{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

Do you remember the collage I made for Damian’s First Year? This is a bit of a follow up to that one though I didn’t stick as rigidly to photos that were all taken at the same time of month as with the first one. I just picked my favorite from each month since Damian turned one-year-old starting with the center one from last year’s collage.

The center photo and the second one from the bottom on the right were taken by Andrea. The second is from this weekend at the Pagan Campout, which I will get around to posting about as soon as I finish sorting through all the photos from that.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

Having children gives you a bit of an odd sense of time, I cannot imagine a time without Damian and at the same time it seems like he was only born yesterday… But he just turned two yesterday! If a picture is worth a thousand words then I’d love to direct you towards the flickr set that I made for his party pictures, cuz that’s 59,000 words. Way more then I have the time to write right now (children rampaging, dishes to do, laundry to wash and fold, house the clean, dinner to make. It’s Monday!)

A few of my favorite though:

The Cake (I am so proud of this, the first “fancy” cake I’ve ever made.)

Ivy with her new hat!

I can’t decide which is my favorite of Nathan.

Damian’s new favorite ride, taking it for a test drive outside after I finish the aforementioned list. Right now he is piling all his wooden blocks in it with the help of…

… the grabby claw hand! Honestly I think everyone played with this thing. I’m loving Damian’s new spiky haircut, thank you Shannon!

And for a rundown of gifts (linked to the ones I could find being unwrapped/played with not already shown in this post.) Hope I didn’t forget anyone!:

• Tonka Dump Truck from Grandma Lorie (my mom), Great Grandma Mason & Uncle Stan
• Backpack & Harmonica from Zuca
• Bug Catcher with Light from Aunt Ginanne, Uncle Jordan & Emily
• Clothes, books, bath toys and harmonica from my Grandma & Grandpa Stewart, Ariella & Lydia
• Garden Tools, Camp Chair & Animals from Grandpa Tolman (my father), Maria & my brother Alex
• Wooden Cutting Food from Shannon & Rachelle
• Grabby Claw Hand, Scuba bathtoy & noise stick from Cheyenne
• Books from Mikcos, Michelle & Nathan
• Child-sized camping tools from us

What a list! I know birthday’s and spoiling come in the same baskets but holy molly! And you should have seen the wrapping paper carnage! With all the new toys & excitement bedtime almost two hours later then usual too. Damian seemed to really enjoy his big day, and his joy never fails to bring me happiness, so it was great!

Happy second birthday my Mr. Little Big Brain. I love you and I can tell lots and lots of others do too.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

Damian will be turning two on June 6th, in just 18 days! My little man is growing up! Several people have emailed or messages me on Facebook asking what Damian wants, so I thought I would put a general entry up about it.

I tried asking Damian what he wanted for his birthday but all I got was “aaaaaple! an an an attleh (turtle) an an an Aos! (our cat)” Red, round and furry? (So he wants a Streptococcus pyogenes?) Obviously I needed a better system then his developing language skills, so pointing it was! Basically, Damian and I browsed Amazon during Ivy’s nap this morning and I added most of the stuff he pointed at to the children’s wishlist. Hopefully this with give potential gifters some ideas or inspiration.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

I made an apron for Damian and I have to say it is probably the fastest easier thing I have ever made. No pattern or anything.

Fast description? I laid Damian down the on two layers of tan cotton and marked roughly how long I wanted it to be and where his arms were. Folded the double layers in half lengthwise and drew half the apron. Cut it out. Made the straps and the bottom bias tape with some scrap red fabric (used the extra later for the pockets.) Wrong sides sewn together except for the bottom, turned inside out, bias tape and pockets added. Viola, apron!

And he loves it. Though I might add another “U” shaped pocket on the chest later, I am an immensely pleased Mommy. Hopefully Damian’s shirts and pants staying a little cleaner for a little longer as he helps me in the kitchen too. Eitherway it looks pretty cute on him.

I think one of the cutest things Damian says is “Uh Oh!” when he makes a mistake. He also says it right before he does something he isn’t suppose to. For example, he will look at the Wii for a few minutes shaking his head back and forth and seems to try to talking to himself out of the deed. “No. No. Uh Oh! No No No! Uh Oh! No! UH OH! UH OH!” At the last uh oh, he can’t restrain himself any longer and presses the power button really fast, look at me with his big bashful blue eyes and with one last “uh oh!” run off laughing.

It is hard to be even slightly peeved when faced with that level of cuteness.

Get it? Can be a hat? Can! Can! Can!

