Scarlett's 1st Birthday Week

I remember when Birthdays were only celebrated once a year. One night, and that's all you get. More and more I hear stories of birthday weekends, birthday weeks (2 weekends plus the weekdays sandwiched between the two), and even birthday months. Is it a girl thing? I have a friend who would go out with a bunch of her girlfriends and each would take turns pretending it was her birthday (completely different story but its funny and extremely economical as it turns out...) Anyway, Scarlett's first birthday just happened to turn into one of these crazy weeks (or two weeks if you include opening a couple of presents early). Monday was her actual birthday, and we had a few friends and family come over to celebrate with Georgetown Cupcakes (yes we still eat them despite their horrible, scripted "reality" show). Dave, Jacy/Joel/Liam, and Tracy/Anna/Will/Alana/Stephen came by to watch Scarlett open presents and smear cupcake frosting all over her face. Too bad they didn't stay until after 11 when we finally got her to come down off of her sugar high and go to bed! They say 1 year olds have no clue what it means to have a birthday and although I mostly agree with that, she definitely knew that something was going on and that she was getting a lot of attention. Luckily, attention is about her favorite thing in the world. Everyone has been incredibly generous for Scarlett's birthday, which is wonderful in that she is definitely feeling the love (and the over-stimulation!) but my goodness... we are going to need to buy a guest house to hold all of her toys! And little miss ADD just goes from one to the next in rapid succession. Whew! It's tiring just watching her.

Shonna wrote the last few sentences, so I have the mention the end of the birthday night. I made the first attempt at putting her down. I thought I was successful, but apparently I needed a relief pitcher. Shonna went up and just about had her. She came downstairs, but Scarlett's fussing started up again. I went up, rocked her in the chair, and BAM! She exploded all over me, the floor, up her nose, in her hair... All I could do was yell HELP! I immediately turned on the shower, undressed her, put her in and washed the mac and cheese off of the both of us. Before I could blink, Scarlett reached into the drain, grabbed the clean, bare pasta and shoved it into her mouth. I wish I had it on camera. It would have been a hit on youtube.

Tuesday we went swimming. To stay with the theme, we did have a #2 scare in the pool. The instructor thought she stepped on something. We all ran out of the pool, and we were mad. Why does this keep happening (3rd time) when the rules specifically state "wear swimming diaper and/or rubber bottom bathing suit"? I looked at some of the non-class kids and they were wearing normal bathing suits without any lining or special diaper. How are they allowed in the pool? Are we so afraid to call someone out these days? "Sorry sir/ma'am, you're baby isn't wearing the right attire and something might leak out." Instead its "I can't say anything to embarrass them. It might hurt their feelings even though they might cause an entire pool to be shut down because of a floater." Well, that was probably accurate the first two times. This time our instructor thought she noticed a turd, but it was actually a light tan hair clip. Um. I'm sorry but do those two things look similar, even in 4 feet of water? "Better to be safe than sorry" is what we all told her. She apologized 3 or 4 times, so I have a feeling she felt embarrassed for making us get out of the baby pool and into the adult pool (and risk shutting down both pools).
Besides that issue, Scarlett and I had a great pool day. I can now dunk her without worry, but I also have to be strategic when doing so. For some reason, she likes drinking pool water, so most of the time when I try to bob her into the water, she opens her mouth and tries to take a swig. I have to catch her off guard, and when I do, she actually holds her breath. She is only in the water for a split second however. Don't worry about her well being!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful leading up to the party, although she did have her 1yr checkup on Friday. She passed with flying colors minus the slight anemia. Apparently she is doing things an 18 month old does. Physically, she has been throwing objects overhand for a few weeks now. When the Dr. asked if she was throwing things by what essentially amounts to a chest pass, I said that she actually throws overhand. The Dr looked at me in disbelief, but as Shonna and I have witnessed, she routinely throws her toys overhand. Its not always pretty, and some spike right into the ground (we will work on her release point), but sure enough she throws overhand. She is advanced in many other categories, but the throwing seemed to be the focus of this apt. Time to hit CVS or some Fer-in-sol to boost her iron count...

