Blake's 1st Bday

I can't believe my baby is 1! I've said that a lot lately. Pretty sure I am going to be one of those moms crying at the bus stop on the first day of school. Or perhaps even following the bus down the street and maybe even all the way to school. I'm so sentimental about my kids getting older...my babies!

Some of my reflections on Mr. Blake on his first birthday....I would say that Blake is easy going, unless it comes to food. Then he's not shy about yelling to let you know he's hungry. I think he'd eat constantly if I let him, maybe with a timeout to change dirty diapers. I think he's going to be a climber, I found him using the tea party chair as a step up onto the tea party table the other day. Then he's up there are all fours all proud of himself looking over at me. He loves balls and loves to play catch and climb stairs. He has an awesome belly laugh. In the morning right after he wakes up he usually will cuddle his head on my chest for a split second (maybe a couple times if I'm lucky) & it's the sweetest thing ever. He's crazy about his sister & sprint crawls into her room in the morning when she wakes up & then basically mauls her. Then they usually play a game where he knocks her paci out of her mouth, repeat, repeat, repeat (most of the time the game ends when he accidentally scratches her). He is so happy when 'Da' gets home from work, his little face just lights up. And last, but not least, he still is going thru separation anxiety. He usually just wants me to hold him - and I don't mind that one bit!

I'm so thankful to have a happy, healthy baby boy - what a blessing he is to our family.

We had a fun birthday weekend. Saturday was Blake's birthday, so Gabe made pancakes, we opened presents & then we packed up and headed North for cousin Stevie's wedding. It was Blake's first ride forward facing, which is so nice! I love being able to look back and see him & I think he really liked having so much to look at instead of just the back of a car seat.

I worked up quite a sweat trying to keep the kids quiet during the ceremony. Oh my goodness... who needs the gym? It was like a wrestling match trying to keep Blake wrangled in. Thank goodness Uncle Garet was sitting next to me to help. Campbell had a ball at the reception chasing her cousins around and dancing. Then Sunday was Blake's party at Grammy & Papa John's. Gabe and I enjoyed making a monkey cake, it turned out pretty good, so I think we're going to try to start making fun cakes like that for the kids' birthdays. The kids had fun with the monkey pinata & it was a gorgeous spring day, so nice to be outside! The party was nice, it was great to see everyone. It was a special treat to have Stan, Michelle, Emily & Ayla there.

Blake's 1 year well baby visit was today. Stats: weight 23.3 lbs (55%), height 31 inches (85%) & head size 19 inches (90%). (He's lean! Blake has the skinniest little legs & an awesome big baby belly that he sticks out when he tries to walk.) Crazy that he's increased his weight over 4 fold since being born. I told the doctor about the couple incidents following his eating soy so she ordered some blood work. We may have to go to an allergist & do a skin test too, but we'll see how the blood work comes out. I hope it's not an allergy! It was a tough appointment for Blake, 2 shots and 2 vials of blood drawn. Poor baby!

Here are some pictures from the birthday weekend:

Boy, Boy, Boy

Anniversary

I just put Campbell to bed. And one year ago today after putting Campbell to bed at this exact time, is when I started paying more attention to what felt like contractions (but I thought it couldn't be - it was way too early!). We started timing the contractions & that started my 38 hour surreal, excruciatingly painful for the majority of time, mentally exhausting, scary marathon of Blake's labor. I still can't believe it happened that way. It was so weird.

Easter

Here's some pictures from Easter weekend.

Campbell's Easter dress matched this amazing flower of Grammy's. You can't plan something like that!

Blake tired out from a long day!

We decided to leave Saturday night so we could spend all day Sunday getting the house ready to put on the market. We got a lot of purging and cleaning done and at the end of the day, the house looked pretty good.