Sorry, Damian’s habits of repeating the same word over and over (and over and over and…) is rubbing off on me. Granted, his current favorite words are “apple”, “hat”, “mine”, and the infamous “NO!” Which is really not as bad as I thought it would be. A recent conversation with him went something like this:

Me: Do you want to play?
Damian: NO!
Me: Do you want your sippy?
Damian: NO!
Me: Do you want to potty?
Damian: NO!
Me: How about green beans? (One of his favorite foods, more the cookies even!)
Damian: NO!
Me: Okay! (and I went about what I was doing)
Damian: Buh? *sad face* Green bean! Yes!

And so he learns… His “green beans” sounds a little more like “geen meens”, but I know what he means. Other then increasing his vocabulary, other things in his recent developmental repertoire are jumping, trying to dress himself (rather then just bringing me his own clothes) and informing me when his diaper is “icky”. You might remember we did EC with him (infant potty training) but stopped at about 10 months, now with this recent development, I’ve pulled out his little potty again. He mostly just sits on it without doing much, but occasionally he will pee (score! Less laundry for me!) His old EC cues still work from time to time though, so nice to know it wasn’t a totally pointless endeavor.

Damian has also started to love helping me around the house, moving the wash to the drier, wiping the kitchen table, picking up stuff on the floor, bringing me a diaper when Ivy needs one, drying the dishes… I have to go behind him and redo most of it, but that doesn’t bother me in the least. He is only 21 months old after all. I am just thrilled that he wants to help. He adores his little sister and will do almost anything I ask him to do for her just for the reward of getting to hold her for a few. Ivy is pretty much still a cute little infant lump, but she is starting to roll over (and so it begins…) I think she is trying to catch up with Damian, he gets to do way more fun things after all.

Last but not least, Damian’s favorite thing lately seems to be turning anything and everything into a hat. #10 cans included (before someone goes silly and freaks out, this is an unsealed one, no jagged edges!) He love love loves hats. And in turn I have to love that since I also love love love hats. Maybe I should get him a little sun hat for the summer (do they make manly ones?)

Sometimes I wonder if there is some collective consciousness that our children reach into when creating. My grandfather referred to it as genetic memory. Either that or the ancient Inuit people were inspired by their toddlers stacking their toys… I think both are lovely ideas.

(Just chillin with my friends.)
Bring on the heavy metal! I want a mohawk!

(Five super bonus points to anyone who can guess the movie that is playing.)

We had a movie night at our home today and I got to harass one of my favorite people. Michelle and Mikcos’ son, Nathan! I though his mohawk was so awesome. I tried to make my hair stand up too but it would not stay put.

Mommy says if I still want one in 10 years she will consider it then. I can’t wait!

Just the other day I had scruffy but adorable baby curls and bangs that Mommy was constantly pushing out of my eyes. There was talk of girly hair bows if it got much longer.

Then my Aunty Shannon came over to visit this weekend and now…

(Ben and I at our Yule gathering over the weekend.)

I look like quite a dashing boy if I do say so myself. Mommy, Daddy and Aunty Shannon agree but they say I look way to grown up and three times more mischievous now.

OMG Mommy, the world is covered in icecream!

Yay icecream!

Om nom nom nom!

What the heck?! This doesn’t taste like icecream!

We had an early cold snap this year (and I mean cold, it normally takes till January to get into the teens!) Even though the central heater is on, I am still a summer baby and get cold. I find sitting on the floor vent normally helps.

If not that then I lay on it so that I can absorb every last drop of heat that seeps out of the vent.

And when all else fails, I just get Mommy to wrap me up like a burrito and it’s all good.

My Great Grandma Mason made this sweater for me last year but it didn’t fit till this year. It is SO soft and wonderful, it has car and train buttons! I love it and I won’t even let Mommy take it off me for my naps.

This year I was the official pumpkin picker of the family, so while we were at the Harvest Festival I (gleefully) accepted my duty and set about choosing the perfect one that will grace our porch this Samhain.

Each pumpkin must be careful considered you know. Color, size, rollability and, of course, taste are all very important. I was undecided between two for the longest time but eventually I found one to be slightly easier to tip over then the other.

I promptly confirmed my choice with Daddy.

Since, you know, he is big and strong and has the wallet and stuff…

I tried to pick more pumpkins later but they were for “display only” what is the point of that!? I still enjoyed browsing their selection though!