Scarlett's Nana (grandmother) and GiGi (great-grandmother) stayed with us from Saturday Nov 13th to Tuesday Nov 16th. Nana documented their stay in a separate blog. It was great having 4 generations under one roof. Our family record is 5 generations (my nephew with my late great-grandmother Nana Fay, his great-great). I have a feeling GiGi (better known as Flossy) will live long enough to see a great-great herself. She is 92 and still plays golf. If she lives to be as old Nana Fay (107.5), Scarlett will only be turning 17 (and it better not come into play!), but my nephew Roland will be 26 or 27 so it is a possibility.

Scarlett's official birthday party was on Saturday (Nov. 13th) at J.W. Tumbles. It's a kid's gym about a mile from our house. We reasoned that there was no way we were going to fit people in our little (ill-designed) house (Monday was REALLY crowded), so we rented it for a birthday part,y figuring that we would spend about the same amount to have it at home. We weren't impressed by them before the party -- they wouldn't return our phone calls and were never there. But on the day of, they really pulled it together! Scarlett had about 14 kids there and maybe 25 adults. The place did a great job of keeping the kids entertained. They had a new activity every 10 minutes or so, including a bubble "machine" (a big fan with a teenager manning the bubbles), a zip line with a swing, a "tight rope", trampolines, some circle time, and then all of the normal stuff like slides, a rock climbing wall, tunnels, etc. It looked like a lot of fun! Scarlett was running around like crazy in the beginning but about 1/2 way through, she would get tired and just collapse for a minute on the mats until she was ready to go again. It was pretty funny. She spent a lot of time on the trampolines and throwing a ball with her friend from daycare, Claire.

After the official party, we had some cake and went upstairs to Pietanza for pizza. Scarlett downed way too much macaroni and cheese, as we learned at about 1130 that night when she threw it up all over Paul. :) Turns out she burned a lot of calories that she thought required immediate replenishing! I couldn't believe how much stuff she got! It would be a very long list if I tried to document everything here, but among her favorites were her trampoline and talking pot (from Nonni), her talking tea set, puzzles, toy kitchen, pillow pal, and, of course, the balloons. My two favorite things were a picture frame from Jacy that had a close up of her from each month of her life (gorgeous and definitely facilitates my obsession with her!) and a drawing that Pennie did of her. It is a drawing of one of the pictures from her 10 month photo shoot and is just amazing. I am seriously lucky to have such thoughtful and talented/creative friends! Finally, she got some savings bonds, which I am sure will come in handy in helping us pay for college since I hear it will be about 300k by the time she goes!

On Sunday, we finally got to take Flossy to her much belated birthday (April) outing, high tea at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner. It was also Scarlett's first tea experience, so it was a big occasion all around! We each ordered the royal tea, complete with champagne and strawberries with whipped cream and they even brought out an extra set of sandwiches and treats for Scarlett, including a sugar cookie man. She did pretty well considering it was such a low key event and did a lot of eating. The biggest problem was that she kept inviting herself to join our neighbor's tea party. Our little social butterfly... Who wouldn't want to have tea with Scarlett? The folks at the Ritz were kind enough to give Scarlett a Ritz Carlton rubber ducky. Two of the actually (one from the guy at the front desk, which is even wearing scuba gear). She is one fancy girl.

After tea, Flossy wanted to go to the mall to do our annual Christmas/Paul's birthday shopping trip. Her rule is that you don't get a present if you don't go shopping with her and pick it out. So Paul picked out a new winter coat. I tired to get a coat too, but as usual, my monkey arms meant that I had to order one online to be able to find one with sleeves long enough. She kindly still got me the coat even though I didn't get it while I was with her!

