Asher is turning 1 this week and with great fanfare we kick off his first ever annual birthday week celebration!
When I say great fanfare, I mean it. The gang of nutters in my mom’s group decided to throw a baby toga birthday party in the park this weekend and it was a blast. Seriously, if you have to hang out with a bunch of babies all the time I highly recommend you do it with crazy people, it makes things much more fun.
Kerstin (Nate’s mom) is a graphic artist and designed this SERIOUSLY AWESOME banner of babies. Its a timeline by birthday and it is crazy adorable.
Bekki (Will’s mom) crafted 30 headband garlands for the little angels and Libby (Bryce’s mom) actually thought to bring a table. Go moms!
Luckily I put a white onesie on underneath as a modesty garment because Asher’s toga lasted about 3 minutes.
His head garland lasted around 15, maybe 20.
We did a lazy man’s pot luck meaning that people just brought whatever they felt like and it was perfect. We ended up with a lot of watermelon, pasta salad and booze but what more do you need on a 90 degree day?
Ya know, besides puffs.
So many babyfriends were there!
Olive
Hunter
Beatrix
Bryce
Will
Asher
Mason and Maya
Enna Rae
Gabriel
Nate
Delphine
We tried to do a group shot but everyone freaked the fuck out.
Yes, thats Asher crawling away from the hysteria. I plopped him down and in the 7 seconds he could not find me he started heading for the hills.
Things calmed down pretty quickly when he realized there was food and BALLS! and a whole park.
“THAT!”
All in all it was a pretty awesome day. I cannot WAIT for halloween with these guys.
Asher’s birthday is in less than 2 weeks. We have some family coming to town (YAY!) and decided to have a few people over to celebrate. So…if you are around a week from Saturday come on by!
Well surprise, surprise. The lazy man’s way to discipline your child is proven to be a bad idea.
“a new study published in Pediatrics, researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet that children’s short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run…The reason for this may be that spanking sets up a loop of bad behavior. Corporal punishment instills fear rather than understanding. Even if children stop tantrums when spanked, that doesn’t mean they get why they shouldn’t have been acting up in the first place. What’s more, spanking sets a bad example, teaching children that aggressive behavior is a solution to their parents’ problems.”
The article is worth a read although honestly, this is not news. Parents spank because it is easier than arguing. It relieves frustration in the moment, and teaches the child nothing except that it is ok to hit someone else when one is frustrated. We have all seen Supernanny. It can take a parent HOURS to deal with a disobedient child without spanking them. I would think any child is worth the effort it takes to communicate about consequences and personal responsibility at a level they can understand.
We went for paper towels but there were raspberries, lots and lots of beautiful raspberries.
“Lets make some jam” he says “I think I’ll buy a case. Make that two”
2 cases = $50 = a shit ton of raspberries but that is what you need to make jam.
On the way home we realize the canning jars are in storage so we go pick up new ones. $10
“$60 is a lot for some jam” I say. “How much jam do we get for $60?”
“We must consult the old family recipe, passed down from generation to generation.”
“On the back of the Certo box.”
Certo boxes in hand we head home and get to work.
“Its a hard job but someone has to do it”
The box says we will have 7 pints of jam. Kind of a crap deal for $60 if you ask me.
After measuring and mushing up the berries and putting them in a pot with water and sugar we realize we have a bit more than we bargained for.
Matthew siphons 1/4 the mixture into a smaller pot and adds the certo when it boils.
Once its complete he fills 5 of the 12 pint jars. “Hmm” I say, because I am very good at math, and also stating the obvious. “If 1/4 of the recipe is 5 pints we will need 20 pints.”
WE HAVE 12 PINT JARS. its 8pm on Sunday night and we are covered in raspberries.
After some minor freaking out that 3/4 of a pot of jam will be thrown right in the trash he realizes we haven’t yet put in the certo and the big pot is only raspberries and sugar so we take it off the stove and let it cool down.
The next day I buy every single jar at the overpriced fancy kitchen store and we heat up the raspberries again, add the certo and do the canning thing.
The verdict: $50 will be more than enough to cover your jam needs for the next few decades.
We took a ride up to Montreal this weekend to visit my sister-in-law Theresa and her family. As always, we had an awesome time just hanging out, laughing, eating good food and staying up too late. It was especially fun since it was the first time the kids were old enough to acknowledge each other. I can honestly say I do not know which one of the two were more excited to see the other in the morning.
Our weekend was filled with screams of “ASH-AY!” from my niece Liliane who turns 3 in October. Lucky for her they are coming to see us next month…Or should I say lucky for Theresa and her husband Stephane. Asher had a blast playing with her toys and flashing his cheesy new grin at her.
There is a wading pool a short walk from their apartment so we headed over for a dip. Unfortunately I imagined a much smaller pool that Asher could sort of crawl in and out of and neither Matthew or I were prepared for the soaking that ensued. Matthew especially wasn’t prepared to fall while stepping into it, and I sadly wasn’t prepared with my video camera in hand.
Much time was spent in PJs and it took a bit of juggling to manage 2 nap and sleep schedules (a nice lesson for all)
On the last day I tried to get a great picture to cherish for years to come. Instead I got these:
We finally got Asher a convertible car seat! The first one we had goes up to 32lbs/32″ (I highly, highly recommend this seat!) so technically we have a little time but we knew we needed an upgrade so we finally bit the bullet last week. After much research and debate we went with the Britax Boulevard for a number of reasons, one being the footprint is slimmer than other options. Since we weren’t sure what seat would fit in our tiny car I contacted Alisa “the car seat lady” and it was the best decision we could have made. Her fee is small compared to the amount of information she gave us. She recommends car seats in your price range that will fit best in your car (or really fit your needs as people I know have used her without even owning cars) Then you go to her house and she shows you how to install the seat PROPERLY. Now, I watched her do it, then watched Matthew do it and I still didn’t do it perfectly when it was my turn so I guarantee most people do not have their car seat installed correctly. She determined that even though we have the latch system it is not rated for the center seat in our car so she installed it with the belt. She also recommended a seat for traveling, and for my parents car AND told us how to install it. It was all around awesome and Asher seems pretty comfy in his new ride. What’s not to love? its so SHINY and PRETTY and SOFT.
Then 2 days later we drove to Montreal and he barfed all over it. There’s a lesson here. I’m just not sure what it is.
