Happy FIRST BIRTHDAY Helen!

On June 8th Baby Helen turned ONE!

On Helen's birthday eve, I realized how unprepared we were to celebrate. We hadn't purchased any gifts, we were still drowning in moving boxes and packing paper (we'd been in our house nearly 2 weeks by then) and I had been so consumed with thinking about Ian's KinderStart (all-day practice Kindergarten class) that was on Helen's birthday, that not much thought had gone into planning our special girl's big milestone. And it made me sad. So at 11 pm I dug out our box of birthday decorations and stayed up an extra hour covering the dining room with balloons and streamers. I went to bed feeling much better prepared for her birthday the next day.

Good Morning Beautiful Birthday Girl!

This sweet girl wakes up with a smile on her face, and pretty much stays smiling all day long. She is always still pleasant and smiling even when we lay her down for naps and at bedtime.

Her brothers couldn't resist climbing in her crib and getting the party started.

But then she got bonked on the head and this adorable pouting face came out.

But see her smile trying to break though? She just couldn't hold a sad face long!

Those boys are helplessly in love with Helen. She loves them back, but she's learned to be cautious around their rough-and-tumble shows of affection!

Ian and Joseph were thrilled to see the decorations when they came down for breakfast. Helen was a bit confused by the balloons on her highchair.

But she warmed up to them.

After dropping Ian off at KinderStart and putting Helen down for a nap, Joseph and I began making Helen's cake. While wearing party hats, of course!

Our sweet little crawler. At this point, she wasn't looking very interested in walking. But she sure was a quick crawler! On her birthday she followed Joseph up the stairs for the first time!

Attempting to get a sibling picture. 

Nice. 

When Scott got home we ordered Dominos pizza. Pizza has somehow become a First Birthday tradition and we've had the same menu of pizza and Cheetos for all three kids. We thought back to Ian's First Birthday and how that day he tried soda, pizza, pickles, cake and ice cream for the first time. By contrast, Helen is an old pro at eating junk food!

She was a great sport about wearing her party hat! Perhaps she thought it was a pointy headband. 

By the time dinner was done, our Birthday Girl was more than ready for her 6 o'clock bedtime. So we postponed cake and presents for the following day, which was Saturday.

She's ONE!

Look how excited everyone is!

She somehow knew how to tear the tissue paper out.

Checking out the shape sorter.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Then it was time for cake! Helen was ready for her morning nap, but the party moved forward. And anyway, who doesn't like birthday cake at 9 am?

I moved the cake closer to her while we sang Happy Birthday, and she starting tasting the frosting while we sang and the candle blazed. 

I have never seen a child so eager to eat their first birthday cake! Once the candle was gone, she grabbed that cake with two fists and took a big bite!

She was distracted for a minute by us laughing at her birthday cake gusto.

But then she went right back to work.

Grabbing fistfuls.

Patting the sides was fun too.

Then her big brothers helped. Three layers is a lot to eat by oneself!

A messy birthday girl!

The aftermath. Helen leveled that birthday cake!

The week of Helen's birthday she had a burst of new skills. She began pointing to the light when we asked her where it was. She even said "light" a couple times. She began to pretend sneeze (complete with sounds and a big nod of the head), she climbed up the stairs for the first time, she began clapping and waving. It was a big week for her developmentally!




Helen asking to be picked up (looks like milking a cow, accompanied by "bup, bup, bup" (up).

Helen's eyes are hazel. There is a bit of brown and a whole lot of green with flecks of blue. I am not convinced they will stay this color, but they will definitely not be blue, and they are still far too light and varied for brown.

Our baby girl has 8 teeth, all of which she has had since she was about 8 months old. (the first four came through in January, and the rest about a month later.) She loves to eat. Especially cheese, plain noodles,  whole broccoli and peas, diced carrots, corn and whole beans. Like her siblings, she easily made the switch to sippy cups (though she is still willing to drink an occasional bottle in the car if we have to drive Dad to work right when she wakes up in the morning)

It's no secret that Helen has a ready smile. But she is usually the audience, and generally not the one putting on the show. It was fun to see her really hamming it up on this occasion!


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Helen has been a wonderful sleeper ever since we sleep-trained her at 6 months, and currently she goes to bed at 6pm, wakes up at 7am, and then naps for 1.5-2.5 hours at 9am and 1pm. Lately she will roll over and stand or crawl in her crib when we put her to bed, but she usually doesn't make a peep and always goes right to sleep. Unfortunately the boys usually wake her up briefly when they noisily clamber up the stairs at their bedtime! She always drifts right back to sleep on her own though.

All these backyard pictures were taken about 2 weeks after Helen's first birthday. She had just started taking her first steps!