Three hundred and sixty four days later

Tonight we went to the Capitals/Flyers hockey game for Scarletts first birthday eve. Scarlett loves sporting events. Not necessarily the same way daddy does, but she probably has more fun if the good guys lose. As a matter of fact, I don't think she cares so much if the team wins or not, as long as everyone around her gives her the time of day. I take that back. If the home team is losing, people around her won't be as happy and won't pay as much attention to her or give her as much positive feedback. That would not be good! We count on that assistance to get us through a 2.5 to 3+ hr sporting events. I will say that it is amazing how much attention she receives while we are out (whether its a game, at a restaurant, on the metro...) I'm sure other infants receive quite a bit of attention as well, but just using tonight's game as an example, multiple strangers came up to us on the concourse to tell us how cute she was. Our seat neighbors, front, back, left, right, and passersby made similar comments and played with her, and a camera man planted himself in the aisle of our row for 10 minutes so he could get Scarlett on film. I don't think there was a moment where she wasn't feeling the love. Sure makes taking Scarlett to sporting events worth while!

Scarlett has been to 3 sporting events so far. 2 Capitals games and a Ravens game. The last 2 have gone into overtime. Just to give you some perspective, The Ravens have had 2 overtime home games in 3 years, and The Capitals? OK, well they seem to go into overtime every other home game, so that's a bad example (3 OTs out of 8 games). All I'm saying is that Scarlett seems to attract the long games, but regardless of game length, its not really an issue as long as we have the food and the neighbors to keep her mind off of it.

This week has been relatively slow in terms of activity. Tuesday's swim class was poopless and went on as scheduled :) The conservative woman instructor led the class this week as opposed to the crazy man, so I extended Scarlett's swim time by 15 minutes after class was over. I worked in actual swimming during that time. The lady instructor seems to be stuck on simply getting the babies used to the water in general. Scarlett and many other babies are beyond that.

Scarlett has made some serious physical and verbal strides. Physically, she can walk more than a lap around our 1st floor without stopping. She can eat with both hands, and more importantly, she is able to throw with both hands! Today, Shonna brought home 2 plastic packages of apple slices. Scarlett grabbed them off of the coffee table and spiked them on the floor with her right hand, then picked them up and threw them in our direction with her left hand. Our little athlete! :) Verbally, she is starting to form compete sentences that only she can understand. I will say that she is starting to put actual English words together, which has been catching us off guard. She will say something like "yea dada" or other phrases, and Shonna and I just look at each other and say "did she just say..."? Its so interesting to see how quickly babies develop physically and cognitively .

So we've covered swimming and the hockey game this week so far. On Friday we went to buy stuff for Scarlett' upcoming first birthday party. She loved the party store because there were lots of little colorful toys for her to play with. Saturday after I got home from work we went to the playground. Scarlett is such a little daredevil! The playground by our house has five or six different slides but her favorite was the sttep tube that goes really fast and you can't see what is coming beneath you. She giggled everytime she got to the top and if we didn't make quick enough progress toward sending her down the side again, she started without us. She tried to climb bck up the slide (not very successful) or would charge right toward it (stairs and all) if we put her on the ground. All told, she probably went down a slide 30 times before we were able to drag her away because it was getting dark.

In other news. Scarlett MUST be going through a growth spurt. She has had a cold this week (as hav I!) and has been teething, so she was already having some trouble sleeping, but she has also been eating constantly and huge amounts. She has probably been having 7 meals per day including snacks and milk (she is on 100% whole milk now) isn't really the base of her diet anymore. Some of her favorite meals include macaroni and cheese, peas, and bbq chicken -- and that is just in one meal, which she'll then follow up with a banana! She really seems to be a bottomless pit these days. I can only hope that it means she'll be getting taller soon, because her cheeks have definitely filled out again over the last week!

Well, it is now her birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCARLETT!) and we have a big day ahead! We'll add pictures later!

Cirque de Soleil et Veille de la Toussaint

Just as the title reads, that about sums up Scarlett's last 2 weeks ;) OK, we also had a visit from Shonna's friend and classmate Justin who stayed with us over the Halloween weekend, and Scarlett missed out on a swimming class. It was devastating as Shonna will describe later. If you saw Caddy Shack, just think Baby Ruth. Also, I went on a 2-day business trip to Colorado Springs, my old stomping grounds. We also went to our first Ravens game as a family. I'm forgetting something. I know something else happened over the past couple of weeks... what was it... Oh yea, it was also our 3rd anniversary on October 20th :)

I guess I will go in chronological order.

