A Boy and His Microwave

We may have recently had a birthday around here, complete with gifts of toys and books galore, but Caden's latest obsession?


The microwave.

For the past few days he follows me around and around until he can get right in front of me, where he attempts to crawl up my body and/or reaches up (adorably, I might add) to be held, and then points to the kitchen.  Where we stand for minutes on end pulling open the door of the microwave, peering into the microwave, and slamming the door of the microwave.  Open, peer, slam.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  With occassional breaks to point at the numbers of the microwave's digital clock.

Babies, man.  I've stopped trying to figure them out.

The problem is, that he will do this FOREVER.  MINUTES UPON MINUTES ON END.  My arms get exhausted, so I try to distract him with something else and set him down, where he promptly begins to wail to be picked up again so he can play with the microwave.

My weary arms and I gave up last night, and took the microwave down from the counter for him to play with.


"This is AWESOME!"


"Praise Jesus."


"Hmmm...I just know there is food in here sometimes..."

(Don't worry, Tyson and I are not complete idiots, we took the turn table thing-y out and did not plug it in.)

(Good thing, too):

 

"Caden, are you trying to microwave your sister?"  "Nooooooo........."


Brooklyn is less enthralled with the microwave, but feels the need to examine any new object on the premises with one little pointer finger...


Me:  "They can't hurt it or anything, can they?"  Tyson:  "Nah, probably the worst thing they can do is shut their fingers in the door."  *Both look over to see that Caden has climbed on TOP of the microwave.*  Tyson:  "Nevermind.  The worst thing they can do is climb up on top of the microwave and then fall off of it."  No biggie.

Also not pictured: Caden with his head and most of his body in the microwave.  Probably trying to figure out where all the magical hot food comes from.

Toys!  Who needs 'em?!?

Ties and Tutus First Birthday Party

Obviously, if you follow me on Facebook, we had a bit of a celebration around here this past weekend..



{banners by me}



{straws, straw toppers}


{cups}



{bowtie banner}



{cake toppers by me}

{blueberry cupcake recipe, banana cupcake recipe, cream cheese frosting recipe}

(I have made the blueberry cake recipe many times as the regular 9x13 version and people seem to love it!  The six-inch smash cake is blueberry, and I used the remaining batter for cupcakes, which gave me exactly a dozen.  Since I used frosting, I omitted the cinnamon sugar/blueberry topping and added more blueberries to the batter.)



{tutu}


As for the party itself, it went...well, okay.  I think it was a long day for the birthday babies (though they pretty much stuck to their routine, and napped well earlier in the day), and in addition, Caden was teething.  I thought Brooklyn was teething, too, (glassy eyed, rosy cheeked, kinda fussy), but she recovered and was back to herself by the next day, so I don't know what was going on.  There was a lot of family in town (thanks for coming, everyone!), a lot of attention and a LOT of gifts...




(I think we were about halfway through opening presents at this point...)




(One of my favorite pictures from their party.)




They made it through the first four-ish presents okay, but then it just kind of devolved into Tyson and I opening their presents.


Look!  I got a puzzle!


Most sentimental gift: my grandma gave Brooklyn a doll that had been my great grandmas, (Brooklyn's great-great grandma), complete with a swimsuit that my great-grandma crocheted when she was a girl.  It's over 100 years old!  My grandma crocheted a (new) blanket to wrap her in, too.

Then it was time for cake...


Things had already gone downhill during the middle of present-opening, when Caden decided to pull (an already fussy) Brooklyn's hair (thanks, bro!).  We took out the cake to sing and things got slightly better.  


(It looks like Brooklyn is digging in but, honestly, she could have cared less about the cake.)


Caden got pretty into it...


(cake coma)



...but I think he was more excited about using a fork and a spoon than anything.  They really didn't care about their cake that much.  I tried to make food that they like (blueberries! bananas!  cream cheese!) but they weren't all that into it.  They had a doctor's appointment complete with shots on Monday, so I gave them each a leftover cupcake as a special treat at snacktime.  They both refused to eat it (Caden actually cried), and ended up eating real, WHOLE blueberries as fast as I could put them on their trays.  Well then.  I guess I'm not going to argue with that.  (Though, seriously, are you my children?!?)

At least Caden made an attempt at the cake on party day, though.  This is Brooklyn's chair during cake time:


*crickets*

Oh well.  The party was cute, I think people had fun, (except for maybe the honorees...), and now the whole ordeal is over.  All these new toys are the shizz over here this week, and we're back to some semblance of normal.  Except that the new normal involves Tyson and I being the parents of two one-year olds.  WHAT???


One (1!)

These two...



...are one.

