Happy First Birthday, Shelby!

Ohhhhhhhhh I can't believe Shelby is one!!! Thursday, January 29 was her first birthday! *weeps* My last little baby can't really be called a baby anymore.... *sigh* Of course, she shows no interest in walking and doesn't even crawl yet (she's still doing the Shelby Scoot on her tushie), and she refuses to give a sippy cup the time of day. So I guess she's doing her best to remain in babyland...? Anyway, on to the festivities...


The day started out well enough, communing with daddy (whom she adores!)...Mark said he'd never have a Daddy's girl, but when Shelby sets her cute little sights on you, what can you do? She's definitely a Daddy's girl, and Mark calls her his "little Sparkle."


Then we all went to the mall...I decided that she needed more presents, and well darnit, Shelby DOES need some clothes (really! because she's wearing holes in the tushies of all her pants!), and geez, much as I hate to buy clothes for Shelby (ha HA!), we had to do it. So we picked her up some cute clothes and a couple of cute toys - she loves finger puppets and I had to get the doll with pink hair because it was the cutest doll I'd ever seen. Shelby, however, was NOT very enthused about that doll, but I'm certain someday she will be. In the meantime, the doll looks PERFECT in Shelby's room. So there. Form is more important than function (Mark and I's never-ending argument, scientist vs. artist).

We had lunch at Johnny Rockets. Yum yum. Just kidding, it's NOT my favorite restaurant, but if Connor and Mark vote for Uno's one more blasted time I will DEFECT from this family. I can't wait until Shelby is old enough to vote in our family restaurant debates and she can sway the vote AWAY from Uno's. Anyway, Shelby DID enjoy the french fries (but not the hat).


And of course, what trip to the mall would be complete without riding the carousel...look at this photo of Shelby riding....could she be ANY CUTER?!?!? (hint: click on it to make it bigger)


Upon arriving home, we began prep work for her family birthday party. And this was pretty much Shelby's expression the rest of the day..."whatever." Our efforts were definitely not appreciated.

"Whatever."

Usually she adores her brothers, but today...not so much...

"Whatever."

And here's where it got really bad. Mommy got the bright idea to take a picture of Shelby with her cake (and yes, it's a storebought cake, Mark had been gone all week and everyone else, including me, had colds, so her multi-tiered princess cake we'd originally planned will be saved for her 2nd birthday). Anyway, isn't it a pretty cake? HOWEVER, I'd lit the candle BEFORE I put it up next to her, stupidly thinking, "oh a little candlelit glow by Shelby's face will be so pretty..."

"Oh, finally something neat..."

And yeah, you know what happened next...Shelby immediately went for the the flame and instead of candlelit glow we ended up with a black, burned, blistered finger!

"What the @^&#!^!# MOMMY! What did you GIVE ME????!?!??
And why are you STILL TAKING PHOTOS MOMMY!?!??!!??!?!"

After first aid was administered to Shelby's poor little finger, she actually sat and GLARED at the cake for the rest of the "party."

"Whatever."

At this point, I became very concerned that we had NO GOOD PHOTOS to document Shelby's first birthday! So, Mark and Connor and Noah had to put on quite the dancing and singing and jumping show (behind me) for us to finally get this smile out of her.


But what a sweet smile it was! And THAT's the one that will go in the scrapbooks (assuming I ever do those). Shelby never has to know what her mommy did to her on her very first little birthday.

Happy birthday, sweet little pink girlie!

"Whatever, mommy. You better make darn sure that my second birthday ROCKS!"

Spongebob, Spongebob, how does Connor love you? Let us count the ways...

Today was Connor’s 6th birthday! And it become sort of an ode to Spongebob...

• Spongebob hat
• Spongebob-yellow ribbon to wrap around new huge dolphin
• Spongebob plates
• Spongebob cups
• Spongebob napkins
• Spongebob decorations
• Spongebob cupcakes for school
• Spongebob cake for home
• Spongebob balloon
• Spongebob macaroni
• Spongebob fruit gummies
• Spongebob Leapfrog game
• Spongebob Wii game rental
• Spongebob Wii game purchase with overnight delivery from Amazon when stupid %^@#$%^ Spongebob game rental is IMPOSSIBLE to do!!
• Spongebob pajamas

In other words, eat your heart out, Mark. Snorkeling in Maui does NOT top Spongebob, no way no how buster.

How pathetic does that sound? Did I convince ANYBODY?

Despite the overwhelming Spongebob theme, the big winners of the day were Connor's new Quadrilla Rail marble set (to go with his 5 other marble run building sets) and his huge, new Connor-sized dolphin (which he named Birthday). And we actually had fun doing some Wipeout moves (Connor's OTHER favorite TV show).

With all of that fun stuff, Spongebob was largely ignored. I might have actually overdone Spongebob! Up until recently, Connor wasn’t even allowed to watch Spongebob but then it became the “forbidden” TV show and he’d sneakily change the channel and watch it. Anyway, I finally gave up. Welcome to our home, Spongebob. You ARE kinda funny, sometimes, I have to admit.

What the heck is a Spongebob???

