A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was quite busy, no pictures (sorry).

First Formal Visit with our Ethiopian Friends
Friday we had dinner with our friends that just adopted 2 kids (a boy and a girl) from Ethiopia. They just got the kids at the end of February, so it was our first dinner with them all. It was so much fun!

We had met the kids briefly when the first arrived--exhausted and jet lagged. They were definitely more alert this time and a pleasure to be around (not that they were not a pleasure the first time). It is obvious that Peter has a new buddy--the little boy (20 mos) and Peter did a little bit of chattering and the three of them managed to play with all of the toys successfully. Although we will definitely need to give some "sharing" lessons to all.

I was anticipating a hectic dinner. It is a toddler and a 20 month old and then you throw in Peter....it was so quiet! The kids loved eating their food and they both sat quietly and ate. It was so incredible to look at them and think about where they had come from and what a fantastic new life they will have here with their loving parents.

Peter's First "Kiss"
On Saturday night, we had dinner with some new friends. They have a 15 month old named Kendall. Kendall and Peter had a blast together. It was sooooo cute! Peter seemed to be very impressed that she was able to walk and watched her navigate our house AND his toys! Given the sharing issues from the night before, I was expecting more of that on this go around. Especially because we were on his turf this time. However, Peter didn't care. She played with one of his favorites--a police car--and he just watched her.

The best part of the whole interaction was how "friendly" Kendall was. She kept trying to give Peter kisses. At one point, Peter had pulled himself up on pant legs and was standing in the kitchen. Kendall took the opportunity to give him a hug and a kiss. Too bad for Peter, his balance is not quite there yet. My hands were full of cookie dough and I couldn't help them. They both toppled to the ground....there were a few tears....and a large bump on Peter's forehead emerged.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if the bump was from that or from a prior incident--he hit his head on the sliding glass door harder than usual earlier in the day.

The First Bloody Incident
And then yesterday, we had some other friends over with their 10 week old. Peter was very interested in Evan's crying and also seemed to get frustrated when Daddy was holding him for "too long."

Peter started showing off his new skills with the walker that he got for his birthday. I turned my back for a moment, only to see that Peter had lost his balance and fell on our carpeted floor. However, when we picked him we saw his lip was bleeding a little bit.

I don't think I need to tell the few readers of this blog that blood and 1 year olds were not part of "my" plan yet. I was not anticipating dealing with that until he was running outside or whatever. And for the grandparents' sake, the amount of blood was TINY. There was not a lot of it. We're pretty sure he just bit his lip as he fell down. It is just not something you want to see.

In any case, we got through it. But it was duly noted that even a TINY amount of blood raised my blood pressure immediately. It made me think of my own parents. Here I am freaking out about a bit lip and they had to deal with open heart surgery and a 2 year old.

Anyway, despite the constant falling--which I know will only increase as he actually begins to walk--we had a great weekend. It was a fun weekend of firsts and made me look forward to the other ones that will come our way. Minus the blood of course.

Happy 1st Birthday!

My day started with mommy oversleeping by half an hour.....thanks, Mom! Because I am such a wonderful baby, I didn't cry. I just played in my crib until mommy finally came to feed me. I was greeted by this lovely sign from one of my favorite people, Jasmine.


Jasmine gave me a lovely present. My first birthday present!!

I really liked the bow!

wow! books! my FAVORITE!!

let me get a closer look!

my buddy

Then mommy took me for a walk. Do I look 1 year old???
Can you see my top teeth??

Tonight Omi and Gramps came over with LOTS of presents. I really liked opening them!

I love wrapping paper!

One of my favorite presents was from Auntie D and Uncle J. I loved the hammer!

I even tried to use the hammer on other toys.
And, I protested for the first time EVER when mommy tried to take it from me.

What birthday is not complete without cupcakes??

I am not sure about this.....

What is this stuff?

Hmm...I get it!!

Yummy!! Happy Birthday to ME!! (tell me you noticed my hat change.
I actually didn't mind wearing them at all!!)

nothing like a little frosting in the ear....

I could get used to this.....

at the end of the day, I was pretty tired....yawn.....thanks to all for a great day!!

