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I debated whether to have a daycare party for Cullen, but we decided to do it for a few reasons. His sister had a first birthday party in the classroom, but she had a few other babies who could celebrate with her. Since no other babies were participating, I decided that we should have Cullen’s party on the day after my 2nd cake decorating class. We would be decorating a cake, anyway, so why not bring it in for the teachers, Maddie, and Cullen to enjoy (well, and us, of course). So, we did.

Cullen was upset just before we took this photo. He saw the cake and WANTED IT NOW. He was upset that we weren’t letting him touch it just yet.

We tried to get him to wear his birthday hat. That lasted about 2 seconds.

Cullen didn’t dig into his birthday cake very much on his actual birthday. It seemed that we were missing the fork. He was very happy to have a fork at the daycare party!

Cullen politely offered some cake to Daddy.

Maddie joined us at the party. She doesn’t pass up opportunities for cake.

Cullen ate his entire piece. I don’t know if it was the fork or the chocolate (his first taste of the stuff). Here he is contemplating licking the plate clean.

A fork, a dinosaur plate, and chocolate. What’s not to love?

We watched him lick the chocolate frosting off his plate. We thought that was hilarious!

Happy birthday, little man!

Something that makes me happy: Getting caught up with thank you notes from Cullen’s birthday and from Team B-Patrol donations received so far. I’m going to try to keep up with those better this year.

Something I’m thinking: I’ve been thinking about our mortgage and kinda wishing that we hadn’t refinanced into a 15 year mortgage in mid-2009. We have a great rate, at least! A 15-year mortgage does make for a hefty mortgage payment, though…

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we can meet our fundraising goals for Team B-Patrol this year. I’ve been working on some of my fundraising efforts this weekend.

Something happening around the house: We had games night yesterday. Yay! The train table is currently in the living room so that we would have room for card tables in the library. It’s something different for the kids right now, but we won’t be keeping the train table there permanently!

Something I’m reading: I finished Mockingjay, yay! Now I’m ready for our book club meeting next week when we’ll be discussing The Hunger Games series as well as Rebecca. I started on Still Alice, which is our selection for March. I’m looking forward to getting back to books on the kindle, but the last few books have been print ones. Gabe is reading Nurture Shock. I’m glad that he wanted to read it, and I’m looking forward to reading that one, too! Of course, it’s another print book that we already own. Gabe will be getting his kindle tomorrow!!! He should have received it on Thursday, but UPS screwed up and “lost” our package. Gabe didn’t know about it until Saturday when I told him why I was so anxious to receive the amazon package. I’m sure he wondered why I was itching to get the diaper bag that we ordered!

Something I’m watching: I’m watching the Grammy Awards while writing this. I don’t usually watch them, but everyone on Facebook kept writing updates, so I felt like checking it out.

Something I’m playing: We played Tikal on Friday night. That was the first time that I had played that one in years. Yesterday, at our games night, I played Dominion twice (the first time we had a card combination that did not work well! the second time was more fun) and Agricola. That was the first time that I had played Agricola since TBGT. What a difference it made to play by the correct scoring rules! We were all learning or relearning, so almost everyone was able to redo something due to a misunderstanding of the rules. I am very interested in playing Agricola sometime where everyone has played at least once. I think it will make a big difference.

Something tasty: I’m back on dairy products again! This is the first time in a while that I was able to eat the pizza at games night. I’m still trying to consume dairy products in moderation, but it seems like Cullen is doing well with it.

Something Maddie is doing (35 months old): Maddie drew me a picture of our family for the first time this week. It was adorable, and I’m planning on a separate post about it (though I know I often have intentions and then don’t get around to doing it). This afternoon, Maddie created Valentine’s for all of her classmates. She drew a picture of each classmate, sometimes with herself, sometimes with other kids, sometimes by themselves. She decorated with stickers and told me what the kids were doing in the pictures. I loved them all! She has started showing more interest in writing her letters. Most of her letters don’t end up looking like anything, but she has been able to copy some of my examples. She’s been very sweet with her little brother this week. She tells him everything is going to be ok when he’s crying, and she gets toys and books for him. One night this week, she started crying not long after she went to bed. She said, “I need my Mommy…and my Daddy…and my baby brother!” It was very sweet!

