My 1st Birthday Party

On November 29th I had my first birthday party. I know, it was a few weeks before I actually turned 1, but Aunt Lisa was only available during Thanksgiving break and I really wanted her to be there, so we thought it was okay.

I had so much fun! Lots of family and friends, balloons, colorful presents and best of all... CAKE!!! It was my first time eating cake, not only cake but FROSTING. It was delicious. I heard a rumor that Mom & Dad probably won't let me eat cake the same way again (covered up to my elbows!) but I'll try to convince them otherwise next year ;) The party was Winnie-the-Pooh themed and there were 2 cakes, one for the guests and one for me. 

There were lots of pictures taken (of course) but we tried to limit the blog to only the best - quite a challenging task! If you'd like to see more pictures, Mom posted them on our Shutterfly site: http://costa0727.shutterfly.com

Enjoy!

I had a 1st birthday bib :)

hanging out with Mike & Rachel 

Mommy loves this picture, so I just had to post it!

Aunt Jenny is very soft and cuddly

Grandma knit me this sweater, I love it!

my excited, I can't believe I'm 1 years old face...

Mommy loves this picture of us cuddling :)

Aunt Lisa gave me this super cool card. Elmo - he's life sized!

cake #1 - for the guests

cake #2 - for ME :)

playing with Robin

blowing out my candles!! I may have huge cheeks, but haven't mastered the blowing motion yet, so Mom & Dad helped...

my birthday crown

YUM!!!

surprisingly Mommy didn't want a hug?!

wait, where'd the cake go?!

my "after cake" outfit

Grandpa, Poppa Joey, Aunt Barbara & Uncle Arthur

Nana and me

the Rhode Island family

Aunt Jenny & Omar

Aunt Lisa

Mommy, Daddy and me!

the Catskill family

Kathy, AKA Quackers ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I celebrated my first Thanksgiving and it was very exciting because it was the first holiday where I could actually eat the REAL FOOD! Turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, lasagna, the list goes on... I ended my night with a littler Gerber baby food, but hey, I had the real thing at the table ;) We celebrated in Catskill and it was so nice to have Mom & Dad, both Aunts, Grandma, Grandpa and Oma and of course the doggy all there! Daddy some how managed to avoid most of the pictures, he's not quite sure why, but promises to make up for it at my birthday party (tomorrow!!). 

We started a new tradition of reading a Thanksgiving book -"Thanks For Thanksgiving" by Julie Markes and going around the table having everyone say what they were thankful for. Then at the very end of the book there's a spot for me to write what I'm thankful for. This year I was thankful for Mom, Dad, being able to crawl, my little walker so that I can walk "by myself" and all the rest of my family. 

Another new exciting milestone to share. I can now point out on Mommy & Daddy where their nose, eyes, mouth & ears are. We're working on the rest of the body parts ;)

Gobble, gobble....

how relaxing... sticking out my tongue is my newest thing, Mommy thinks it's because it feels funny on my teeth that are coming in (5 new ones coming in up top!)

looking at the fish with Grandma 

my super cool walker! 

I can walk with the walker by myself!

Yes, I did it, I'm so proud :) Tonight I took off doing laps up and down the hallways, just me and the walker. Mom & Dad weren't too far behind to cover up corners and provide encouragement. We have a cool video of the event, but unfortunately it doesn't want to upload and Mommy needs to get to bed for turkey day tomorrow. She'll try again soon. Anyway, it was so exciting! Here are a few pictures from the past couple days:

this is my excited face :)

Cousin Jack was up in Albany with Lori who was attending a class here, so we got to meet up for lunch. It was my first time meeting him and he was so much fun! 

First snow storm

I guess at my age every other experience is a first, but this one was pretty simple, yet really cool. Of course, being born in December I had my share of snow storms but I was always too little to actually admire the white puffy flakes. Well, it's a blizzard out there today, so we snuck out when it wasn't too heavy so that I could touch the falling snow. I can't wait until it's piled up nicely on the ground so that I can jump in it (completely covered from head to toe of course!)

I'm crawling!!

Yes, I did it, I crawled!!! I'm so proud of myself. It happened on November 14th here in Michigan. Mom, Dad and I were hanging out watching TV (ironically, we were watching Jon & Kate plus 8) and I just decided 'okay, I'm going to crawl now' so I started doing this little froggy maneuver and before I knew it, I was off! Mom quickly jumped down to the floor in excitement in front of me and Dad stayed behind to watch my cute little legs move one after the other. I crawled across the room to Mom who's eyes were filled with tears.

This video is from this afternoon - look at me go :) Mom thinks it's funny how I just start crawling now whenever they put me down as if I've been crawling for years...