The Celebrations!

In honor of Mel's birthday, he ate a breakfast of nutrigrain bar, with strawberries and blackberries.. What a mess! :)

After breakfast he took and birthday bath, then walk, then nap. After his nap, we put on this "uno" shirt, and I put on a similar, but more feminie version, and we had our pictures taken at Penny's. I hardly have any with him since we're out here all by our lonesomes... so that was really nice. After pictures, we TRIED to open presents....on the porch.
Then we put the icing on the cake, and went to our good friends' home, who have become like adopted family out here. Thank you guys so much for the gourmet food, beautiful and festive decorations, and wonderful company!!!!! It was SOOOOO nice to celebrate with you!

Here we are in our birthday celebration duds! Thank you for the idea Wendy!!!

A picture of the party peeps! They even put streamers everywhere and got Mel an AWESOME gift! Thank you guys!!!! Another friend, and shot of the decorations! Thank you for videotaping Jared!

Mel opening his present!

Mel didn't know what to do with all his birthday attention, with the song and all... :)

Mel trying out cake!

He got into it, literally, pretty quickly..

He even got cake seconds....

a cake-face closeup.

It was such a nice day. I still can't believe he's one!!!! Happy birthday Melvin!!!

the day Mel was born and an ode to being his mother..

The day Melvin was born... hummm... I remember waking up at around 7:00 a.m. (though in truth I'd been up all night having relatively powerful contractions)... and started walking around the house, using a rice bag for heat during contractions. Mark and I had taken a Hypnobabies class, which taught how to stay completely comfortable while at home during labor...so we really focused on what we'd been taught, and tried to do as much of the labor at home as possible.

It was a bit confusing though, because my contractions seemed to be sporadic. They would build for a couple of hours, and then 15 minutes would go by with nothing...so the rule of thumb of timing the contractions and all that wouldn't work...

At any rate, we called our midwife at 2:00 p.m., were at the hospital at three, (where we were monitored for an hour... and checked- I was dialated to 5, fully effaced, and Mel was fully engaged. I was admitted to the hospital at 4:00. Things went pretty smoothly until about 8:00... that's when my contractions became very powerful, and I wasn't sure if I could give birth naturally... but Mark and our midwife were so supportive and wonderful! I pushed through, literally, :) and delivered Mel naturally at 11:09 p.m. May 18th, 2008!

After giving birth I felt like I could do ANYTHING!!! I felt like SUPER WOMAN! What a rush! It was such an amazing experience.

When Mel was born, he was SO unhappy. The first glimpse I got of him, his face was all scrunched up and COMPLETELY grumpy looking, and of course he was screaming. :) Poor guy. It's not easy being birthed.

But that night was wonderful. Mark was exhausted, so fell asleep immediately. But Mel and I had all the energy in the world, and just laid there, in the dimly lit hospital room starring at each other.

I have completely fallen in love with him. This has been THE fastest, THE most rewarding, THE most fulfilling, THE best year of my life. It's amazing how instinctual mothering is-- one day, you don't have a baby, and the next you do- and you would HONESTLY do ANYTHING for them if they needed it.

All of a sudden hours spent holding your dear one are the best hours of your life, and you wouldn't trade them for ANY other activity. When invitations come to go the movies, out to eat, to go shopping, playing games, ANYTHING, nothing sounds quite as nice as staying home holding your baby,starring at all his perfect features, and thanking God He's made you a wife and mother.

There are days I feel lonely, and days when I feel like I've completely lost my own identity, or lost my mind because I don't know why he is upset... but really, those days don't matter.

And now, this tiny baby who could not even hold his head, is one. He army crawls as fast as any kitten can trot, :) he pulls himself to a stand on couches, tables chairs, and bathtubs. He can put himself to a sitting position ALL by himself, and can walk and run while holding on to our index fingers. He can creep up and down our couch all by himself. He can climb stairs. He loves to swing, and do ANYTHING outside. He can point at geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, cats, birds and planes, and loves to say "Dada," chase Mark, and tickle him. He loves reading, and to turn the pages. He loves feeding himself crackers, fruit, bread, pasta,cookies, and most recently, cake. :) He laughs the most when we feed the geese and goslings, and right before he goes to bed, because he's silly when he's tired.