Tuesday the 19th was Scarlett's swimming night. It was fine but wasn't much different than the week before. We have 2 weeks to cover so I'll move on.

Wednesday the 20th is our official anniversary, but we didn't exactly celebrate until Thursday night. We both had to work early Thursday morning, so we thought it would be better to wait until we could at least sleep in another hour or two. We didn't completely blow off the official day. We pulled out our wedding crystal and had a glass of champagne. Scarlett didn't seem to mind that we were home. As a matter of fact, if memory serves me correctly, she woke up quite a few times that night to remind us how happy she was to spend the anniversary with mommy and daddy. She loves doing that when we have an early day. Good thing it doesn't happen often! Thursday was our dinner date at The Source http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3941. Great food, modern architecture, great service. We went with the tasting menu, which was excellent, but a bit pricey for what you get. Unlike places such as Marcel's, you are better served ordering a la cart. While we were out, Scarlett was having a great time with our neighbor, dog walker and babysitter extraordinaire, Abigail. This was Abigail's third night with Scarlett, and first time she was able to get Scarlett to sleep! Shonna and I were both shocked when we received a text just after 9pm stating that she was down for the night. One less thing on our minds! We could relax a little more and enjoy the rest of the romantic dinner. Soon after dinner, the romantic vibe took a 180 as we walked through the doors at carpool, but still fun none the less. We had a drink (well, we both had a beer, but the bartender poured us his favorite Grand Marnier, and both pours ended up in my glass), chatted with Raj the bartender (I've known him for 14 years- worked with him at Sequoia), and soon we were on our way home. The fun night owls were through the front door by 1130pm... Actually, Abigail had to be home by 11 pm, but Shonna's friend Juli was kind enough to relieve her so that we could stay out late. These days 1130 qualifies!

Friday, we worked from home and took Scarlett to her first "circus"! Actually, it was Cirque du Soleil OVO at the National Harbor. OVO was perfect for Scarlett AND her parents. Kind of like Shrek, there is action and humor for all ages. Although she spent half the time looking at our neighbors, she was fascinated by all of the characters, costumes, noises, lights, and high flying acts. She loved the music and danced almost the entire time. Try to guess her favorite out of the following list:

a. Trapeze
b. Goofy bug costumes
c. Trampoline tumblers
d. Wall climbing acrobatics
e. One-man hidden inside costume with 5 huge slinky limbs

I will reveal the answer next week. Guess correctly and you win a prize (or maybe you'll just have bragging rights :) Seriously though, if you have time and OVO is playing near you, try to see it. It was spectacular. We've been to 4 or 5 Cirque productions over 7+ years, and this might have been the best. Only 2 were memorable. The first one and last week's.

Saturday- Outlet shopping in Leesburg. Clothes for Scarlett, a few things for us, including a wallet that both of us thought would be the best one I've had. I'll look for another one asap...