Something Cullen is doing (12 months old): Cullen has had a rough week, poor little guy. He had a fever for several days, so we were home together from school and work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He felt pretty miserable for several of those days. We went to the doctor for a total of 3 times, and we’ll have a follow up in a few weeks. He was first diagnosed with croup. The following day, he was diagnosed with an ear infection in his left ear, in addition to his croup/cold (which may have been RSV). On Tuesday night, his fever came back and he was diagnosed with a double ear infection on Wednesday (and it obviously wasn’t responding to the first antibiotic). He seems like he is feeling much better. He hated both antibiotics (and is still taking the second one). We are giving him just the augmentin (the one that he didn’t respond to was the cefdinar). He has been putting objects inside of containers a lot lately. He’s loving the game of putting things into things and taking them out again. He has been having fun putting together blocks and is so proud of himself. He loves walking with the walker wagon and riding in the walker wagon. Maddie and Cullen had a lot of fun when we put both portable booster seats on the floor. Maddie arranged them like a “train” and both kids sat and laughed in the train. Cullen is doing great with the introduction to dairy! I’ve decided to stop pumping, since he should be ok with cow’s milk at school. We’re doing a combination of cow’s milk and coconut milk to supplement the breastmilk that he will be receiving for a few more days. He’s still nursing at lunch during the school day and in the evenings and at night (and during the day when we’re at home together). I was very thankful that we were still nursing when he was sick earlier this week. It’s so easy to comfort him and ensure that he’s getting enough nourishment when he doesn’t feel well.

Something I am struggling with: Laryngitis! I lost my voice about an hour before games night started. I don’t feel too bad, otherwise, though I had a much needed nap today (thanks to my awesome hubby). I’m sure it helped me to get some extra rest. I still don’t have my voice back!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I had my final cake decorating class this week. I had so much fun with the class, and I look forward to making more fun cakes. I’m planning to make the cake (and cupcakes?) for Maddie’s party in a couple weeks, a cake for my sister’s birthday (she requested one), a baby shower cake, and my nephew’s graduation cake. I’m sure I’ll find plenty of other cake making opportunities to try out my new skills! I started more fundraising efforts this week for Team B-Patrol‘s fundraising for the National MS Society.

Something I learned: I know I’m late to the party, but Pandora is pretty cool. I finally started using it in the past week or so. I haven’t exactly “discovered” any new music this way, but I have bookmarked some stuff that I want to possibly purchase.

Something I’m looking forward to: Maddie’s 3rd birthday and the start of our celebrations for her!

Something random: Cullen loves playing with the remote. Sometimes, he records random stuff on our DVR. This week, he recorded America’s Funniest Videos and Dr. Phil.

Something captured: We had snow this week – just the right amount! Most of the snow had melted by lunch. I took this one with my iPhone using the 100 cameras app.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Cullen turned one a week ago, and I’ve been trying to get this letter done all week. It’s a long one. I can’t help myself. I always have so much to say! So, here’s the latest letter to Cullen. (more…)

I’ve written Cullen’s letter, but I’m still working on the photos. We had a great time at Cullen’s party. We were disappointed that a few important people couldn’t make it due to illness, but overall it was wonderful! The weather didn’t interfere (as it did with Maddie’s 1st birthday party), and the fridge didn’t die overnight (again as it did with Maddie’s party). Cullen’s best buddies from his class were able to attend.

I decided that I was going to make the cakes for the kids’ birthday parties this year. I selected a dinosaur pan for Cullen’s dinosaur theme. It took me a crazy number of hours, but I think it turned out awesome.

I used cookie cutters to outline the dinosaur on Cullen’s smash cake (the white one). Since I had extra batter, I made two smash cakes. Mostly, I wanted a back up cake in case the first one didn’t turn out very well. It turned out great, so I decided that yellow cake wasn’t complete without a little chocolate frosting. Yum! So…the white cake was for Cullen and the chocolate one was for ME!

Cullen didn’t want to wear his hat. I made Gabe put the hat on about half a dozen times so that we could try to get a photo. I think maybe Cullen’s noggin was too big for the hat, too!

Considering that Cullen eats like a horse at meal times, I really thought we were going to have a spectacular cake smashing. That was not meant to be. Cullen picked at the frosting. He tasted a little of it. Overall, he wasn’t too impressed and refused to get his hands and face too dirty. He did enjoy all the fruit that we put on his tray. I think it was the first time that he had had grapes. We cut into the cake at some point, and he ate a little more of it then. A few days later, we had his daycare party. I brought a cake for the teachers to enjoy that contained chocolate, and Cullen couldn’t get enough of that one!

He was happy about the cake and all the attention, I think!

Maddie had been begging for cake for DAYS. I think she was the most excited to sit down and have a piece of it.

Cullen played with his buddies (or, should I say, played NEAR his buddies).