We planted lots of sugar pie pumpkins this Spring but one of the vines ended up under the Elm tree. It made just one itty bitty pumpkin. Mommy gave it to me since she said it is a bit too small to make a pie out of, I love it!

Maybe a pumpkin pie cupcake just for me Mommy?

My Grandma Lorie sent me a gift package with new clothes! These are the shirts she sent, I love them! Almost as cool as the box they came in, boxes are awesome. Mommy says she is just going to wrap up empty boxes for Yule for me, is she serious? I picked out my clothes this morning and I must admit, I think I look quite dashing.

Who do you think won?

This weekend we had the monthly Stewart potluck at our home. It was very exciting because my two-year-old cousin Emily came. She had the prettiest dress, I really wanted the red cherries off of it but every time I tried to grab them she ran away. We got along pretty well though!

What’s in your hand?

I want your nose! (However she did not want to give it up…)

I had a lot of fun, I can’t wait till the next potluck!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick things up when the adults stick one of these bubble things on you?!

Saturday was my birthday and Mommy and Daddy threw me a big party! I helped Mommy pick out my awesome dinosaur overalls to make sure I looked extra adorable and I managed to get even more snuggles then usual because of my big face booboo. A couple hours before my party Daddy was helping me down the deck stairs, and I decided I was going to try the last one all by myself (I am a year old after all!), but I slip and face-planted right into the walkway. It looks a lot worse then it feels but I still got the extra snuggles!

Almost everyone I know came, Cheyenne, Caswallon, Ileen, Michelle, Mikcos, Nathan, Ben, Laurie, Peter, Andrea, Ariella, Lydia, Grandpa and Grandma Stewart, Ginanne, Jordan and Emily. We had a big barbecue with hotdogs, hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob, Mommy is the grill master!

Afterwards we did my presents! I received spiritual gifts from almost everyone for my altar as well as a whispered blessing (they all made me smile!) I received a cool dragon tealight holder and yellow stone egg from Michelle, Mikcos and Nathan; color runes from Cheyenne (these are wooden disks she painted with colors and put in a red bag, so pretty!); an awesome piece of obsidian from Peter and Andrea; a spider plant in a RED (can you tell I like that color?) pot from Laurie and Ben; a shiny CTR dogtag from Ginanne, Jordan and Emily; and really pretty book from Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, Ariella and Lydia. They also gave me an outfit and super cool wooden building blocks. All of these gifts were in a big shiny RED radio flyer wagon from Grandpa Tolman.

After presents came my cake! Mommy made me an whole-wheat applesauce cake shaped like the moon. It looked awesome and tasted even better! I think Mommy actually thought I was going to stay clean for a minute, but nooo, people need the grubby cake photo, so I was happy to oblige.

My birthday was so fun! I had a wonderful time, I can’t wait till my next year! (And there are lots more photos from my party here.)

It is my Grandma Mason’s (Mommy’s Mommy) birthday today. She is with my Great Grandma in Canada right now. I have not gotten to meet her yet but I still wanted to send her huge hugs and birthday wishes so I got Mommy to take a photo of me to send.

This weekend Mommy and Daddy had to take our van to the shop. Mommy says I don’t have a college fund anymore… but that’s okay because we went to the park and had a picnic! We also went on a nice long walk. It was a beautiful day.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and Daddy and I hung out lots so that Mommy could make the garden all beautiful. Daddy also cleaned the family room and reorganized the living room. We got an eight foot couch! Mommy and Daddy’s friends Laurie and Ben gave it to use and a huge bean bag chair. The most awesome thing about them is that they are red. Mommy put a blanket over it today but I pulled it off because I like the red better.

Did you know I turn one in less then a month? SO EXCITING!

Hanging out with Daddy during the ritual at Beltane.

I stole mommy camera yesterday and managed to get a few photos of yours truly before I was spotted. Here are my favorites:

HELLO!

I SEE YOU!

This is the last one I took, as Mommy pried the camera from my sly (she says grubby) little fingers.

This weekend we had lots of fun. We went to Aunt Shannon’s mom’s home and did an Easter Egg hunt. There was a child one and an adult one. Since I am so special I got to help Mommy and Daddy with the adult one, maybe next year I will get to do both.

I also got a HUGE basket of stuff from Grandma, Great Grandma and my Great Uncle. I had to share some of the stuff with Mommy and Daddy, but that is okay, they let me play with the best part – the wrapping! Mommy found a bunch of seeds in basket and some garden tools, Daddy found a dvd and I got clothes and a stuffed bunny! And candy of course.