Sunday- Ravens game, hon! We figured the Buffalo Bills game would be a good starter because there was a chance the game would be a blowout and we could leave early (if she fussed too much we would have left early regardless, but Scarlett was, well, Scarlett, at this game. Too many people to play with). We bought Scarlett a Ravens shirt before game day, but as it turned out, we wanted much more for our little purple peanut. We parked, walked down "Ravens Alley", and stumbled into an outdoor Ravens gear store. Ooops. I was wearing my Ray Lewis jersey as was Shonna, so we figured we should get Scarlett a jersey. The only one in her size was Joe Flacco, but he hasn't played up to Scarlett's standards yet. There was a few others, but we focused in on Ray Lewis. The only problem was the size- 3T. It didn't take us long to do the math. The jersey wasn't much more than some of the clothes we've seen, and unlike clothes her size, she will have this jersey for 2+ years! Its a bargain! So the family of Ray Rays walked into the game- quickly I might add. There are multiple security lines for men, women, and only one for family. Guess which one is shorter? Yep, family by like 90%. How great is that? During the game, Scarlett was on her best behavior. Most likely because she was surrounded by fans who were doing what she loves best. They were all paying attention to her. Fans in front, behind, and especially across the aisle were smiling at her, making faces, and waving. She didn't mind that she didn't eat that much, or that it was hot, or that the sun was in her eyes when she looked right. All she cared about was the attention (and unfortunately whatever was dropped under our seats- she loves empty beer bottles and soda cups...). Well.... the game went on and on and on and replay after replay to reverse bad calls on the field, and 71 points scored, and overtime.... it was the longest game I've ever been to. Of course, right? That said, it was a great day to that point. In hindsight if we would have just driven straight home it most likely would have continued that way, but instead we decided to eat a late lunch. We wanted crab soup. The place that used to have great crab soup changed their menu, so we left got in the car, and headed to another place we know of. It took a few loops to find parking, and by that time Scarlett had fallen asleep. OK, change plans again. We drove home. The only problem was that there was an accident on 495. We tried to bypass it (and GPS woke Scarlett up), but apparently traffic also backed up on the side roads as well as further down 495. When Scarlett woke up, she realized that she was starving and very tired. Not a happy baby. Sooooooo we stopped in Silver Spring. We finally found the location, parked, and walked around looking to for a place to eat. All told, instead of getting home at 6-630, we were home after 9 (after a normal game, we would have been home 530 at the latest). Lesson learned. Still a great experience for Scarlett.

Paul left for Colorado on Tuesday morning, which meant that I was going to take Scarlett to swim class all by myself for the first time. After we got home from daycare, I kept talking it up as I got her dressed and she was pretty psyched by the time we got in the car, and even more excited when we got out and she saw the building for the pool. We got in and they told us the news. There had been an "accident" in the children's pool and all classes were canceled. What?!?! What about the adult pool, can she go in there? Nope. Poor Scarlett had to be turned around and dragged out of the building without ever having touched the water. As I tried to put her back into the car, she held onto the door frame and cried her little heart out. SO SAD. I'm not sure I've ever seen her so disappointed. She even had a brand new bathing suit on. Sigh. I felt so bad. I wanted to take her to a playground or something as a consolation but it looked like it was about to storm and was already getting dark. We played a lot at home that night to try to make her feel better, but she is probably forever scarred with disappointment.

Paul got back on Thursday afternoon, just in time for my friend Justin from Minnesota to arrive. He came into town for a job interview and stayed with us through Halloween weekend. Scarlett had no idea what to do with herself around him. Every time he smiled at her or talked to her, she smiled and buried her face in my chest. Now, that newly found shyness seems to be here to stay. She is doing that more and more with strangers.

On Friday night, we went out to the craft store to buy costume making supplies. Justin was a pirate of sorts, Paul was a mallet, I was Old Bay, and Scarlett was a crab. On Saturday we went to Scarlett's first (non) rally at the National mall. Metro had it's highest ridership since the Dessert Storm Rally - Over 740,000 passengers -- one of them being Scarlett. She did as well as could be expected in the crowds, but she only napped for about 10 minutes so we left the rally early as she started melting down and headed home for a group nap. Later that evening, Abigail took over so that Paul, Justin, Jacy, Joel, and I could go to a Halloween party. Except for a ridiculously long cab ride on the way back, it was a good time.

Sunday Justin, Dave, and Paul watched football before I took Justin to the airport. Jacy, Joel, and Liam came over and we went out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the first time. It was a lot of fun to see the neighbors and made us love our neighborhood even more. The firetruck came by passing out bags of candy and invitations to their Christmas party. Liam and Scarlett went as a devil and angel, respectively. They got a lot of compliments. We discovered that Scarlett can break through a candy wrapper and she discovered her first love... CHOCOLATE. We were walking around when we suddenly noticed that she was covered in chocolate drool. And so was her formerly white costume. She had a MAJOR temper tantrum when we took the chocolate away too. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

One nice byproduct of trick-or-treating was that we found 2 potential babysitters! One block over there were 16 year old twins who thought she was cute and want to babysit.