We took photos of each of the guests, but I won’t post each one here. We did get a couple of decent ones of our family. Cullen went for the “it’s my birthday and I’m so serious” look.

We tried to get the kiddos to smile for the photo. They didn’t want to smile for the posed one, but I thought this one was cute.

Something that makes me happy: Pajama days!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about all the things on my personal “to do” list including address some thank you notes from Christmas (yes, I’m slow, but I did manage to write them!), write some thank you notes for Cullen’s birthday, write/send Maddie’s birthday party invites, write Cullen’s 1-year letter, and countless tasks with photos and video.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get some more blog posts written soon. I was really on a roll with writing up posts and scheduling them several days in advance. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of prescheduled posts.

Something happening around the house: We hosted Cullen’s 1st birthday party yesterday. We had a great time celebrating Little Man’s birthday!

Something I’m reading: I’m about 70% through The Girl Who Played with Fire (thanks to the kindle for letting me know the percentage). I’m more into the book now, but I swear both books have taken forever to get interesting. I hear that I’m going to have to read the next one since this one ends in a cliffhanger or something…so I guess I’ll read it, too. I’m loving the kindle!!! I’m probably going to read Mockingjay (in printed book form, sadly) next since our book club plans to discuss the series at our February meeting. We’re also supposed to read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I wish it was on kindle! I did manage to borrow a copy from a friend, but I haven’t gotten the motivation to start it yet.

Something I’m watching: We’ve been watching more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse this week. Maddie has been more interactive with the show. She always says, “Oh, Toooooooodles….” when it’s time to use a mousekatool. She answers some of their questions, too. It’s pretty cute! And, of course we always do the hot dog dance at the end!

Something I’m playing: We played Euchre with my parents. We also found a renewed interest in Angry Birds on our iPhones. I played a little on my mom’s iPad, too. We got my dad hooked on it!

Something tasty: I think I ate too much cake and buttercream frosting this week.

Something Maddie is doing (35 months old): We had orientation for her preschool this week. We are excited (and a little nervous) about this upcoming change. We assume that she will be moving up to the preschool shortly after her birthday next month. She keeps talking about how she’s going to go to Children’s House when she’s 3. I’m not sure that she quite understands what all that means, but she does know that some of her friends have moved up to Children’s House. It’s a big deal in the 2-year old room. She has also been talking about who she wants to invite to her party. She wants to invite all the girls and 3 boys. She’s very specific about this. And, she wants a cake with purple icing. I guess I’m going to have to make her a special side cake as I’m planning to make the Winnie the Pooh cake for her to match the theme.

Something Cullen is doing (12 months old): He’s now a big ONE YEAR OLD! I can’t believe it. We had a party on Saturday with a few of his classroom buddies and family and friends. I think that Cullen had a good time. Cullen is a big eater, and I thought for sure that he would dig into his smash cake and make a huge mess. He barely got his fingers dirty. He didn’t get any cake on his face. We opened up the cake for him after a little bit, and he ate some of it. He still didn’t make a big mess. Oh, well! Cullen has been eating huge meals this week. He still loves chicken the best. Cullen often eats more chicken than his sister. There isn’t much that he won’t eat, and he gets excited when you bring food to his tray almost regardless of what it is. He especially gets excited for the coconut yogurt and applesauce. He didn’t take any more steps this week, but is cruising like crazy and walking with the walker wagon. His new trick is to climb into the walker wagon where he will sit waiting for someone to push him (and sometimes stand). Today, he climbed in and out of the wagon probably 30 times. He’s doing more climbing at school and apparently is peering down into the other babies’ cribs at naptime and tries to wake them. He has climbed the bookshelves and the lunch table. If the teachers don’t get him out of his chair when he wants out, he takes matters into his own hands and climbs onto the table. These are sure signs that he’s ready to move up to the toddler room! I’m a little nervous about him moving up before he can walk, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. He will probably be motivated to walk once he sees all the other kids doing it.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I attended my first cake class which gave me just enough information to do Cullen’s birthday cake. My second cake class is tomorrow.

Something I learned: This whole cake decorating thing is a bit of an investment. It’s also quite tedious!!! I’m still planning to do a cake for Maddie’s birthday, but I now know I better take a vacation day to prepare that one, too. I’m very glad I decided to take Friday off to work on Cullen’s cake. Preschool orientation took up most of the morning, but the rest of the day was spent baking and icing.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to my second cake decorating class and to book club! I just realized today that book club is this week.

Something random: One of the ladies in the cake class was also in our birthing class over 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Maddie.