(Mommy put more photos up here.)

The sky is falling!

I have been soooo busy lately, helping Mommy unpack and all. I also caught a little cold, which was no fun at all, especially since I was teething at the same time. I now have six teeth! I love tearing my food (and some non-food items) with them.

I have also learned to climb up on things, like the futon. I’m not so great at getting down though, I have had a couple of big booms. Mommy or Daddy kisses the ouchies away though.

I really like our new home, I can crawl around for hours inspecting (and tasting) anything and everything. The only area that is off limits (until I figure out a way around it) is the basement and bathroom. The door downstairs is always open for the cats but that part of the hall is gated off. I don’t like baby gates! Especially when Mommy goes over them without me.

Mommy says I can’t be in the bathroom because the toilet paper roll is not meant to be unraveled all around the house. I don’t know why she has a problem with it. I think it is hilarious! Speaking of the bathroom, the potty is not so funny. While we moved I was in disposable diapers since Mommy and Daddy didn’t have a washer yet. I got use to going without a potty. I am starting to get back into the habit though, when I feel like it.

So that is what’s up with me lately. How are you? Oh! And I went to the doctor on Friday, Dr. Kincaid says I am growing fantastically well and he was AMAZED that I could walk all by myself. I am so tall for my age too. I am going to be a tall and handsome, just like Daddy.

1. Thou shall giveth everything to me.
2. Thou shall not taketh (it) back from me.
3. I shall throweth wherever I wanteth.
4. Thou shall not covet my stuff.
5. Thou shall feed me.
6. Thou shall clean me (even my poopy bottom.)
7. If you will – I won’t.
8. If you won’t – I will.
9. If you insist – hell will be the abode.
10. The night is mine, the day is mine, you are at the servitude.

So mote it be.

Boredom. I have it.

Or at least, I pull everything out of the boxes when she is not watching and flip them over…

Giving Mommy a heart attack everyday with how fast I learn stuff. Hehe!

That looks like an incredibly tasty veggie sub.
Did you know I like bread?
Or rather, I LOVE bread.
Can I have a piece?
Just a little piece?
It looks yummy, oh so yummy.
Keep looking at my cute face.
Not my hand sliding towards your bread.
Mmmm bread…

Someday I will be big enough to ride in the front seat when the car is actually moving. Someday I will be able to drive too. These thoughts make Mommy go ACK!

Mommy wanted a smile for her birthday, so she gets smiles! Lots and lots of smiles, and a healthy dose of drool for good measure too. We are going over to Shannon’s tonight. I heard Daddy tell Mommy that Shannon might have found some wooden toys for me to play with when I am over there. Very exciting!

I made out like a bandit this Winter Solstice! I got…

Wooden blocks from my Great Aunt Ruth and cousin Becka. The blocks are so awesome, I strategically place them so that Mommy steps on them, mwahahahaha! I push my wagon around the floor too! When I unwrapped it, it looked like this!

I got a musical riding horse from Grandma and Great Grandma Mason (Mommy’s family) and lots of cute books and a crawling Pooh bear. The box was pretty fun too! They also gave me the green PJs that I am wearing in some of these photos.

I got a pull along fabric and wood crocodile (which Mommy needs to get a better photo of) from Grandpa Tolman (Mommy’s father.) I crawl around trailing it behind me and then turn around and maul it while growling. I am soooo fearsome! Grandpa Tolman also got me some long sleeve onsies (I am wearing one in this photo,) sneakers and a baby book about the Solstice! Mommy is going to read it to me tonight.

And as if I wasn’t spoiled enough, Uncle Justin and Aunt Heather got me:

Another thing which allows me to unleash my inner geek! Daddy especially loves this one (he had to explain it to Mommy…)

I had a wonderful Solstice and I hope you did too. Thank you for all the gifts, I am really enjoying them. Mommy and Daddy took a video of me unwrapping them which will be online soon.

Baby hugs! (That’s my Grandma Stewart.)

More Photos Here!

To the left, me yesterday at noon. To the right, me today at noon.

Still snowing!

I wonder how much we will get?

One of the best parts of the Yule season… Shipping boxes!

(if you have ever wondered what little witches are up to nowadays…)

I got to go grocery shopping with Mommy and Daddy yesterday and sat in the cart for the first time! At least for a few minutes…

Apparently I am not allowed to chew on the cart. Mommy tried to keep something between me and it but I am very persistent. She carried me the rest of the time though, which I love! I almost got close enough to the shelves to grab stuff!