The Frog Pics

A dirty day in the yard. Very typical for The Frog.
The Frog had his 1 year doctor appointment and it's amazing to see how much he can get into at the office compared to last time. He thought this stool looked like a nice little space to be in, apparently. He's still growing, though hasn't quite made it to 20 lbs yet. He's in the 5% for weight, average height and 95% for head size! Poor kid!! No wonder he's constantly bonking it on everything... his head is massively huge for his body!
I went shopping at Down East Home and ended up getting a couple vases for our hearth (50% off :D) but couldn't help but notice the cute mini, leather, sofa set. The Frog seems right at home in this lounging chair.
Now that The Frog is walking, it's extraordinarily difficult to get him to stay in the shopping cart- he insists on helping to push it. (10 points if you can tell where we are)
Fall suddenly arrived this week as the temperatures are low 50s in the morning. Sadly, I hadn't figured that out until during a morning jog and The poor Frog was very under-dressed. We cut it short and came home- I tried to put him in a snow hat to warm him up, but he doesn't like keeping them on his head. I eventually tried covering his ears with a sweatband, and it seemed to do just the trick!
"Auntie" Melissa gave The Frog this outfit as a welcome to Earth present and he's finally able to wear it! Doesn't the hat just look adorable?
And finally, The Frog has almost given up on crawling. He mostly walks everywhere now.

Fall is here!

I've been loving eating fresh food from our garden. I always forget how garden tomatoes are INFINITELY better than those from the store. They taste completely different! I can't believe it!

I was a bit late in planting most things, so I ended up doing a lot of squash and pumpkiny things. Look how cute this little guy is! He's sitting on my kitchen table and I feel like he smiles at me whenever I walk by. We've also got a big orange pumpkin and a white one about the same size that are about ready to pick! I'm excited to carve them up, but also nervous because I've had such fun watching them grow and kind of feel like I'll be doing it to old friends. I want the designs to be just so. Any cute ideas?

Happy 1st Birthday Frog!!!

We have a bird-feeder hanging right outside our kitchen window and The Frog just loves to point at and watch the birdies, so we decided to take a trip to the Tracy Aviary for The Frog's 1st Birthday! I think it was perfect- not too big to lose his interest (like Hogle Zoo), but new and full of live animals.

"Mom! Are you seeing this?!"

Thanking the cousin for coming

Investigating the pile o' presents...

and promptly knocking them over!

Birthday Boy Daddy and Birthday Boy being a good sport and wearing the hat mom made, while eating one of his favorites- cherry tomatoes from the garden

The Frog's "Happy Bird Day" cupcakes

And a bird

Believe it or not, we got The Frog to try to blow out his candle, unfortunately, he would be a better flute player than candle-blower-outer. Looks like we have a musician on our hands ;)

Needless to say, I think the cupcake was thoroughly enjoyed.

I tried to be very good about taking video footage of his big day, but we ended up with about 40 minutes and even after paring it down to 18, I just can't bring myself to make all of you watch it- especially the semi-painful last-half where we are trying to get the Frog to open up his presents. It's amazing how a usually destructive... I mean curious, boy was surprisingly uninterested in ripping open his gifts. (It took a LOT of time to get him to do this one)
And then, as you can see, once the present was finally open, he was more interested in the paper scraps than the meticulously chosen gift. I think us adults have a lot to learn about making life interesting, no?

Regardless, Happy 1st Birthday little one!
Best first year ever :D

PS Happy 09-09-09!!

First Shoes!

After the petting zoo experience, I realized it was time I buckled down (haha) and bought The Frog some real shoes- especially now that he's toddling around. Here's a little footage of his first day of walking free.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I can't believe I'm 26! I think this is the first uninteresting number I've ever been, which is kind of an interesting feature, don't you think? Regardless, in the words of my good friend Mel, "well, you're now closer to 30 than 20."

Yikes!

My wonderful husband made me a delicious cake.

Of course it's chocolate! What did you expect?

California Dreamin'

While Jay went to Edinburgh, Scotland to attend a conference at which he presented, The Frog and I made a trip to Southern California to visit my brother and his fam. I can't believe how big and beautiful my nieces have become!

Here are the cousins being mesmerized by Power Puff Girls (The Frog's first introduction to TV)

My bro let us women do a little child-free shopping together, and while we were gone, the girls wanted to try feeding The Frog. I love that they are demonstrating one of the unspoken rules of feeding small children- all present must unconsciously demonstrate the task at hand.

We went for a bike ride together to check out Big Sis's new school, and we had to give The Frog a glimpse of what lies in his future.

Li'l Sis and The Frog in the back of the bike trailer with their Elmos- one of which The Frog was so generously given by his sweet cousins.

We, of course, had to take a trip to the beach. The water and weather were both perfect and we all had a great time!

My little Beach Bum.

Well, we MOSTLY had a good time ;)

We celebrated my birthday early by going to the McCarthy family's favorite burger joint. This is what The Frog's first taste looks like. I'm considering sending this in as an advertisement shot. We can't wait until we get our own In-N-Out in Provo this year!

After a delicious dinner we went out to the girls' favorite frozen yogurt joint. Yum!

Our last day we went to a petting zoo.

I spent most of my time trying to get The Frog to feed the animals, instead of himself...

with a little help, he got it though.

There was a cute little playground on the premises and my brother got some great shots of The Frog.
Thanks to the cousins for letting The Frog borrow their old pink converses :D

As you can see, we had SUCH a great time and hope we can return their hospitality here in Utah sometime soon.