Birthday Party #3

We finally made it to the zoo to celebrate Spencer's birthday last Tuesday. His birthday got stretched out over three days, lucky guy. Spencer still wasn't feeling that great, but we decided to go anyway because the weather was so nice. He did great and was happy to get out of our apartment and ride in his stroller. A lot of the animals were hard for him to see because they weren't moving very much. If you had never seen a sleeping hippopotamus before, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and a rock either. He did like the fish and the monkeys though. We wound up having a good time despite Spencer's ear infection and my rotten headache (sound familiar Elise?!).

Birthday Blues

We have now had our adorable, little Spencer with us for a whole year! It's pretty hard to believe that much time has passed since our lives completely changed for the better. I don't think there's a single aspect of my life that didn't change when we had a baby, but I wouldn't trade being a mother for anything. Spencer has such a happy little spirit about him. I never knew that I could love another person so much.



We celebrated Spencer's big day a day early with Alan's family. Unfortunately, this is how you look when you have an ear infection on your first birthday.



The poor guy was so miserable! I knew he had a fever and wasn't feeling well, but not having any experience with ear infections myself, I didn't realize that's what it was. Luckily, Alan's Mom has LOTS of experience with ear infections and figured it out really quick. (Thanks again Debbie and Alan and Eric for giving her the experience!) Spencer got to celebrate his birthday today by going to the doctor for some antibiotics. Hopefully he'll be feeling better and back to his usual, happy self soon.



Spencer cheered up a little when his cousins helped him blow out the candles.



I made carrot cake cupcakes for him and he tasted a little frosting, but he liked the ice cream better. (Just like his Mom and Dad!) He hasn't had much of an appetite the past few days and I'm sure ice cream was more soothing to an upset tummy than cake.





Both of Spencer's grandparents gave him some fun new toys. I'm very grateful because he is totally bored with his old ones. He hasn't felt well enough to play with them much yet, but I'm sure he will soon.

We had originally planned to take him to the zoo for the first time to celebrate today, but going to the doctor took priority over that so we're going tomorrow instead. I just hope he's not too sick and grouchy to enjoy it. We're supposed to have record-breaking warm weather tomorrow, so we figured we'd better take advantage of it.

Running Into the Sunrise

So for the last 4-5 months, I've been running on the treadmills in our apartment complex fitness room for my Tuesday and Thursday morning runs because it has been too dark to run outside by myself. I've never really like treadmills, but it wasn't too bad as long as the treadmills weren't both being used and I had some music to listen to. Last week though, it finally got light enough at 6:00 that I could run outside. I didn't realize how much I had missed it. This morning I started out running east and got to see a beautiful pink sunrise. (Those are actually pretty rare here in cloudy Oregon!) I was really struck with the beauty of the earth and how much I have to be grateful for. Here are just a few of the things I love about running in the morning before the whole city comes alive:

*1,000 birds chirping in the little nature reserve across the street from our apartment
*the smell of blossoms as I run under trees laden with pink and white popcorn
*purple mist hanging over the fields
*tulips and daffodils - the happiest flowers because they're the first ones of spring
*other friendly pedestrians
*good, happy music to drown out the traffic
*a golden ball of sun finally rising over the horizon
*small airplanes taking off from our little airport
*bright green new grass
*coming home to an adorable little boy and a husband who loves me more than I probably deserve

Have a happy day!

Finished!

I did it! Tuesday was officially the last day of my eight weeks with only one sugary treat a week and no eating after 8:15. It wasn't easy or fun, but I managed to earn my whopping $3 every week with the knowledge that I'd have to report to you. Posting my goal really did make me more accountable. My whole purpose in doing this was to cure myself of thinking that I needed something sweet after dinner every night. It didn't quite work that way because I still crave sweets in the evenings, but it did help me develop some self-control. It was sad to miss out on some yummy desserts, but it feels good to know that I can resist if I really want to.

I haven't decided what to do with my $24 yet. I know I want some new earrings and I might get a book that I've been wanting for awhile. And no Katie, I will not be spending it all on ice cream! I don't plan to pig out now that I'm finished, but I did have some Easter candy that had been patiently waiting for me. :)

Easter Fun

We got to spend Easter with some of Alan's Mom's family this year. I think there were 29 of us at Alan's parent's house for dinner, so it was a little crazy but fun.




Spencer had a great time practicing his walking skills there. As you can tell by Alan's face, we didn't think he'd be able to walk so well behind this little cart, but he did awesome and was really proud of himself.









The Easter Bunny brought Spencer some plastic eggs and a little car. He likes the eggs best of course and spends a lot of time hauling them around the house and putting them behind doors. (He's fascinated with opening and closing doors these days.)




This is Spencer practicing his new skills at home on Monday.

Mmm, bathwater!

Who would have thought that after months of trying to get Spencer to drink from a cup, all I had to do was give him a cup to play with in the bathtub?! This was almost the immediate result. Yum!



Spencer loves taking baths. We give him one every night just because he loves them so much.

You can see the veins on his cheek better in these pictures because they got a little darker last week when he had a cold. The update on all of that stuff is that we will go back in to see the pediatric ophthalmologist and dermatologist in June. They will assess whether or not anything has changed and will probably order an MRI at that point. I have a feeling that we're going to be driving to downtown Portland for a lot of doctor's appointments before we get this figured out. Meanwhile, Spencer is still learning and growing so fast. He'll be a year old in two weeks. Yikes! That's hard to believe.