(And really excited about it!  Just check out those eyebrows!)

People keep asking, "Oh my gosh, can you believe they're one?!?"

Um...yes.  Believe me, they we I have earned every one of the past 365 days.  And nights. And then some.

I dunno...I guess in some ways it's hard to remember life without them.  This year has been so full, and wonderful, and long, and challenging, that it doesn't really feel like the time has exactly flown by.

Then again...

...taking a look at these...



(Check out the roll on those sleeves!  The newborn clothes don't even fit!!!)


(Hey Caden, wake up!  We're here, now!)




(Wookit da scrawny shoulder!  Just wook at it!)

 



Was that just a year ago?  Really?

And now it's THIS:




(Brooklyn is getting her groove on.)






Who are those almost-but-not-quite toddlers?  When did they learn to sit and smile and point and clap and all that?

Okay.  Fine.  I guess it is a little hard to believe, after all.

Happy FIRST birthday, my two little loves!


Post (Valentine's Day) Weekend

Facial expressions when I take photos with my fancy camera:



Facial expressions when I take photos with my phone:



(Fun with filters!)

Thanks, guys.  Glad to know that DSLR was such a great investment to capture your trepidation towards actual photos.  (Which-spoiler alert!-seemed to be a theme this weekend.  Read on!)

Bonus!  Brooklyn's facial expression anytime the camera is pointed towards her on the phone. She's getting pretty good at these here selfies the kids are so fond of these days.


Anyway...

It was Valentine's Day!  I got to celebrate with these two cuties

 


(Proof that Caden does indeed have hair.)

(Also, this was their LAST "first" holiday *sob*  I actually realized when I was drooling over some adorable "first" St. Patrick's Day and Easter outfits at the store, that...oh.  Yeah.  I guess you guys were around for those last year.  Nvm.)

...and this guy.


We hung out at home most of the day.  I made a nice dinner (steak with cauliflower puree and crispy quinoa, and lest that sound too fancy for y'all...brownies.  From a BOX.  Because they are Tyson's favorite.  I am just that romantic.).  We also made a trip to the library.





(Brooklyn is skeptical that the dragon is actaully reading a book of "Fairy Tales", and not a book of "How to Cook and Eat Eleven-Month Olds".)





Dude, we might move into the library.  It was AWESOME.  I think we could go there every day of the week and spend it in a different part of the kids section and not get bored, it was just that ginormous.

 

I mean, there's a freaking CASTLE right in the middle of it all!



Plus Caden was impressed with all of the books just WAITING to be pulled off their shelves. Like, can you believe that everyone else has just LEFT them here?!?

So, in conclusion: Saturday was a very good day.  Sunday...well...

On Sunday, we had their one-year photos taken.


They...did not go well, to put it mildly.  I think the cake smash ones went pretty okay, (Cake! It's distracting!), and that's good, since that's why we went to the photographer's house in the first place, (easy access to white paper to help with the cake carnage), but man...those were not my babies.  They were clingy, refused to smile, and fussy...especially Brooklyn, which is almost unheard of.  They had a perfect nap and a good lunch before we went, and all systems seemed to be go for a smooth photo session...but...I don't know.  Babies!  They're unpredictable!  Who'da thunk?

(Disclaimer: I did not make their cakes.  I tried to make their cakes.  I made 234 practice cakes.  I...have no future as a cake decorator.  In my defense I tried to make them all healthy-like with bananas, little to no sugar, frosting made with yogurt and cream cheese instead of 349 cups of powdered sugar...they all tasted pretty good but were a bitch to try to decorate.  Surprise!  Yogurt frosting is runny (though delicious).  In the end I gave up, since for the photos they REALLY needed to look good more than anything (sorry for the diabetes, kids!). I gave in and called the grocery store, which charged way less than I thought for two little cakes, they turned out perfect, and I didn't have to spend all day Saturday making cakes that would have been failures.  Boom.  Done.  Best $18 I spent all week.  And in the end Caden and Brooklyn only took a few tentative licks of frosting, anyway.)


(So I got diabetes instead.  The end.)

We recovered from the disasterous photo experience by playing under tables, and giving the EXACT TYPE OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS THE PHOTOGRAPHER THAT I PAID* WAS TRYING TO CAPTURE.


 

*(Will be paying.  We've tentatively planned for her to come to our place sometime next week to see if that goes any better, though maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by the proofs she sends me this week.  I'm not holding out any real hope, though.)

We also snuggled up and watched some Peg + Cat, which we (ahem, "we" meaning Tyson and I) kind of love.

And now it's (dum dum dum) BIRTHDAY WEEK.  Which means I should go.  I should probably be cleaning something.