We now have a one-year-old boy

Xavier turned one yesterday, and we celebrated by playing in water and eating cupcakes (but not at the exact same time).  He had so much fun at his party that he conked out immediately after cake time.  The party continued without him until all of the neighborhood kids had gone home.

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was at St. Mary's hospital with the baby, and Seth, my mom, and the girls were hunkered down in the bathroom in our house riding out a tornado watch.  A year ago, this little guy only had to modes: asleep and hungry; he could only communicate by crying and grunting; and he certainly wasn't in any way mobile. 

My, how much has changed since then!  Here's a bullet-point portrait of my baby boy one day after he turned one.  And while you might find this list interesting, dear reader, it's really more for my mommy brain that will forget this moment all too soon.

• He has only two teeth (both on the bottom)
• His favorite foods are avocados and bananas
• He likes wearing flip flops on his arms.  In fact, he goes out of his way to find our flip flops and put them on, and then crawl around the house wearing them.
• He's still obsessed with vacuums and carpet cleaners
• He can climb the stairs like a shot, and just before I began writing this he figured out how to come down the stairs, too
• He can stand, preferably holding something in each hand (like flip flops, or toys)
• He has taken one step on his own, twice
• If you say "Give me five!" and hold up your hand, he puts his forehead against your palm and giggles
• He no longer eats dirt found on the floor, but he now considers it his duty to hand me every little piece of dirt or paper or lint he finds.  He'll hold it out pinched between his fingers and make noises at me until I take it.
• He loves the bathtub.  If I'm not careful, he'll try to climb into it at any opportunity, whether there's water in it or not.
• He likes playing with magformers.  He'll go get the box and pull it down and yell at me until I open it.  We really need to work on "please" around here.
• His new favorite pastime is pulling pillows and cushions off the sofa and piling them up, or putting them on top of people.  Just yesterday he made Seth move off the sofa just so he could pull down the cushion he was sitting on.
• He recently moved from only knocking down blocks to actually trying to stack them
• He has the best giggle
• He's a big flirt
• He smiles with his entire face
• His cuteness is almost deadly

Happy first year, baby boy!  I couldn't imagine life without you.

Not seeing the food for the calories

It's like not seeing the forest for the trees.

Seth and I decided that we are not as active as we should be, so I came up with the brilliant idea to get us pedometers.  I got each of us a Fitbit One, which is much like a pedometer, but on steroids, with a bunch of online tools to help you set goals and keep track of how you're doing.

One of the many things you can do online is track the food you eat, and it compares how much you eat in the day to how much exercise you've had.  Seth has been taking this very seriously, so while making dinner he set about cataloging all of the calories that go into his homemade bacon cheeseburger.  There's the patty, the mayo, the ketchup, the bacon, lettuce, tomato, pepperoni (yes, you read that right), spicy cheese, and the bun.  As we were eating, he commented how the flavors went well together today, even the tomato, which he normally avoids like the plague.

Anna, who is 7, loves hamburgers.  She'll eat an entire Bubba burger without a second thought, and ask for more.  So when she finished tonight, she asked for another one.  My response was that I was not cooking another burger.  Seth was finished eating and was walking around the kitchen, and he said, "But honey, there's already one made."  I said there couldn't be, because I only made three burgers and three of us (Seth, Anna, and myself) had one.  Seth pointed at the counter.  There sat a hamburger on the paper towels where I had drained the grease out of them earlier.

After a quick mental inventory, I busted out laughing.  I had a hamburger, and Anna had obviously eaten hers, which meant that Seth, focusing on the calorie counts for all the things going on his hamburger, had neglected to actually put the beef on his bun!  For a few minutes he swore up and down he'd eaten a hamburger, and then looked kind of sheepish and realized that he in fact had eaten what amounted to a pepperoni bacon sandwich.

So Anna got her second hamburger, and Seth got to log fewer calories in his meal tracker.  So all in all, I guess everyone got what they wanted :)

Little Wormy Foo Foo

While playing with play doh, Lizzie made a worm and was inspired to reimagine the classic children's song of Little Bunny Foo Foo.  Imagine the following sung to that tune (generally, like a four year old sticks to a tune).

Little wormy foo foo, worming through the forest
Field mice picked him up and bopped him on the head
Then a good person came along and she said,
Don't bop him on the head!  I'll give you three more chances, then I'll turn you into a goon!

Little wormy foo foo, going through the forest
Field mice picked him up and bopped him on the head
Then a good person came along and she said,
I was going to give you three more chances.
But you made me mad, so now I'm going to turn you into a goon!

And little wormy foo foo stayed with the good person and didn't get bopped on the head.

Parking Garage Etiquette

I am rarely in a parking garage anymore.  Recently it's either because I'm visiting someone out of town, or I've attended some event and had to park in a garage.  But even though I'm not in them very often, I've decided that we need some standard parking garage rules of etiquette.

1. You're supposed to be between the lines, not on them
   If you park with your tires on a line, and then someone parks two spaces down with their tires on the line, the only thing that is going to fit in that itty bitty parking space between you is one of those tiny two-person cars or a motorcycle.  Do you have any idea how irritating it is to think you've found a spot, only to discover that if you do park there, you won't be able to open your doors to get out of the car?
2. The farther you are parked from the exit, the longer it will take you to get out
   When the garage is hosting event parking, it will probably get pretty full.  If you park on the top floor, it's going to take a while for all of those cars below you to get out of their parking spaces and out of the garage after the event.  To make it easier on yourself, next time back into the parking spot, and don't waste gas by idling and occasionally revving your engine.  If you don't believe in global warming, you can at least appreciate the price of gas.
   
3. If the line to leave hasn't moved in 15 minutes, don't try to back out of your spot
   I don't care that you just managed to convince the three large drunk guys you have with you to stop fighting and shove themselves into your Prius, traffic is not going to magically start to move when you start backing out of your space.  All you're going to do is make someone angry in the car you almost backed into so they jump out and start yelling at you.
4. Be nice and take turnsOften in a parking garage, traffic coming down a ramp will merge with traffic travelling around the current level.  Be nice and let one person go in front of you.  If each vehicle lets one vehicle in front of them as they merge into one lane, things would actually go pretty smoothly.  People who ride the bumper of the car in front of them or ignore rule #5 totally mess up the flow and are asking to get cut off later down the line.
5. A stretch of garage section where no cars are currently parked does not magically become a new travel lane
   If cars were parked there in those marked parking spaces, you would hit them.  So pretend like they're actually there so you aren't tempted to try to pass the line of traffic, only make it two cars ahead of where you were before, and burn rubber in the process.  Really, was the two car jump worth it?

Road rage in a parking garage is an ugly thing.  Much like table or bathroom etiquette, parking garage etiquette can lead to happier and safer lives.  Please join me promoting parking garage etiquette and making this a better world.  Thank you for your support :)