Helen, we could not have guessed how beautifully you'd fold into our family. I admit that bringing you (our third!) into our family was a frightening thought at first, but from the time we knew you were coming to our family, you have been a joy and a blessing to all of us. For the past year we've been smitten by your sweet dimples, wide grin, bright eyes and calm, sweet disposition. You've taught your brothers to think and feel more outside of themselves, and I frequently see them seeking ways to assist you, encourage you and teach you, and I can tell that your happiness and comfort matters a great deal to them. We love getting to know you as you grow, and we are so happy you came to our family! We love you  Baby Helen!

Lester's Farm

Scott's employer has a social club for families called Frontier Club. They organize a few outings a month and last weekend we went to Lester's Farm. It was a gorgeous, clear day, and at 65 degrees almost felt too warm for a fall outing!

The kids and I went to the farm back in July and really enjoyed it. This time around there was a host of new activities just for our group, which made it even more fun!

First up was the sandbox. 

Helen and Daddy went to meet the animals in the barn, which she thoroughly enjoyed. And even though the boys said they didn't want to ride the horse, I waited in line hoping they'd change their minds. Joseph reluctantly but obediently mounted the horse, but barely cracked a smile. Even at the end, he seemed eager for it to be over so he could get back into the the sandbox!

Although Ian refused to ride first, he actually really enjoyed himself! He waved and smiled the entire time. But then he was straight back to the sandbox too!

A family photo. The fact that we are all in it makes the picture good enough! 

Then it was off to have their first-ever face painting experience. I was not impressed by all the super-scary options on the artists' poster. At first I tried to convince Ian and Joseph to ask for something sweet like a little puppy on their arm or cheek. But I decided to step back and let them just decide, and Ian ended up switching from the creepy, very life-like spider on his cheek to a pumpkin face. He was the first to have it done, and we noticed tons of pumpkin-faces popping up on the farm afterward. 

He loved the end result. He leapt around the hay bales and growled at passerby. It was obvious that he felt very cool and frightening as a pumpkin-face. 

Joseph went ahead with his original plan, but was bashful when it was time to tell the artist. So she asked him about each option until he nodded enthusiastically at this one. 

He also loved the results!

Meanwhile, Helen was taking her first horse ride. She is thrilled by animals and this horse was no exception. However sitting on a moving horse was not her cup of tea. She began crying immediately, and once Scott rescued her, she kept pointing accusingly at the horse.

The pigs were a different story though. Scott held her over the pigs and she'd reach out and touched them on the backs. She thought it was a hilarious game and kept diving forward to do it again and again. 

Then we ate some burgers, decorated Halloween totes, and took a tractor-pulled hayride with the Coopers and Sundbergs. 

We went to the barn to say farewell to the animals and the boys worked up the courage to hand feed the animals. 

Here, Ian had taken several feed balls and instead of giving them to the goats and llamas, he carefully placed them on the railing. Nearly as satisfying, and much less scary! 

Lastly, we selected pumpkins. Ian and Joseph had been looking forward to this for weeks. Can you believe our family has never carved pumpkins? 

It was a quick choice for the both of them. 

When we got back to the car, the kids all posed for a parting shot. When I squatted down to take the picture, Helen mimicked me. It was so adorable! (Yes, she was one-shoed the entire day.)

A cute and scary bunch! 

It turns out the face paint doesn't come off as easily as we expected.... Joseph still looks like he has black eyes, and Ian is a sickly orange color. His sensitive skin is also all rashy 3 days later...

It was a fun fall day!

Lesley's 28th Birthday!

On our third day in Newfoundland, I celebrated my 28th Birthday! The kids and I spent the day adjusting to our new timezone at the hotel, but things got festive when Scott brought home a cake. We also ordered Indian food after the kids went to bed. 

 After cake, Scott surprised me with a Flip Video camera. I was so impressed that amid all the relocation chaos, he had purchased and then stowed away this gift. Little did I know there were a bunch more surprises hidden away in his luggage! 

In the days before we flew to Newfoundland, a group of dear friends in Houston schemed and secretly dropped off a slew of beautifully wrapped gifts, that Scott hid away in his luggage for my birthday. How I didn't stumble upon them when I was searching for bathing suits and missing toothbrushes is a mystery and a miracle. It was such a sweet idea, and three months later as I finally record this, I am once again overcome with emotions of gratitude for such thoughtful friends. Our little family may have been drifting on a strange island in the Atlantic, but I still felt remembered and cared for and so, so lucky!

Three maps from my three homes: Martinez, CA; Conroe, TX; St. John's, NL. 

I love having some Texas paraphernalia! 

I wish I had pictures with each gift.

And I wish that none of the pictures included nose-picking.

And I wish I could reach back in time and fix my hair. But didn't Ian take a great picture? Thanks Scott and Y'all Ladies back in Texas for making this birthday so memorable and special! Oh, how I miss you!