Something captured: We had to put his hat on his head a dozen times to get this photo. Each time he kept it on his head for about 2 seconds.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: New toys! My kindle arrived this week, and so far I love it! Gabe and I also decided that it was finally time for me to upgrade my laptop, so I’m typing this from a shiny new MacBook Pro. Woo! I am excited about having more computing power to manage all my photos and projects. I’ve started working in Aperture, and I have a lot to learn.

Something I’m thinking: I have a lot of planning to do for Cullen’s birthday party next weekend!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that we’re finished with sicknesses for a while. We had just recovered from the stomach bug only to be hit by a sinus/cold type thing. UGH! I’m still not 100% recovered from that, but I am feeling much better.

Something happening around the house: Gabe’s cousin is visiting this weekend. We also sold Gabe’s kitchen table. We had been using it in our kitchen since we moved into our house. We have mixed feelings about getting rid of it, but it just wasn’t kid friendly. It didn’t “fit” at all in the dining room. So, now we have my table in the kitchen and a big empty dining room. I’m not sure when we will get a chance to buy a new dining room table!

Something I’m reading: I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. To be honest, I’m not sure I get all the hype around the book. I didn’t dislike it, exactly, but I also didn’t think it was anything special. I chose the sequel as my first book on the kindle. I think I will finish it, but right now I’m not sure that I am going to pursue the 3rd book. I have too many things that I’m excited about reading to read something that I’m so-so about.

Something I’m watching: We rewatched Inception with Gabe’s cousin last night. I enjoyed watching it for the second time, though it had been a little while since we saw it in the theater. My take on the ending was different between the first and second viewing…though I could go either way.

Something tasty: I had lunch at Firebird’s today with Gabe’s cousin and had the sesame encrusted salmon and fried spinach. YUM! It has been a while since I have eaten there. It was especially yummy to me today.

Something Maddie is doing (34 months old): She’s been singing more and more of the lyrics when she sings her songs. She’s also officially able to focus on a television show (I guess we should be proud?). Her limit appears to be about 20-30 minutes at the moment. This has come in handy this week as Gabe and I each had to put both of the kiddos to bed by ourselves at some point. We were able to sit Maddie in front of the TV while putting Cullen to bed. This has suddenly made bedtime much more bearable! Until we were able to use this trick, the thought of putting both of them to bed by myself was a nightmare. It has not gone well most times that I have done it. Last night, while Gabe was at a hockey game with his cousin, things went very well. Maddie’s favorite show right now appears to be the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We all dance around to the hot dog song at the end of the show. It’s a bonus that the theme and the hot dog song are by They Might Be Giants. Yay! The books that Maddie loves this week are Madeline’s Rescue, Cars & Trucks & Things That Go, and Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! I’m delighted that Maddie seems to love finding Goldbug on every page in the Richard Scarry book. I remember Goldbug fondly from my own childhood. We have orientation for Maddie’s preschool this Friday. I can’t believe it’s almost time for her to move up to Children’s House. She’s been very sweet lately before bed. She has started giving me kisses – for the longest time, whenever you request a kiss from Maddie, she would only accept kisses. Now she gives me the sweetest little kisses. She gives me one on each cheek and then one or two on my forehead. She tells me that she just gave me a purple kiss. And then she gives a green kiss. And then she gives another purple or green kiss (or both) on my forehead. I’m not sure why the kisses are purple and green, but it’s extremely sweet.

Something Cullen is doing (51 weeks old): Cullen is officially intentionally throwing things on the ground and saying, “uh oh.” I think this is the first week that he’s done it, and he’s doing it a lot! I think it’s hilarious. He has added this to his dinnertime communication. With this tactic, he clearly communicates, “I’m finished eating” or “I don’t like what you’re offering me.” This weekend, we put him in front of the walker wagon that Santa brought him for Christmas. He walked across the room with it with ease! Yesterday, he took one step without the wagon. Does that count as his first step or does he have to take more than one?? I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this in my past letters or somethings, but it’s cute each morning when Gabe says goodbye to us before we leave to go to work and Cullen waves “bye bye.” He seems like he is saying, “bye bye” sometimes, too. Cute boy.

Something I am struggling with: Well, I was struggling with the sluggishness of my old laptop…but now I’m just “struggling” with getting the new one organized! Yay!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Unfortunately, my first cake decorating class was canceled due to the stupid weather. The first one is now tomorrow. I hope I learn a bunch in my first class since I’m going to be making Cullen’s cake next Saturday. Yikes! I had been hoping to have two classes under my belt.