Holiday Rewind

Let me just issue a disclaimer that blogger (the online program I use to make the blog) and our internet connection have not been friends for a bit. Combine that with a busy schedule and I am finally posting all of these pics. Apologies to Tante H that I don't have more pics of her on here..... Our holiday season kicked off at my parents' house. An early Thanksgiving meal was enjoyed by all....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Thanksgiving with Mike's family this year. It was the biggest Thanksgiving dinner I had ever been to. There were 11 adults and 12 kids counting Peter! It was a lot of fun seeing everybody. Too bad we had to spend about 9 hours on the freeway to get there. We decided to be "spontaneous" and leave the day before Thanksgiving. We didn't get in until 330am.

Peter was a trooper and ended up falling back asleep in his new digs after being held by Daddy for 40 minutes. Peter's cousins were so sweet. They made him a place setting!

We got to eat at the kids' table. That's Chuckles in the center doing his "kung fu" pose. (He told me that is what it is called).
the rest of the "adults"

enjoying some time with Papa Chanoli

Enjoying some more time with Grandpa Pipkin. Peter had so much fun with him!

enjoying dessert

All of the kids really liked spending time with Peter. At times he was "surrounded".
Here they are testing out his toys.

Cousin H was always nearby to lend a hand. This is on our way to the famous Cowboy Museum in Oakdale.

A fun time was had by all...
outside the Cowboy Museum

The next day we celebrated Christmas! The kids were all very excited to be celebrating Christmas so early!
Opening one of Peter's first presents. This book was from his Nana. He loves it!! If you are not aware who the WonderPets are, you need to check it out.

Are we keeping you up, Uncle David?

Mama Chanoli made a lovely feast of standing rib roast, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, etc. We polished it off with a Chocolate Trifle.

Getting ready for church. I love my cousin!

Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend. By the time we hit church, Peter was exhausted. We hit the road around noon and didn't make it home UNTIL 8pm. BOO. Oh well. We had fun! December..... We had a great month in December. Peter turned 9 months old. He starting doing the commando crawl and developed a huge interest in books. Seriously. He will spend about 10-20 minutes with the SAME book. It is awesome! I am not sure what he is looking at, but he really likes to "read." He started doing a great new "pose." A friend at church named it the "Billy Idol" pose. It is pretty entertaining. Picking up a Christmas Tree with Daddy... At our annual church Christmas party, my dad was asked to read a portion of Scripture. He tried to read a portion of it with Peter on his lap, but that arrangement didn't last very long. This shot is of us trying to get a picture before the reading. At our annual church Christmas party, my dad was asked to read a portion of Scripture. He tried to read a portion of it with Peter on his lap, but that arrangement didn't last very long. This shot is of us trying to get a picture before the reading. Gino decided to sneak in and flash a smile. Mike took a picture of the parents taking pictures of the kids in the Christmas program.... This picture is in lieu of a 9month post. He looks so sweet when he is asleep!! An attempt at a Christmas card picture. We weren't happy, so we decided to go with this card instead:



During December we had fun meeting up with friends. Here is Peter sitting with Uncle H and Auntie C. Hanging out with Char with Peter's favorite object: a keyboard. I love my Uncle Joe! This is the sequence of events that occurs when Gramps enters the room. 1) Peter sees Gramps 2) Peter must be held by Gramps 3) Peter is happy to be held by Gramps!

We had a great visit with Tante H. She was here for 10 days!

On Christmas Eve, Peter started to feed himself. Prior to that, he was just playing with the puffs.

Mike is super excited about his present (Star Wars Encyclopedia).

Here is Peter being overwhelmed by presents (these are Aussie animals from Tante H).

We gave Peter a book for Christmas. It is a fun little book about Joe Bruin wandering around different spots at UCLA. Go Bruins!

Enjoying presents on Christmas morning underneath the table.

The holidays wouldn't be complete without visits from old friends. This is someone that I have known since pre-school.

our annual trek to the beach on New Year's day

enjoying some time with omi.

we were also fortunate to get a visit from our favorite pseudo brother, james


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!