The "pumpkin patch"

About twice a year Paul and I will find that we have nothing planned on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and we hardly know what to do with ourselves.  We've always been busy people and at one point we thought that having a baby might slow our life down a little but alas, it did not.  I do enjoy staying busy because it means we're out having fun - seeing family and friends, going on trips, participating in runs, etc - but there are so many things that I want to do and not always enough weekends to get them all done. 

One such thing was the pumpkin patch.  I wanted to take Jack to a pumpkin patch and let him run around in the field, get dirty, choose a pumpkin, take a hay ride and all the fun fall activities that a pumpkin patch has to offer.  I would of course have my camera and capture every moment...maybe even a family shot for the Christmas card??  That did not happen.  We have been looking for a house and recently found one that we thought we were going to buy.  So our only free October weekend was quickly filled up with packing our townhouse and figuring out how to find renters.  We ultimately decided not to purchase the house but now our only free weekend was over and we had missed our opportunity to go to the pumpkin patch!  Luckily I was raised by an amazing mother who never failed to make any situation a positive one.  So what did this Edler family do?  We went to the "pumpkin patch"!  Yes, I was the crazy lady with the camera at the local Fred Meyer positioning my kid among the pumpkins, making sure not to get the price sign in the photo.  But you know what?  Jack loved picking out a pumpkin and had no idea that he wasn't in a field or on a hay ride.  Maybe we'll go next year...

Our baby turned one!

Dear our sweet baby Jack,

It is the evening of your first birthday and we just put you to bed, our amazing one year old.  One year ago today we were blessed with you, this perfect bundle of joy, more than we could have ever hoped for, more than we could have expected.

You were born to move from day one.  Even the nurses commented about how strong you were, you stood up in the sink for your first bath!  At 10 ½ weeks you were rolling over, 5 months you were sitting up, you crawled at 7 months and by 10 ½ months you were fully walking.  And now you pretty much just run everywhere :) 

You love anything with wheels – toy cars, trucks, your stroller – and you often turn them upside down just to spin the wheels round and round.  You also love, love, love books (which makes mommy very happy).  Every morning when daddy gets you out of your crib you head straight for your bookshelf and start pulling out books to read.  Even though you are constantly on the go, you will always sit and read a book or two.  Currently your favorite ones are any of the “lift-the-flap” books that we have. 

You love food and you are a great eater!  Your favorite foods are yellow squash, blueberries, grapes, yogurt, bananas, zucchini, and cheese.  You are always interested in what we are eating and will try anything we give you (even though it doesn't always stay in your mouth).  You especially love eating our cereal off our spoon (not your baby spoon).

You say a few words, including “dada”, “moma”, “dog” (more like “dah”).  Even though you don’t say much yet, you sure do understand a lot!  For example, if we ask you to put your bowl away, you will walk into the kitchen and put your bowl in the cupboard!  When we say “how big is Jack?”, you lift your hands above your head (so big!) and if we ask you how old you are, you hold up one finger!  You also know where your belly, head, and mommy or daddy's nose is.  You are so smart and we are incredibly proud of you.

You are more than we could have ever hoped for - a healthy, happy, perfect little boy who fills our day with laughter and definitely keeps us on our toes.  Happy birthday little man!

Love,

Mom and Dad

PEPS group party

One of the best decisions we've made as parents was joining a PEPS group.  I highly recommend this to any new parent, it is an amazing support group for the parents and a great group of friends for the kids.  We have had so much fun with them over the last year!

We decided to do a group birthday party for the kids at the Seattle Children's Museum which I must say is the BEST place to have party because the staff does all the clean up (and we had quite a mess to clean up).  We had snacks, cupcakes (and a "smash cake" for the kids), balloons, cute decorations and each family brought a present for a gift exchange.  The kids were so cute and we all had a wonderful time!

Jack was the first baby to make it to the "smash cake"

But as soon as he touched the frosting, he promptly started crying, turned around and ran to Paul.  And thus, his fear of frosting continues...

And THIS is why I would have another party at the Seattle Children's Museum - they cleaned all this up for us!  Any party that ends like this is a good party :)

Happy birthday Paul!

We have quite a few birthdays in our family (and extended family) in September and Paul's is the first!  He got to start his celebrating early with his side of the family coming over to enjoy dessert - this year he decided on peanut butter cheesecake as his cake of choice.

On his actual birthday he woke up to a homemade sticky-bun breakfast, then he got off work early and came home to open presents while Jack was still awake to help.  We had a wonderful evening out just the two of us (we definitely treasure times like this more than we did a year ago).  We had a fabulous dinner at Kingfish Cafe, a down-home Southern restaurant that brought Paul right back to his childhood with delicious fried catfish.

Happy happy birthday to my wonderful husband!!

So big!

Ever since Jack was born I've been asking him, "How big is Jack?" then raising my arms up and saying, "so big!".  Apparently it took him watching another baby (his PEPS friend Sean) to finally learn to do this on his own and now he does it all the time.  So much for my 11 months of teaching, next time I want him to learn something I'll just have him hang around another kid who can do it.  Hey, maybe that will work for potty training?!?!  :-)

For Ya Ya

Ya Ya (my mom) has always said that Jack has "very expressive feet" and here's one reason why:

11 months

Once again, I can't believe how fast our little man is growing up, less than a month until he's one!  What is Jack up to at 11 months old? 

• Walking all over the place
• Giving high 5's
• Waving
• Raising his arms for "so big!"
• Pointing
• Clicking his tongue and popping his lips
• Saying "dada", "dah" (dog) and "mama" (dada and mama are not always in the right context, but I'm counting it) :)
• Wearing 12-18  month clothes and 2T-3T socks
• Eating all sorts of food and beginning to use a fork

This little guy amazes me every day!  He is a great eater, wonderful sleeper and so curious about everything.  I just love him so much!

Here's another video of him walking that I took last week, I'm sure by next week he'll be running :)