I also took Shelby & Noah and a truckload of Spongebob cupcakes to Connor's Kindergarten class, where Shelby was the big hit! Those kids FLOCKED around her, showed her their artwork, shared their cupcakes with her, mobbed her, etc. One kid even asked if Connor could bring her to school tomorrow!



We did have several screaming episodes revolving around brother "issues," Wii game frustrations, marble toy collapse frustrations, not getting to go to Chuck E Cheese, etc. And to top it all off, Connor has managed to get his first serious cold in about…6 years!....on his birthday. Which has contributed to pretty much nonstop…screaming. We're all doing it here today.

And here I thought yesterday couldn’t be worse (which involved the dogs eating my carefully crafted Subway sandwich while I was refereeing a boys’ fight, and a cat biting Shelby in the back of her head when Shelby was already screaming about the boys shoving her away from their Hot Wheels cars, which she loves). BUT basically, having to figure out the stupid Spongebob Wii game (yes, it took 3 hours, I’m a Wii moron or something) with Connor screaming in my ear nearly the entire time, made yesterday seem like bliss.

And oh yes, did I mention that my husband is out of town???? Oh no, he’s not just out of town, he’s IN MAUI!!!!!

Yeah, I’m a little bitter.

Happy Birthday Connor, you little Krabbie Patty.

UPDATE: Mark just called to inform me that he spent the morning at some botanical gardens discussing flowers for 4 hours. That’s my idea of serious torture….botanical gardens and actually having to talk about plants. Yeah, Spongebob Wii isn’t looking so bad right now…and bedtime IS only 1.5 hours away…it’s the most wonderful time of the day….the time when the little kids go away….YAY!

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

When Connor asked why he wasn't going to school, I explained to him that it was a holiday to celebrate a great man who did great things. Connor then asked, "It's a holiday for Daddy??"

All together now - aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww! That's my sweet boy!

A Night at the Roxbury

Greetings from Roxbury, NY, home of the coolest motel on the planet!




Here we are in the Spacepad room for an early celebration of Connor's 6th birthday. He'd been begging to have a birthday party, but in a pathetic attempt to get out of having to do a birthday party, I bribed him with a stay at the Roxbury. Fortunately, in our household, mere mention of the Roxbury works wonders. Seriously, NY people, check this place out. It's only a 3 hour drive from us and I promise you (and I'm a hotel snob, you know) you won't be disappointed and you won't have ever seen a place like this. It was decorated by former Broadway set artists. This was our 3rd trip in 6 months.

Obviously, the draw of the Spacepad room is the glowing red tub. Many fun hours were spent in the tub, both with water and without! If only we could get one of these at home!!! (Que a little Mamma Mia music here: "Oh the things I could do, if I had a little money!")



We also had a put-on-the-party-hat-and-make-your-silliest-face contest. I think Mark won, what do you think? Shelby obviously did NOT get into this game.


Fortunately for Shelby, she was able to swipe some of Connor's new Bakugan toys (or whatever the heck these are!) and had hours of fun with those! Again, my apologies to Grandma for Shelby not being exposed to more "girlie" toys, but hey, we have what we have, and for Shelby, anything Connor & Noah do is WAY COOL and she must do it, also. Smoochies to my cute little tomboy princess!

I can't believe this has happened!

I am actually sick of my most favorite song in the world, "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies. It played automatically every time I opened my blog page (and for everyone else, too, presumably). It was my old iPhone's ringtone,too.

Now, maybe I've spent too much time in the past 48 hours diddling around on here (as evidenced by the fact that Shelby does not have a clean bottle anywhere in the house right now). And honestly, I usually keep my laptop's sound off because sounds and noises and music playing on websites kinda irritates me.

But I thought, WOW! Every time I log on to my blog, I can hear my favorite song! COOL! And patted myself on the back for this great discovery. And now I'm sick of it. So much so that I turned my sound back off because I didn't want to hear MY song!

I wanted to expose all my friends to my great taste in music (ha HA!), but that sorely backfired on me, huh? Sayonara, Playlist, before the truly tragic event of me hating Loverboy happens. That would be a dark, dark day.

Oh, and take my poll over here -------> or up there^

The Shelby Shuffle, and a special treat for Grandma

Most of you know that baby girl Shelby is now 11 months old, and shows no interest in crawling. She prefers to scoot around on her little tushie, which is probably easier for her given that she's a bit....um....bottom-heavy. Here she is in action:



And sorry, Grandma, but Shelby loves her new Snakie. Her brother Noah received a Snakie a few weeks ago and she loves to play with it. So, at my first opportunity, I decided to get her one of her own (plus she got ripped off at Christmas, receiving only half the amount of presents that her brothers did, and someday she'll know that and I'll have to explain that injustice to her). I DID give her other options, such as a flamingo with long legs or an ugly (but pink) teddy bear with long arms, but upon laying eyes on her beautiful orange, sparkly Snakie, Shelby immediately rejected those lesser creatures.

We need groupies

If you're reading our blog, please post a comment or send me an email. I just need to know if my hours on here (that I could otherwise spending doing more fulfilling and practical things such as laundry, dishes, pet nail trimming) are going to be worth the time. Aside from Connor & Noah loving to see themselves on the computer (although I'd rather they were looking at themselves instead of being obsessed with watching roller coaster rides and marble run toys on YouTube!).