Monday, March 30, 2009

Birthdays

The beginning of the year is filled with our family's birthdays.

January 29th - Steve turned 33. I unfortunately do not have a pic of him opening his present...new pajamas!! Don't be jealous. I also made him his favorite dessert, Bread Pudding! Steve thinks its divine, the rest of us...YUCK! He enjoyed it, solo.



Next, February 3rd, Cailin turned 7. Steve was actually hoping for her to be born on the 2nd, her birthday would have been 2-2-02. Alas, that did not happen. Even though the magic all started to happen on the 2nd, 24 hours of labor took me over onto the 3rd, a Sunday. Superbowl Sunday. I will always remember that because that is pure love for Steve to miss what turned out to be one of the best Superbowl games of all time. Fatherly love!
Funny story. The morning of the day Cailin was born, I was in full blown labor, this is the conversation that ensued between the 2 of us...

Steve sweetly leans over to me and whispers "Honey, I need to go somewhere, Ill be back in just a little while".
Me: "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?".
Steve: "I just have to quickly return the carpet cleaner to the Hardware store, it will be fast"

Me: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Steve: "But there's going to be a late fee"

I don't remember the rest, but I do remember that Steve in fact did not leave and my father who knows everyone in the city of Tempe Arizona made a phone call. Our Carpet cleaner was returned on a later date and no late fee was incurred. Cailin was born that evening, weighing 7lbs 15 oz. A itty bitty tiny peanut of a baby according to my family. Never had they seen such a small baby. She was born and immediately nursed for an entire hour!! that was the beginning of our intense nursing relationship. She nursed every 1 1/2 hours for the next 18 months and tolerated a sad and difficult weaning at the age of 3. Cailin was very intense. I don't know another word to describe her. People were genuinely concerned for me when I told them I was pregnant with Avrie) they couldn't possibly fathom how on earth I would manage a new baby with Cailin. But she is grown and just turned 7 (Ill write a later post on the ways I love Cailin) Cailin has light brown hair and the goofiest laugh. She is the spitting image of her Aunt Vicky and Abuela, gorgeous!
For her birthday party she wanted to go bowling. Birthday parties are a bit hard here because our place is small and the weather outside is blah. So, bowling it was. Everyone got their own team t-shirt and they all had fun! Unfortunately, the battery on my camera died soon after the party started and I had to purchase a disposable camera (for $10). The quality is not very great.

Next birthday, I turned 33 on March 20th. We ended up that evening in Mill Creek at Cailin's ballet class so we decided to go to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Steak, red red red juicy bloody steak is my absolute favorite food, so it was perfect. We all shared an enormous chocolaty gooey sweet dessert and somehow found room in our tummies to devour it. We all had a good time.













The next and final birthday. Avrie, the baby, turned 4 on March 27th!! Oh, this was truly the saddest birthday yet. I didn't mind Cailin getting older but watching Avrie let go of babyish words and use big girl words, dressing herself, feeding herself, singing all the words to Katy Perry's Hot n Cold song (she can, its hilarious, Ill post it sometime). These feats of becoming a big girl are killin' me. I want it to just slow down a little bit more. Avrie was born a week after my birthday, 10 days late on Easter Sunday, in the morning after only 12 hours of labor. Labor started at an Easter egg hunt and progressed throughout the night. I watched Chicago and Moulin Rouge, pausing during each contraction so as to not miss any of my favorite songs. Cailin was there to watch Avrie's birth, isn't that exciting. She was a little scared but was very brave with Grandma's help. She weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs!!! Holy crap. Ironically, Cailin's head and chest were bigger. LeAnn and April I think were the ones who dressed her after she was born. For some reason that is the only thing about the whole birthing thing that whigs me out a little bit. She looked like a mini Cailin but very quickly turned into her own little person. She is my little blondie, with blue eyes, and hilarious! She says the funniest things. Again Ill post a what I love about Avrie post sometime soon.
Avrie had a cooking party, every friend received an apron (which I sewed quickly, sorry if any of yours fall apart in the dryer), they each made their own pizza and Ice Cream Friday (not Sundae, her birthday, as she informed me, is not on a Sunday). Everyone seemed to have a good time, although seven 3 and 4 year old are a bit overwhelming and exhausting. Even if the aprons fall apart, they were cute for the pictures :)

Now, I am done because if I have to upload one more photo onto this site I think I will fall into an even greater depression than this God forsaken weather has already thrown me into and I might just have to drive my car off a cliff. Good Night!!

8 comments:

Heather said...

wonderful re-cap! I love that Cailin chose a bowling alley, that's exactly what P wants for his b-day!

we've got the birthday's all in a row too, Dec. Jan, Feb a march reprieve and then April!

Aimee said...

Your daughters are beautiful.

Fun that all your birthdays fall in the first part of the year. After all the holidays there seems to be nothing to really look forward to but since you have all those birthdays you have 4 big days to look forward to. Maybe we should try and plan it that way. Ha ha.

Shannon said...

Love this post.
Love the details!
Love your kids.
Parker had such a fun time at the party.
He used his apron yesterday when we made banana bread together. (it didn't fall apart in the dryer). What a cute idea.
What a cute mom.

RJ said...

I have an intense child and constant nurser of my own right now, my 20 month old Sophia who despite my consistent and cheerful attempts to serve her food, insists on nursing instead. She's practically still exclusively breast fed! I feel like I'm doing what is best for her though because I refuse to provoke a power struggle about eating and know the breast milk is healthy, but I have to admit I'm starting to feel anxiety about what it will be like to wean her at three. I'd love to hear any thoughts or advice you may have on the subject since you've been through it. You can email me or call me or I'll just wait until you come visit April someday and then we can all hash it out together.

Oh and beautiful photos (and family), by the way!

rwj1000@gmail.com
623-570-4792

April said...

I remember the look of horror on your face when you realized that you had to dress Cailin when she was hours old. You looked like you might hurl. I believe your mother put a diaper on her and got her dressed and then handed her to you. You looked a bit like you had no idea what you were doing. Isn't mothering shocking?

I'm sad too to hear that Avrie is so grown up. I still can't help but feel like I'm missing it. I wish I could see you guys more often. You need to post more so I don't get a 6 month hiatus in the photo department. She really does look different just from January.

Oh, and please, no driving off of cliffs or I'd have to follow. We're like Jack and Rose, "You jump, I jump. Right?" Except with all the drowning, freezing people around us becasue that would just get annoying!

Love you,
April

melanie said...

WHOA LOTS of birthday fun. I'm with YOU on the bread pudding. Eew. I can't tell if you were kidding or not on the juicy bloody steak. Were you? I'll have to try that dessert next time I go.

Happy everything to everyone in your fam!

JRV said...

I was not kidding...thats the way we like it. Warm and bright red in the middle. Melts in your mouth.

H said...

"Ice cream Friday", that is the cutest, most mature 4 year old thing I've heard in a long time. I love the way little minds work! How sweet and happy bday's to all!