the inside of the house more appealing, we instead decided to go with a room filled with balloons, which the kids seemed to enjoy just as much!

Balloons!  The amazing part is that some of these still exist in our house and Andi still loves them!

That cheesy smile steals my heart every time~

I half expected Andromeda to have a melt down with all of the people around, staring at her.  However she seemed to take it all in stride.  I attribute this to S's frequent need to socialize and hold game/movie nights with friends.  Andi was all about playing with all of the big kids who came to visit and was not at all shy about digging in to her carrot cake smash cake!  She favored a "no hands" approach...

Homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!

Look ma, no hands!

Kiddo dug right in and was loving her cake!

We requested no gifts from our fellow party goers and instead asked for donations for the local animal shelter in League City since Andromeda is so fond of her fur animal brothers and sisters.  Of course not everyone complied, and we did get her a gift or two ourselves in addition to buying a number of bulk food and care items for the shelter.  One of her favorite gifts was her new baby doll that she could feed a bottle to.  The following weekend we took Andromeda to the pet shelter with us to donate all of the goods we'd collected.  She loved getting to see a bunch of the kitties up in the front office while we were there, though we opted not to take her back into the pens with the dogs on this trip as they were quite loud.

Feeding baby doll

Andromeda's new trike from Grandma and Papa

Before our parents left the party, S and I pulled them aside to give them them some exciting parting news- that Andi was going to be a big sister!  Baby Chladek #2 is due Fourth of July!  Andromeda really doesn't understand yet, but she's SUPER helpful with all of the babies at daycare and so we think that she'll love being mommy's big girl helper when little brother or sister comes along (it's going to be a surprise again!)

Baby Chladek #2 due Fourth of July!

The Last Month of Andromeda's First Year

Andi's 12th month was, once again, super eventful!  We continued swim lessons, went to a book reading at a local bookstore, drove to Hill Country to celebrate Andromeda's first Thanksgiving with S's family, played outside in the leaves, taught Andi about Hanukkah, got to rip open presents, and finally my parents came into town for Andromeda's birthday weekend and we threw a party (more details in a later post).  Oh, and the big one - Andi started walking!  

Digging into the holiday books at the local bookstore.

Learning about tools with daddy while he fixes the chair.

Tools first and now driving practice - daddy couldn't be prouder!

Andi loves looking at leaves that have fallen from the tree, so this pile that we raked in the backyard was a big treat!

We try to get out and about with Andromeda as much as possible so she can learn about the grocery store, the library, the park, and basically any other place than just our home.  She loves to go for walks (especially once all of the houses in the neighborhood started putting up their holiday decorations!), swing on the swingset, go down slides, make friends at the local HEB, and explore new books and toys when out and about.  She's also become a little fishy at swim class!  She loves to get dunked, play with the water toys, watch all of the big kids in the pool and she can hold her breath for 8 seconds now!

Standing all by herself!

We're trying to teach Andi to kick, kick, kick!  It's a work in progress.

Holding her breath underwater while swimming to daddy.

For Thanksgiving we drove out to Hill Country to stay with S's parents and celebrate with his family.  Andi was a champ for the ride out there (we tried to time it with her morning nap) and then proceeded to devour her Thanksgiving dinner.  Andi is about 50/50 with food these days.  Sometimes she won't touch it and other times you're left wondering where she fit it all.  Her Thanksgiving favorite was the brown sugar sweet potatoes!  Andi had also been toying with small bouts of walking up until this point, but this weekend we got some solid 5-7 consecutive steps.  By the time her birthday came around she'd upped it to 10-12.

Andromeda posing with a bunch of turkeys at daycare

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Practicing walking to grandpa.

Mmmm, lasagna!  Another weekend favorite!

Reading with grandma.

While we were out there, I also got the opportunity to take a glass blowing class, which has been on my bucket list for some time.  It was fun, but not as involved as I'd like for it to be.  It was a good introductory class, and I did have fun, but I'm going to keep this one on my bucket list until I can try some more actually blowing of the glass on my own.

Getting to blow some waste glass just to see how hard the initial bubble is to make and how fast it can balloon out of control.

Shaping the colored glass that went inside the paperweight I made.

Once we got home we got the house promptly decorated for the holidays at Hanukkah started only about a week later.  Andromeda got to learn about the menorah and dreidel and open 1-2 small presents each day.  She had fun tearing open the paper and was actually quite appreciative of her new toys and books for a 1 year old.  Especially the books.  S and I are proud to say she's turning into quite the little bookworm!

Andromeda discovering her first dreidel!

Tearing open a puzzle and book for her first night of Hanukkah!

My parents were able to make it out for the end of Hanukkah and Andi's first birthday weekend.  They arrived on a Thursday night and so Andromeda and I played hooky from work/school on Friday to spend time with them and get ready for Saturday's birthday party.   I'll write up another post for the party, but Andi had a great time!  And with that a I leave you with a few funny photos from our little goofball!  I won't be posting monthly from here on out (it's a lot of effort!) but I'll try to post every now and then with the fun stuff!