Something I learned: I learned that my outdated version of Photoshop Elements 3 is not compatible with my new machine. I’m thinking it might be worth the upgrade now that it’s on version 9. Now the real question is…do I need it now that I have Aperture????

Something I’m looking forward to: Cullen’s first birthday!

Something captured: I almost skipped this until I discovered how to export images with a certain size from Aperture. Cool. Cullen is walking with his wagon.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Getting some of my photos organized. I’m slowly catching up with sorting the photos and uploading them to Shutterfly. The next step will be to blog a few things here and there (hopefully) and to create our photobooks. I also need to work on Cullen’s photo-a-day book.

Something I’m thinking: I’m trying not to think about the fact that I have to go back to work tomorrow. It’s been a nice, long break. Of course, it’s also been quite hectic at times! We’ve had a wonderful break.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping the weather doesn’t interfere with the kids’ birthday plans this year. We are going to have birthday parties for both kids plus a special day for Cullen and Mommy (possibly Cullen, Mommy, and Daddy) and a possible trip to the American Girl Store for Maddie.

Something happening around the house: We’re trying to get the house in order after the Christmas explosion (we got a few new storage shelves), house guests, and our New Year’s Eve party. Today, we really need to take down the tree.

Something I’m reading: I read a few more pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I need to set aside some time so that I can finish it before the book club meeting at the end of the month.

Something I’m watching: Um, I don’t think that I have watched much of anything since my last somethings post. Maddie hasn’t even been watching much.

Something I’m playing: On New Year’s Eve, I was able to play Parade, Poison, Telestrations, Traumfabrik, Word on the Street, Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It, and Bananagrams. I think that we will limit the Bet You Know It teams to two people. It seemed too easy with 4 on each team! It did make for a pretty quick game, though.

Something tasty: I made a particularly tasty batch of Chex Mix for New Year’s Eve! YUM. We also had pizza with vegan cheese, and it wasn’t bad! I should write up a separate post about that…

Something Maddie is doing (34 months old): It is clear to us that she needs to take a nap by the time dinnertime rolls around, but she refuses to take one at home most days. She has only completely resisted her nap at school twice (one of those times, she was described to be in “rare form”). After a week and a half with only one or two short naps, I’m pretty happy to be returning to our normal schedule again. Suddenly, Maddie seems very independent to me. We put her in a “big, big girl bed” a few days ago. Santa brought her bed rails, so we put the bed frame and box springs in her room. We also added the side table and the lamp that matches her decor. Her room looks awesome – I love it! We finally allow her to go up and down the stairs without any supervision, though she still has to have permission to go up or down them.

Something Cullen is doing (49 weeks old): He has been standing up in the middle of the room or letting go of the furniture to stand unassisted quite often! He will stand for almost a minute or so. He hasn’t tried to take any steps yet, but I’m guessing it won’t be long before he tries to walk. Lately, he has been eating like a horse. I am going to be surprised if he doesn’t have some significant weight gain. Of course, this afternoon, he had some vomiting…so that could mean a set back if it keeps up. We are hoping that it was an isolated incident and not a full blown nasty bug. Cullen’s favorite toy continues to be whatever Maddie is playing with. She does not like that one bit. When Maddie is not available to bother, he does like playing with the farm quite a bit. He likes his new tool bench, too.

Something I am struggling with: The thought of going back to work tomorrow. I do have mixed feelings as in many ways it is easier than chasing around two little kiddos!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: My cake decorating class starts in a little over a week. Yay!

Something I learned: Oh, I meant to say this the other day. I learned that if you discover a price drop on Amazon within a certain amount of time of placing an order (7 days??), they will honor that price. I wish I knew that when something I ordered dropped 50% a day or two afterward.

Something I’m looking forward to: Surprisingly, a week with no plans (aside from the return to work). Yay!

Something captured: Our new toy storage in the foyer. It’s so cute!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

We brought a special snack of mini cupcakes and cheddar bunnies to Maddie’s classroom for her daycare birthday party. We didn’t take very many photos, but we did take a few. Each kid got a summer party favor with a sand castle bucket, shovel, and bubbles. Click on the photo to see the rest of the album.

We had a great time at Maddie’s birthday party which was held on her actual birthday this year. She seemed to enjoy getting together with her favorite buddies, including several family members. We picked a crayon theme for this year’s party with bright primary colors. I loved the cake from Edible Art in Raleigh. Click on the photo to see the rest of the photos from her big day.

I worked on the captions and such for these photos a while ago as well. Finally, now that Cullen is almost 7 weeks old, I’m getting around to posting them! Click on the photo to see photos from his first two days at the hospital.