I could go on and on about all the things I love about him- and the joy it gives me to see him grow. This is THE best.

I love Melvin, and I especially love Mark, because though most days are great, some aren't, and Mark is so sweet and helpful. He and Melvin are the best of buds. One of my favorite times of day are when Mark walks in the door from work, and Melvin hears and sees him- he gets anxious and excited and will laugh and squeal, and reach for my fingers so I will walk him over to Mark. It is very sweet. So, yes... I love my boys.

My baby turns 1 TOMORROW!!!!

I can't believe it! One year ago today, while watching a movie with Mark and his brother's family, (John, Wendy, Natalie, and Henry) I started to have lots of "Braxton Hicks." By 10:30 p.m. while brushing my teeth, I started to think it was the beginning....
I had contractions at least every 10 minutes for the rest of the night.
By 7:00 a.m. I was pretty darn sure Melvin was finally on his way!
I can't believe it!!!!!!! Seriously- this has been THE fastest year of my life!!!! Has an entire year actually passed? Sigh....

Well... stay tuned for tomorrow's Melvin-first-birthday-EVER post!!! Just for the record- I am IN LOVE with being a mother. It's the best.

Our Bit Of Earth!!!

Things might be moving a bit more quickly than we'd anticipated for our house.....(squeal!) So yesterday, Mother's Day- which was, for the record THE BEST EVER! we went up to Delaware to take a picture of our lot before they start digging... which could be, potentially, at the end of this week! So, here are the pictures!
Voila! Our "sold" sign! Our lot boundaries, one side is just after the firehydrant... which will actually lower our home owners insurance... :) Here is an almost straight on shot... the stakes towards the right marks the other boundary.

Here is our... plot, or lot number... I think... hummmmm..... I don't know- but it has something to do with something. A shot from the "backyard." Last of all, a closeup of our charming firehydrant.

It was so exciting to go up there again! Last time we went, just a few weeks ago, they had just started digging on a few houses close by, like the ones pictured in the first photo-and already they are very progressed in the building process! AAAAAAAAAAAAH! SO exciting! Mark and I feel SOOOOOO lucky!

Nearby wildlife

Here is a silly goose we saw at the zoo with the flamingos... he thinks he is one of them! Look at how he is sleeping on one leg! At first I thought he was just a copy cat... but no-- I've gone to the zoo on several occassions now, and EVERY time, he is there, like this, hanging out with his pink buddies.Another picture of the silly goose, this time with a flamingo. There is a pond at the appartments we live in which is home to much wildlife. The other day Mel and I saw over thirty frogs... ( or are these toads?) hop into the pond as we walked by...

Sometimes they just float and look at us.

The best by far have been the goslings and goose parents. They are SUCH fun to watch! Seriously, what great examples of parenthood. They are so sweet and vigilant in rearing and safeguarding their little ones. The other day we got a little too close, and the Mamma hissed at us. :) We can't blame her.

Unfortunately today when we went, I left the camera at home. Nuts.... because for the VERY first time, we saw Mr. and Mrs. Mallards new arrivals! 5 brand new teeny-tiny ducklings! So sweet! Seriously, I could watch them all day.

Also not pictured, we met a little cottontail on the road today. :) I love spring.

Mark's new do...

So, for those of you who did not know.... I am Mark's barber/ stylist. I think I do a pretty great job for someone with no training, because I have a little thing called "vision". Anywho, this go round, we decided to try a new look. What do you think? I find him irristable.

Mel's new chompers

We've been trying to take a picture that captures a portion of the splendor of Mel's shiny new top teeth... :) This is about as good as it has gotten to date.