Johnson Family Visit

Our good friends the Johnson's came down to visit this past weekend and we had an awesome time. The kids played so well together & the adults got in a lot of great conversation. We all ventured out to the Children's Museum on Saturday. It was our first time there & we'll definitely go back, the kids had a blast. So much fun that ALL 4 KIDS WERE IN BED BY 6:30. Now that has to be some sort of record!

Please come again, Johnson's!

 

Boys can have tea parties too!

 

CamSHELL. That's really bad. Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

 

Blake's favorite activity at the museum was yelling out the window.

We love the Children's Museum!

Serious conversation.

Trying to get 4 kids ages 3 and under to sit for a group picture isn't that easy!

First Step

Blake took his first step this afternoon! Gabe & I were sitting in the living room trying to get him to walk between us & with a lot of encouragement, he did it! He also took a sort of falling 3 steps in a row, but I don't think those really count.

Mini Pre-Easter Vacation

We took a mini vacation up the North Shore a few days before the Easter weekend. Hope you don't mind my play by play. I guess I'm using this as a journal to remember our trip, so feel free to skip over my details!

We started out the vacation with a pit stop in Duluth to let the kids stretch. Good beginning to the vacation - a picture where everyone is looking in the general vicinity of the camera! 

We had fun playing for a bit along the Lakewalk in Duluth. Campbell would've shoved little rocks in this hole for days if we let her. She said she was feeding the frogs. Who knows where she gets this stuff from. We hit some really nice weather, it was 70 by the lake! 

Within 15 minutes of getting to the resort, Campbell & Daddy were in the pool. Campbell "swam" the length of the pool. While they were swimming, Blake and I strolled the grounds and enjoyed the view. Blake kept pointing & saying/yelling 'Da' to everything - he's becoming quite the pointer - using both hands to double point.

After swimming, we came back for a quick dinner of sloppy joes & then s'mores by the campfire. Blake grabbed Campbell's s'more, got marshmallows all over his hand & then started feeding Campbell his graham cracker. It's so fun to see the kids increasing interactions. Later that evening Campbell all of a sudden announced  'I'm all done so I need to go to bed.'  Quite the day!

The next day was April Fool's Day...and I wish this was a joke. Seriously I would love to have a blog post without some sickness to report. Blake vomited after breakfast. He was fine the rest of the day, so not sure what was going on. Gabe was thinking it could have been because he drank some of the tap water? It did have a pretty funky taste.

What could be more fun than blowing bubbles? Having a bubble machine that blows them for you! Campbell had a blast making and chasing bubbles while Daddy & Blake took a nap.  

Later that day since Blake seemed to be fine, we set out to go for a hike but Campbell fell asleep in the car, so we just drove along the shore and let her sleep. So much for trying to be outdoorsy! We had an early dinner at our favorite restaurant, New Scenic Cafe. Campbell had quite fancy the kids meal for $4! Gabe & I both got their special for the day - some kind of fish sandwich that was awesome.

2 big firsts for Mr. Blake on the trip - he learned how to clap and dance.

Blake hasn't re-enacted his little Elvis impersonation dance seen here in the video that was his first official dance, but now does the little baby bounce. Blake goes crazy for the sheep that plays Old MacDonald that you can kind of hear in the background of both videos. It's funny how it sent him into a dancing/clapping frenzy.

The last day at the resort, we took Blake for his first swim.

Blake loved his first dip in a pool. 

Now that's quite the vacation...not 1, but 2 family pictures where everyone is looking at the camera!

On our way to Virginia, we tried to take the new road that cuts across to the Range, but we got lost. We were laughing because we were going south (versus northwest like we should have been going) and took tons of turns onto these short little country back roads that were super bumpy. We were having a good laugh about it and Campbell said: "Lucy's like, 'What's going on?' And I'm like, 'I have no idea!". It was hilarious to hear her use 'like' and have a mini conversation between herself and her doll Lucy.....she sounded *like* a teenager. Who knows where she got the *like* speech from.....haha!

It was a really fun and relaxing little vacation for us!