Alligators?

Anicka: Momma, can we go up the alligator?
Me:... um?
Anicka: Can we, please? I love the alligator. Is there a alligator here somewhere?
Me:... up the alligator... what?? What, exactly, are you talking about?
Anicka: like when you go up the alligator and you push the buttons, like numbers, and it moves up.
Me: *the light comes on* Oh, you mean the elevator?
Anicka: Yeah. The elegator. I really love it.


The funny thing is, this exchange took place in our apartment. No, I don't have an elevator hidden in the closet.

DVR...

... Where have you been all my life?
You know, I was worried that we would end up watching more TV if I let my husband get this thing, but we don't. We just watch stuff that we actually want to be watching, instead of vegging out and flipping through the channels hoping that we'll eventually come across something interesting. Plus, I was able to record that ridiculous Tinkerbell movie that Anicka has been begging me to buy for her, instead of wasting one of our Netflix rentals on it.

I love you, DVR.

Happy Birthday, Ryker!

You sweet little ball of chub, I can't believe you're already a year old. It seems like just a month or two ago that we brought you home from the hospital.


And then before we knew it you were sittingand crawling
and showing your sweet, silly personality
Happy birthday, Bubba.



I know that he's never gonna remember this day, but I hope he had fun. He had some chocolate pudding after lunch, a rare treat.

We took a trip to the splashpad.





And we had a Birthday Doughnut with a candle in it (the big birthday cake won't happen until Sunday when the family gets together) which was pretty exciting.


not to mention tasty.
But the best part was the present.


He could hardly wait for dad to open it for him!


I have a video of him playing with it that I would love to put up, but blogger hates me. I'll try and edit this post again tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to add it then.

And now: Bed.

Seriously, yum.

I just thought I'd share my new favorite dinner:
California Grilled Veggie Sandwiches.

These are healthful, filling and absolutely delicious! Not to mention simple.

('Grilling' the veggies. We put ours in the oven under the broiler)

(Stack it all up! We like ours with sauted portobella mushrooms on top.
There was no feta in the house, so we slapped some swiss on there instead. Yum!)

How much easier can a nutritious dinner get?

Time won't let me go

My baby will be a year old on Wednesday.
:(
When did this happen? Stop it, little boy. Stay little for just a bit longer, won't you?

Anyway.

last week Ryker got his very first Big Boy haircut. Just in case you don't remember, this is what his little mop head looked like before the cut:

And here he is after:

Also last week: I made him his very first Big Boy tie. He has one other tie, and it Velcros in the back. This is an actual tie. As in... you have to tie it. Which can be, erm, fun. But dang, it sure is cute:

(He looks a bit worried about things here, but he's just doing his new 'blink-really-fast-whenever-mom-gets-the-camera-out' trick to prepare himself for the flash.)

As I mentioned before, I'm just starting to learn how to sew. I made the tie using this super awesome tutorial from The Purl Bee. She lays everything out step-by-step.
(*Edited to add: I should probably mention that I shrank the template pretty significantly to make the tie fit a one-year-old.)


In other news:

Anicka has discovered a love of spoon feeding Ryker. Cute, but bad on the carpet. Yikes. She has also decided that she hates wearing clothing. Yikes.

('What? Is there something on my face?')

And Ryker has discovered a love of football:

('Touchdown!')