Birthday present to me

Yesterday I turned 30. That sounds strange. It doesn't really seem THAT old but it seems much older than saying you're 29. I've had a very blessed and happy 30 years, that's for sure.

About a month ago I decided to get serious about losing some weight. It was always in the back of my mind but I finally set a goal to lose 10 pounds by my birthday and I'm happy to say I did it! Plus one! Now, I wish I could say I was done but I've still got several more pounds to go but it's a great start! Thanks to Matt and the rest of my family for their encouragement!

Party #1 and #2

Last Sunday, while my brother who lives in Arizona was in town, we had a small get together with my side of the family for Jackson's birthday. He was grumpy (see the picture in the post below) but it was still fun to celebrate with all of my family.

Today we had a party at our house with the McCann side. Thankfully, Jackson took a good nap and was a happy birthday boy. He was not very interested in his first birthday cupcake so I wasn't sure about this time but yeah, see for yourself. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. Thanks to everyone who came and made his birthday so fun!

How many pictures of a sweet frosting covered boy are too many? It looked like war paint by the time he was done with it.

12 month stats

Jackson's 1 year check up was this week. Good to get that out of the way. Shots are not fun for anybody.

Here are his stats:

Weight - 26.7 lbs. (90%)

Height - 29.8 in. (60%)

Head - 49.5 cm. (95%)

I've been worried about Jackson's behavior lately. He is grumpy. Like, really, really grumpy. When he's not asleep he's usually whining or crying about something. I was concerned that maybe he had developed a food allergy that was giving him a tummy ache. Or that somehow his ear tubes weren't working and were causing him pain. But when I brought it up with the pediatrician, he said his ears look great and that it's more than likely just an age thing. A phase. He suggested to just ride it out for a few more weeks and see if it improves. Lovely. I love Jackson. So much. But the whining gets a little old around, oh, 9:00 a.m. I think part of the problem is that he is transitioning from two naps a day to just one. Also, all the ear issues kind of wreaked havoc on his sleeping habits.

As far as development, Jackson is plugging right along. He finally learned to crawl the "right" way. No more army crawling. He pulls himself up on every vertical surface he come across and can walk along the furniture. Time to get serious about baby proofing! No walking yet, thank goodness, but I think it's not too far off.

I love this little boy so much. Grumpy pants and all.

Eclipse

Public Service Announcement - If you don't like the Twilight series or are sick of hearing about the movies, I suggest you stop reading now. Snarky comments will not be tolerated. :)

A couple of Saturdays ago, Moviefone put on a Twilight Night event in Fairmont Park. It was actually pretty cool. Only 12 cities in the country were selected to host one. Too bad they did such a poor job of advertising it.

My sister-in-law, Amanda, had her sister's family in town. Her 14 year old niece, Alicia, and I went together. Her mom and Amanda keep thanking me for taking her but if I'm being honest, I am SO glad she wanted to go! It was awesome. There were tons of free Twilight goodies. We got posters, a key chain, nail polish, a button, a bracelet, and a t-shirt. We got to walk the "red carpet" and have our pictures taken with Cardboard Edward and Cardboard Jacob. It had been a long time since I willingly made a fool of myself like that. :)

Later on in the evening, two of the stars of Eclipse (real ones, not the cardboard kind) came. Unfortunately we didn't have a VIP wristband but it was still really neat to see Charlie Bewley (Demetri) and Julia Jones (Leah Clearwater). Believe me when I say, both of them are beautiful in person! They didn't stay for very long but were kind enough to stay long enough to sign some autographs. I brought my copy of Eclipse (okay, I know I'm a nerd) and I was so excited that I got it signed by both of them. Alicia was even brave enough to ask Julia for a picture. Both actors were very gracious and nice to the fans that had come to see them. Here are a few pictures from our Twilight Night. It was great to relax and act like a total fangirl with Alicia!

And yes, I absolutely wore the t-shirt when I went to see the movie.

Happy Birthday

One year ago this sweet boy joined our little family. I will never be able to imagine our lives without him.

Love you Buster.

Just me and my Dad

Matt had the very fun idea of having a backyard camp out with Eliza Friday night. She has been SO excited the entire week. Finally the big day arrived! She helped dad set up the tent then they were off to the store to get "supplies." Those supplies included a Tinker Bell sleeping bag, graham crackers, marshmallows, and a Hershey's bar. Then we packed her backpack with everything she would need and took it out to the tent.

Keep in mind that we usually put Eliza to bed between 7:00-7:30 at night. I knew there was NO way she would fall asleep that early. It doesn't start to get dark until 9:30. So they had their s'mores and she played outside for a while. 8:30 rolled around and I thought she may be tired enough to fall asleep even with it still being light outside. No luck. It was noisy and just way too many distractions going on on top of her excitement of being on her first camp out.

I went outside around 10:00 to check on the campers and Eliza was still wide awake. So we decided that it would be just as fun to camp in the family room! We got her all set up on the floor and I sang her one more song and she fell asleep almost instantly. This is how we found her this morning.

So the camp out didn't go exactly as planned but she loved it anyway. Thanks Matt for being such a cute dad who loves to do fun things with your little buddy.