Watch out!

Consider yourself warned. This post finds me with my feet propped up, an enormous sense of accomplishment patting my back, a napping Jack, and talkative fingers...Good news for you I also have banana bread baking and therefore have a time limit to this ramble session.

This week has been pretty grand all around. Jack turned 1 year old on Thursday. We'll start there. He woke up so happy, shrieking and giggling through getting dressed and breakfast. Then I tried to teach him how to say he was 1. With 50% dependability he'll hold up one finger if you ask him if he is 1. It is pretty cute when he does. He liked having a birthday I think. About 9 adults kept staring at him, playing with him, and singing his new favorite song "Happy Birthday" to him. (He likes it because it has his name in it...) He got to talk to his grandparents in Canada over breakfast, and they even knew the song! If you watch the video time you'll notice that he polished off his piece of birthday cake in about 2 minutes flat. It was whole wheat apple cake, so I think it was kinda healthy. Hilariously he sucked on it and it just disappeared! I guess he likes cake too.

 That cool uncle that came in the mail about a week ago got him a GIANT cow balloon. As I type it is staring longingly out our kitchen window at the overgrown grass in my front yard. I almost feel guilty for keeping it inside. (good news for me, the banana bread has taken about 20 minutes longer than I expected it to to bake, so I get to keep writing!)

 Waffles and presents all around. What a way to wake up in the morning!

 Stephen fell asleep again after breakfast, so Jack got to jump on him.

 This was the only present he took initiative in wanting to open. After that he was very complacent about paper and bags, until Aunt Kimmi and Uncle Daniel's gift had a bow on it.

 The tunnel of terror. My parents have signed a formal contract with me to not buy my children toys that make noise without help, or require batteries. This tunnel will probably grow in his favor, but he is yet to crawl through it by himself. He'll throw a ball down it, and then crawl around the outside to get it at the other end.

 That said, he might crawl through it sooner if there is room in it for him. Jon and Stephen were excited...

 Making sure Jon's head came out ok, Jack crawled quickly from the foot to the head to find out what happens to a human that dares crawl through.

 and then went through it with Jon about twice. The box read "large enough for 2 children" and Jon took it literally. Oh, and we found out the cat can fit in it at the same time too.

 These shoes from Aunt Jojo seemed to be the winners of the day. He carried them around for 15 minutes just smiling, chuckling at them, putting them in and out of their box, and showing them to all of us.

 See what I mean?

 It had a bow. Wow. That one was worth looking at for 7 minutes before noticing anything else. It was a cd that has some of the greatest original kids songs I've heard in a while. - 

"No panda bears aren't so scary

they're eating up China bamboo

but if you don't mind your mama

they just might come and eat you."

Just a sample for your imagination. :)

 My mom has been psyching Jack up for this moment for 6 months, teaching him how to blow, letting him practice on her candles and through straws, perfecting the art of blowing out a birthday candle without icing the cake with spit. He was sooooo ready when he saw this candle. He locked in on it with his eyes and never turned back.

 If you missed it in the video, watch it again. He got it!

 The next morning we went on a bike ride to break in his new helmet. Yup. We. Jon, Jack, Stephen, Jojo, Me, Little Bit.

 This was before we left when I still thought a bike ride at 7 months pregnant was a great idea. A few miles later I laid down in a big sunny field to wait for Jon to finish riding with the other 3 and come back for me with the car. :) Note to self: Bike rides should probably be completed before month 5 or 6 of the baby cooking. Somehow I couldn't bend forward to lean into the pedals and mount hills very well.

 This is where we got ice cream 50 minutes from the airport, 60 minutes before Jojo's plane was supposed to leave. I always joke about missing people's planes so I can keep them, but I have never come so close! If it weren't April Fool's day I wouldn't have felt like I needed to keep saying it wasn't on purpose...Running through the airport with less than 3 minutes before her plane really did take off I was witnessing a miracle when they rushed her through security and they let her board. Incredible. The ramp pulled away from the side of the plane less than a minute after I watched her plummet down it as fast as she could. Between the bike ride that morning and the run that afternoon, I don't think I should exercise again for another 2 months.

Yesterday Jon had to take the door off the oven to open the drawer underneath to get a cookie sheet out. It was stuck. While he was doing that I thought I'd start lunch, so I turned the oven on to 350 to warm up. While it was warming up, Jon's head was in it trying to open the drawer. He suddenly realized I was trying to bake him. It was really funny. :) I did turn it off. And apologize.

Stephen and I are going to start a business together to use all of the math we are learning in his Business Math book. It will be great. It will either be baking, building retaining walls, or refinishing kitchens. Maybe it will be a niche business that does all three. 

I beat both Jon and Stephen in a game today.

And I vacuumed, did laundry, made banana bread (yup, it's still in there!), gave Jack a bath, unscrewed 6 doors off my kitchen cupboards, and overseed (I know, not a word but I really want to use it) the guys start sanding them down. About 30 minutes in we called Pastor Aszbach in Canada to find out how to do it right, then they started over and now it is going well. 

I found peanut M & Ms in my cupboard today. I should have taken that door off months ago.

My bread is done. I think I should change the recipe, it took over an hour to bake, not 20 minutes.

The end. For now.