London Calls

We've aced baptism, birthday party and a Thanksgiving feast.  The next item waiting for a check mark is London!  In 3 short days we will be headed for a winter experience in London town.  Excitement does not begin to describe the emotion that races through my body when I pause for a second to imagine us there.  To be honest, there hasn't been many pauses in my days to ponder this magnificent journey.  It feels as though my best friend is getting ready to go on this trip and I will only enjoy cheeky snippets of her travels via text.  I think the reality will set in once the plane starts ascending.  Or we could be real honest and say the reality will set in the second I shut the door to my car en route to the airport and I start sobbing because of how much I'm going to miss Palmer.  I am beyond happy for Pete and I to have this trip together, but leaving the little mister is going to tear my little heart out.  I know how the story goes, I'll be miserable, Grammy will be sending me texts and pictures of all their fun adventures, and I'll finally let myself have a great time.  How can you not have a great time in London?!  (No, that is not a dare my dear friend Fate)

I didn't take many pictures for Thanksgiving.  We were supposed to host and then my mom had an unexpected stay in the hospital so we moved Thanksgiving to my dad's to be closer to my mom. She ended up making it home the night before Thanksgiving but she needed to stay home and rest so traveling to Orlando for an hour wasn't an option.  My dad and step mom were the host with the most.  We all enjoyed lots of family time and the standard American over eating.  But wrangling a one year old when he's in an unfamiliar territory does not allow for great photo ops.  I managed to squeak in these few.

At Gramma's house.

Admiring this beauty.

And loving all over Mister the dog.

At Grampa Wayne's.  I need to stop hunching over.  

This time tomorrow I will be in full stalker mode of my front porch.  I finally ordered a real "I'm-over-the-top-obsessed-with-my-child" camera and lens.  They should arrive at an undisclosed time tomorrow.  I'm in a dead panic.  I am going to drive Pete and Palmer crazy for the following 24 hours practicing with the camera to prepare for London.  Until then, here's the latest from my iPhone.

The tree!  That stupid fish ornament sure does stick out.  (Thanks Uncle Matt!)

The boys playing in their tent.

Baby blues stealing my heart.

The Final Chapter of the Palmer Festivities

We did it!!  We officially celebrated Palmer's first year of life with our friends and family.  Palmer was spoiled beyond excess.  The party was a lot more tame than last week as we had about half the attendance.  That unfortunately translated into no pool grape toss, chicken fights or arm wrestling.  On the bright side he had his best buddies and plenty of new toys to keep him busy.

This is the only picture I got of him and I together.
Worst mom of the year award.

The main table.  Parting gifts on the left.  Toddler snack trays on the right.

Festive baby

The smash cake. 

Mini gum ball machines.  What kid doesn't love that as a party favor?!

Sweet and simple.

Table 2.

More snack trays, straight sugar sticks (you're welcome Mom's and Dad's) and fun glasses

Gramma got me a walker.

And I decided walking was a no brainer with this little lion.

The candles!!! Which were never lit for obvious reasons.

So this is a smash cake....

You want me to do what?

Eh....it's sticking to my fingers... 

I hate this.  I'm going to cry in 2 seconds if no one gets this **ish** off my hands. 

The smash cake was a failure.  I smooshed his hand in it and he cried.  And then it was over.

So I got to get some pants on and went inside to play.

And then all 24lbs of stud (with chicken pox vaccine war wound) was happy.

I was pleased to show off how much of a natural walker I was.  Unknown to Mom or Dad I'd been practicing in my crib.

I played peek-a-boo with Grampa Wayne

And then tried to pick his nose through the glass.

Played peek-a-boo around the couch.  I mean, what 1 year old can't get enough peek-a-boo.  Just hide!  All of you!

Got to love on my new beanie baby Cookie the Dog. 

My buddy Parker was there with his Mom Amy.

He took on my John Deere.  He's a surfer so this was new terrain for him. 

My buddy Brax loved my new rocking horse.  He put on quite
the show and broke her right in for me.

To be honest my favorite part might have been the blueberries in the snack tray.

Oh...I ate about 192 of them.

Mom had to throw away my pj's the next morning.   Joke was on her!

And here is my less than 2 minute movie montage of the day....

Our First Birthday Calamity

Poor Palmer has inherited not just my looks, but my tendency toward injuring myself.  As a kid I heard phrases such as, "Hail Mary, full of grace" on the regular following one clumsy bit after another.  Not only did Palmer manage to squeak in his first ER trip before he turned one, he also went ahead a gave himself a real "hot" birthday present.  See details below of how a seemingly dreamy day took a quick detour at lunch time.  If you haven't guessed already, my ambitious Sea World birthday plans didn't pan out.

Around 1pm Da-Da came home to spend this very special day with us both

Needless to say, Palmer was rather excited.

And then he was all like, "So, what are we going to do?!"

Oh, lunch.  Brilliant. 

I'll just eat this fiddlestick and...

Oh wait! You guys surprised me!  With this...

Yeah baby!

And then we tried to explain the candle...

To a one year old...

He thought about it...

We demonstrated...

And then he went ahead and stuck his hand on the smoldering candle.
Pete's face says it all.  I obviously hadn't quite caught on yet.

All hell broke loose after that.  There was melted waxed burned to his index and middle finger and blood curdling screams.  We promptly went home a la golf cart and rocked the poor nugget to sleep.

We were destined to improve the derailed birthday festivities and had his two presents from his Grammy (aka Pete's mom) and our birthday gift waiting for him once he woke from his nap.

I don't believe in wrapping baby presents.  The quicker they can get at them the better.
Chrissy left hers while she was here for the baptism so he had some great stuff to open on his real birthday.

He was pleased with our display.  Maybe even a bit humbled by it.

He went ahead and jumped right on in with the blocks.  Of course he ate the corner of one within the first hour.

He abandoned present time for some quick tunnel chasing

Then, after some quick assembly, Grammy's basketball hoop was fully functional and in use.
We know who's really going to enjoy this.  Pete has already challenged me to a game of  PIG.

Let's say the car assembly took a lot more effort.  And Palmer was less than patient.

But after much muscling and teamwork the car was ready for it's first spin.

We played all afternoon and capped off the night with a feast of one of his favorite dishes.  Garlic naan bread with olive oil and mozzarella cheese.  A particularly fancy way to say pizza.  He settled in for a relaxing bath at 5:45 and it was lights out by 6:15!  One year down!  Somehow we all survived...Barely!

I'd say despite the surprises, he was pretty pleased with his first birthday!