Andi's new trick.  She loves to eat with forks and spoons now.  In fact, putting food on a utensil is the easiest way to get her to try something new!

And an outtake from this month's photo.  There were a lot of outtakes this time.  Getting her to stay still is a feat!

Andi's 11th Month

Andromeda had a very eventful 11th month!  In addition to all of the places we traveled and people we saw, Andi made some big strides in motor skills and verbal abilities!  There is a walker at the daycare that has become one of Andi's new favorite toys.  I showed up to pick her up one day and she proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes smiling and giggling and showing me how she can "walk walk walk" with it on her own!  And boy is she fast!  Not so great at turning yet, so it's actually quite a workout for us too because we have to follow her around and adjust her course so she doesn't slam into walls or furniture.  But the pure joy on her face as she zooms around on her own two feet is unreal!  There are also some small wood steps for the babies at daycare and Andromeda loves to climb up the steps.  She can't get down yet, but she's pretty happy chilling on the top for a while once she gets there.  We've taken to letting her climb the stairs at home (supervised of course) followed by some vigorous walking sessions on the walker we have to wear her out at night.  She adores it!

Andromeda can climb the stairs!

A little walking machine (and I'm referring to the baby, not the toy)

And Andi really does chant her version of "walk walk walk" when she walks either with the walker or by holding on to our hands.  It is one of her MANY new words!  She has actually been throwing out way more words than she commonly uses.  She upgraded "baba" to "bottle" for one day but has refused to say it properly since.  The teachers at daycare swear that she says "Brown Bear" but we can't get her to repeat it at home.  She's also said "apple" and numerous other words that are spot on, but apparently only a one-off attempt for now.  In addition to the words she learned last month, her standard vocabulary now includes "wa" for walk, "BUBA!" for bubbles, "dada" which is said with glee every time we get home from daycare and she sees S (it's so damn adorable.  still no Mama, though...), "ah du" for all done which she says with the accompanying hand motions that we've taught her, "bamba" for her beloved peanut butter Bamba snacks,  "bye bye" which she does while waving, "wawa" for her water cup, and "baby" because she is obsessed with all of the new babies that have joined her class at daycare. I'm probably missing a couple too, it's amazing how fast her language skills are picking up!

Andi loves throwing the ball for her puppies

Baby's first sushi restaurant!

Digging the swing at the local park!

Helping dada and uncle K work on the car

Now that Andromeda is crawling, walking, and communicating more she's become so much more interactive and so we've been having fun trying to introduce her to new things.  A new sushi/Asian fusion restaurant just opened up near our house so we went there for an early dinner and Andi tried her first sushi.  She was definitely a fan, especially of the sweet, sticky sushi rice!  The weather has been on and off nice and horrible, so we try to get outside as much as we can when it's nice.   S has been taking her out to the garage for a change of scenery and showing her all of his tools which she is a fan of as long as she can put them in her mouth...  We've also gone on a few fun outings.  One weekend we went into the city for brunch with a friend at a new brew pub followed by a walk in the botanical gardens.

Having fun playing with the kegs at the brew pub

A pagoda gifted by one of Houston's sister cities (I can't remember which one...)

We climbed to the top of what is pretty much the only hill in Houston at the garden and got some great views!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so we had fun taking Andi to the pumpkin patch, her first pumpkin carving party, and trick or treating!  We decided to dress up in a family costume inspired by the original Jurassic Park!

Chilling in the pumpkin patch

I love this picture of her so much!

Feeling pumpkin guts for the first time

Andromeda's first Jack-o-Lantern!

Pumpkin Carving Partying with Daddy and Uncle K

Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler and an adorable little T-Rex at your service!

We also took Andromeda to her first air show!  There is a Boeing building that overlooks Ellington Field where the Wings Over Houston air show is held and so we took Andi over there for about an hour to hear/watch the planes fly overhead, see a few "explosions" in the distance, and "walk walk walk" in the big parking lot!

Andi's first air show

Walk Walk Walk!

We also went on a big day trip up to the Texas Renaissance Festival!  Andromeda was FASCINATED with all of the people, especially the ones in costumes.  She got to try her first giant turkey leg, see a joust, dance to an old-timey brass band, and people watch to her little heart's content.  We actually had to wind up leaving a bit early.  I was hoping that she would wear herself out with all of the fresh air and people watching and zonk out in her stroller for a nap in the afternoon.  But there was just too much to see.  So we headed out slightly early than planned and she passed out in the car for nearly the entire trip home.

Watching the parade of people in costumes

Mmmm, turkey leg!

So like I said, it was an eventful month!!!  This summary doesn't even include all of the usual stuff like swim class and laundry basket autocross.  We'll be back next month when Andromeda turns 1 YEAR OLD!!!  Can you believe it's nearly been a year?!?  In the meantime, I leave you with out takes from our monthly photo session, which was especially trying this month...