Ahh...our little Toddler

So, Rory had a truly "toddler" evening last night. Within the first 30 minutes of being home, he managed to scare the cat, climb on the dog, eat a raisin off the floor, pull books off the bookshelf (our books, not his), swing the cord to my computer around, unplug the computer, and try to stick his finger in the outlet. After being given a lecture about outlets and danger (which I'm sure he understood completely) he proceeded to throw the dog food across the kitchen floor, dip his hand in the water bowl for the animals, roll his ball over near the litter box, hang on the gate blocking the stairs and try to climb up the cd rack. Of course, its that time of night when there is chaos anyway because Bev is busy cooking and I'm trying to get his bag unpacked and get the laundry in, and he's wired from school and excited to see the animals.

We have certainly done our best to try to babyproof our house, and redirect his attention from things we don't want him touching, and not constantly be saying "no, no, no" to everything he does, but last night he must have heard "NO" at least 50 times in a 30 minute span.

Fun times!!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

More house photos

Living the Dream House

Somewhere between raising our Little Baby Pigeon, working and trying to spend some time in the woods, we lost our minds and decided life wasn't complicated enough, we'd build a house.

Actually, it was an idea hatched over dinner last winter with our dear friends, mothers of the Tiny Sri Lankan. We thought it'd be neat to build houses side by side so the kids would grow up together and we could grow a big garden, keep chickens (maybe a goat), plant some apple trees and keep a hive or two of bees. ..Cause life's not busy enough already.

Fast forward to now, we're well underway with construction, our neighbors are about a month ahead of us and a stone's throw away, and we're shaking our heads not believing that this is actually happening. What's that Journey song? Anyway, here are a few overdue photos of the construction's progress over at our dream house.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RORY!!!!!!!

Our LBP is no longer "little". He's officially a big guy now. Today, Rory turns 1!! Thank you to everyone who was able to brave the traffic and make the trek up to Maine to celebrate with us last weekend. Here are a few photos (okay, a bunch really) of his first birthday party. He had a great time and managed an entire fun filled afternoon without a nap and without a major meltdown. And, although there are only photos him playing with a few of his new toys, I can assure everyone that he has loved and played with all of them in the past week.

Rory opening his first present, dropped off by little elves the night before his party.

He wasn't quite sure about the balloons at first, but he's grown to love them. He still has the mylar one and asks to play with it all the time.

Matchy-matchy...who's ready for fall?!

Why is everybody singing and looking at me??

I'm 1 year old and I can count my age on my finger.

Need a little help blowing out the candle?

Frosting? I've never heard of such a thing.

Rory sharing his George monkey from the cake.

Oh...I think I like frosting!

Its stuck to my hand...get it off!!

Well, maybe I'll just put more on my hand. That was fun the first time.

Ahmmmm@!!

While we set up his new truck, he had fun playing with the box.

Riding his new truck with Gramma.

Fun with Firetrucks!!

One year ago today...

I was in the middle of 42 hours of labor and still thinking that our baby was going to be sharing a birthday with Bev. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA B!!! Alas, he decided to wait another day before he came out, so he gets his own birthday tomorrow. Its crazy to think about how much has happened in a year. We've gone from a happy couple to a family of 3, we're officially engaged, and we're building our dream house next to 2 of our closest friends and building a neighborhood community for our kids to grow up in. All in all, I'd say its been a pretty good year. :)

We're so lucky to have such a happy boy. I can't even believe that he'll be 1 tomorrow.