Mostly-Mommy

… at the park we were playing with some kids. One of the little girls looked at me and said, “Your hair would look better not that way.”

Um, thanks for the tip kid.

Dearest Zoey,

One year ago today you made your grand appearance and life has never been the same since!

In true “Second Child Syndrome” form this letter is coming to you a day late. Sorry kiddo! As the second baby you have gotten less fanfare for every achievement and milestone, but you have also gotten to reap the rewards of parents that have been broken in for you. And you’ve had the pleasure of having an older brother to torment conspire with play with.

You have been a kid who is not super into the sleeping (though lately it has gotten much better) and have always been eager to be on the move. Your active, energetic, clever, devious, fun side is nicely balanced with your loving, cuddly, observant side which  has made you a real joy to be around. Everywhere we go people are drawn in by your big blue eyes and your completely infectious smile — you are indeed another chick magnet! I think it doesn’t hurt either that you’re still almost totally bald so you’re hanging on to the babyish quality that is so irresistible.

For your First Birthday we did a joint party with Nick for his Third Birthday, since we figured this year is the only year neither of you were old enough to protest. You both had a ton of fun playing with the other kids — I think you had as much fun with Nick’s friends as he did! You enjoyed your first cupcake but I’m pretty sure you would have had even more fun if I would have put frosting on it. We remedied that with ice cream on your actual birthday and let you have your own dish. An appropriate mess was made.

You’ve grown so much in the past year, both physically and intellectually. I’ve really enjoyed watching you mature and learn so many new things. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Love, Mama

Mike’s home! FINALLY! He got home at 3:45am this morning and had to be at work at 9:30am so he was pretty beat today. He got home so late because the whole flight had to be delayed while a new crew and plane were located because minutes before the flight was supposed to leave the pilot cut off his finger. What, they couldn’t just stick that puppy on ice and get the show on the road? Didn’t they know we were missing the baby daddy tremendously?

Today I spent a good deal of time at my mom’s house fulfilling her every Mother’s Day desire… for someone else to paint her trim. Ah, but here’s the rub: her walls are RED and her trim is WHITE. Both were already painted but needed much straightening up with a proper trim brush and a neurotic person wielding it. Done and done. I have to finish painting the white crown molding this weekend after I buy another trim brush because the red paint is very unforgiving. And pink trim just isn’t on the menu.

Tomorrow Zoey is having her one-year picture done at the super fancy Super Target Portrait Studios. When I called to make the appointment the girl asked me questions like “What skills has she has recently mastered?” and “What will she be wearing?” Um, climbing? Pulling her brother’s hair? Biting? Also I have no idea what she will be wearing but apparently I’m supposed to “coordinate” my outfit just in case I have to hold her. Super Target Portrait Studios, you really don’t know me very well do you. Maybe they have a tarp they can throw over us and a baby sized muzzle, that ought to sum things up nicely.

So this weekend is the Kansas City Jiggle Jam over at Crown Center. We’re debating about whether to go because on one hand it would be really fun to see They Might Be Giants in concert but on the other hand the thought of that many kids all crammed in together makes me want to jam a fork in my ear, thus rendering concert-going pointless. What’s a girl to do?

I can’t believe I forgot to mention that the day of the party I fell down TWICE. Clumsy much? The first time I bit it going over the baby gate with my hands full of cardboard boxes. Verdict: skinned knee, cut ankle, bruises on my arm and leg, bruised ego. The second time was actually an almost fall in a puddle of water at the party. I managed to catch myself on the door frame but got a really nasty bruised thumb that was pretty ouchy. It was actually really gross because it was all swollen up and purple. I sure hope you aren’t reading this over lunch!

I’m a tad behind on the updating… it’s been pretty eventful around these parts recently (well if you consider the last three years to be “recently”).

Last week we had the pleasure of seeing Elvis Costello and the Police live, in concert at the Sprint Center. Fab! I hadn’t been to a concert since I saw Depeche Mode in the 10th grade. It was super fun, the Sprint Center is really cool, the music was great, and the company was even better. Also, that Sting is one sexy beast. Rawr!

On Saturday we had a joint birthday party for the kiddos since they’re too young to protest that yet. I made Elmo cupcakes. They looked, um, not as good as they did in the recipe. Mine looked really tired, and possibly retarded.

I bought some tiny plastic cameras that had pictures in the viewfinder, and Nick has been “taking pictures” with them all weekend. I had no idea they would be such a hit!

Zoey had a fun time opening her presents.

He also really enjoyed the 117 piece (no I am not kidding) plastic food set that Zoey got for the play kitchen that we haven’t given her yet. We took about 5/6 of that set away and put it in a bag. We aren’t THAT crazy.

We gave Zoey her first cupcake. She thought it was great! Even though it was lacking in the frosting department. We’ll let her have some ice cream on her actual birthday so she can make the big mess then.

I also got them a nice cake that said “Happy Birthday Nick & Zoey.” Guess I took the picture a bit late. It was delicious!

We had a good party with lots of running around and playing. Quite a few of the kids’ friends showed up with their grown-ups and I think things went very well. Excellent.

So we were pretty busy with the party, then yesterday we saw Iron Man (it was good!) before Mike had to jet back to California for another conference. At least he’s only gone four days this time. Still, meh. Plus we have doctors appointments for BOTH kids today that I’ll be handling alone. Good luck to me! Maybe I should bring earplugs?