Now We Are 1...

 Presents!

Cake!

I've been meaning to post pictures for the past week, but better late than never!  We had a great little family party with cake and presents and lots of playing with new toys. Yay for birthdays!



An Unfortunate Milestone

Levi. He is very nearly 1 whole year old (insert lamentation about how quickly time passes here...). To this point we have celebrated all the usual milestones: smiling, first teeth, eating solid foods, cruising about etc...So far, we've welcomed each and every development (and let's be honest, every single near-development) with excitment and more than a little praise (You very nearly pulled yourself up all by yourself! GREAT JOB!). However, today we had a milestone that I wasn't too keen to celebrate.  See, Levi likes to chew on stuff. Pretty much anything will do and usually this isn't a big deal but sometimes, he'll chomp down on something he really, really shouldn't chew on. Today, it was the electrical cord for a lamp. So, I went over there and pulled him away saying, as usual, "No, no, no". Usually, when I stop him from doing something he wants to do he'll protest, loudly even, but then move on to do something else. Today however, he yelled (as he usually does), looked right at my face then leaned over and bit me. Hard.
It was 100% clear that 1. He was really annoyed and 2. He chose to express his annoyance by biting. Not. Cool.  Alas, I think we have hit another milestone: Acting out. On purpose. With intention. and I am none too pleased about this development. Hopefully, he gets over this need to express annoyance by biting pretty darn quick, because yelling I can handle. Crying, no problem. Physical violence, however, is a 1 way ticket to eternal timeout...and he's too young to be grounded for life.

What's Missing?!

NO MORE HELMET!!!!!!!!!!!

(Seriously, is this not the cutest picture you have ever seen? I die.)

No more helmet means that today we begin the, rather unfortunate, process of learning that bumping our head HURTS! We have already bumped into 2 walls, the piano and a door but we are learning!



Blah, Blah, Blah

So, Levi. He is starting to talk for reals. Not like this time, but actually using his little mouth to make sounds that have meaning.

His favorites? "Mama" and "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO".

See, you have to say "no" like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" when you are almost one. I am not sure why.

Also, we never say "Mama" around here. We say "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!" until someone (could be me. could be Isaac. Levi's not too fussy usually) takes care of whatever problem prompted the MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA! in the first place.

Problem is, since we only have 2 words so far, whomever is responding to the call of MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA! frequently guesses Tiny Man's needs incorrectly. And then we hear:

 "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMMA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It is awesome to be scolded by an almost 1 year old. Awesome, I tell you.

Epic Fail

When we left Utah to come to the great state of Alabama, we left behind a great many people. One such person was Bailee the Wonder Colorist (sidenote: there are a lot of people named Bailee in Utah. A lot. And they all spell their names differently. Once, I had a student who spelled her name BayLeah. The first time I read her name I thought it said "BayLeaf" and I almost asked, outloud, why her parents named her after an herb. Luckily, I caught myself, but everytime I talked to her after that I had to consiously remind myself that her name was BayLeah not "BayLeaf". True story.) and, having now gone approximately an eternity without coloring my hair and, having been told by no less than EVERY member of my immediate family that when I do not color my hair I look like a 50 year old grandmother (apparently this was all said "out of love". Whatever.) and, having been repeatedly assured by my myriad and sundry sisters who also look like 50 year old grandmothers if they don't color their hair that coloring ones hair by ones self is "So easy!" and, because I have not yet had a chance to find a replacement for Bailee the Wonder Colorist, I decided to take the plunge and attempt to color my hair my very ownself. "12 year olds at slumber parties do this all the time!" I thought. "What could go wrong with a product that goes so far as to proclaim itself "Nice" and "Easy"?", I thought. "If your mother and sisters can do this, so can you!" I thought. "You have a master's degree! How hard can this be?!" I thought.  I should have ignored all those thoughts and listened to the very quiet, nagging voice in the back of my mind which said "There is a reason you are not a cosmotologist YOU IDIOT!"

You see, I managed to dye a great many things; the bathroom counter, 2 towels, the toilet seat, one of our bath mats, my left arm, both ears, the back of my neck, the bottom of my right foot, every single one of my fingernails, my hairbrush, my shampoo bottle, the shower curtain, 2 barretts and the door to the bathroom but did not,as luck would have it, successfully manage to dye the one thing I was actually interested in turning a "dark auburn": my gray hair.  I followed the directions exactly. I even timed the shaking of the bottle because the little instruction sheet said "shake for at least 20 seconds." So, I timed myself shaking for 30 seconds. Which is, as anyone knows, at least 20 seconds. I set a little kitchen timer for 10 minutes  I "started at the roots" and saturated my hair "all the way to the ends". I rinsed until the water ran clear. I conditioned with the little tube of conditioner. I now have brown hair with, in addition to the grey streaks, orangish brown streaks. It is not an improvement. Not to mention the fact that the roots of my hair are at least 2 shades different than the rest of my hair. EPIC FAIL.
Clearly, hair coloring needs to join espionage and brain surgery on my list of tasks best left to the professionals. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make an appointment to have someone much more talented than I fix my hair.