It's a Walk Out!

Men walk out on their women...women walk out on their men and Kramer walked out on H&H bagels but what about babies walking out on their momma's during their one year photo shoot no less. Well imagine it in your head cause it happened to me and it may even happen to you. It was Feb 9th and I decided that I better look into getting pictures to commemorate this milestone in his life. I called Target and book a spot for Ian on Feb 12th at 1pm. That morning I get together some cute outfits and toys, stuff them in a bag and at 12:30, I pack the car and the kid and drive to the portrait studio. The photographer sets up the studio with a white background and sets a cute little stool in the center. I take out this piano that I packed and set it up for him to play with, then I set Ian near the stool. As soon as I walk away, Ian walks away too and not just out of the scene but out of the studio. I run and grab him and set him up again. This time he sits by the piano for 30 seconds which luckily is enough time to snap 4 shots. After those are accomplished he walks out again. Hailey Hawes, who I also invite to the shoot takes a turn and is the sweetest thing ever. She sits right on the stool looks at the camera and smiles perfect. She sits there for like 4 minutes and would not have moved if we did not try and get some more pics of her and Ian together. So I set Ian up next to Hailey and yet again, he walks away and then out the door again. We grab this cute couch and set that up for them to sit on. Ian get up again and walks right out. Luckily during the few and I do mean few seconds that Ian was stable during an hour of trying to shoot we manage to get 8 I repeat 8 pictures total of Ian. 3 of them with Hailey in them. I am telling you though if that couch had a seat belt, we could have been in business....seriously.

Party Pooper

When Ian turned 1 I knew that I did not want to have a party at our house because it is cold in February and I seriously did not think we had the space to plan something fun in the dead of winter. Besides that, Ian's birthday was on Valentine’s Day so why not go somewhere fun. I called The Little Gym and inquired about doing a 1st yr birthday party with them. The idea sounded awesome, the babies get together and they play with bubbles and a parachute and ride around in a little cart, I was sold...until I heard the price, 250.00. So then I started to try and brain storm, well where can we go for about half the cost that would have fun stuff for babies?
I asked around for ideas for places to have Ian's Party. Friend after friend continued try and convince me that our house was a great place for the party. I was getting so discouraged until I finally talked to my friend Jessica who suggested that we have the party at the Maple Grove indoor pool. I checked out their web site and it looked great. There was a 0 to 2' pool for the babies and a waterslide and a rope swing for adults. There were even Party rooms that you could rent to host the event. OK so far this sounded perfect but I was freaking out that it was February 2nd and his birthday was less than 2 weeks away. I called immediately that Monday morning and found out that there was a room we could use. Next, I print the invites that I bought a week and a half ago but of course could do nothing with until we had a place picked out. And finally, I could start shopping for decor I thought of a rubber ducky theme since it was a swimming party. I bought a ducky piñata, rubber ducky cup cake toppers, and rubber ducky beach balls for each of the kids, I decorated the room with hearts and rubber ducks. It all came together swimmingly up to the day. We had a nice turn out 12 kids and 15 adults. At the party we dined on the traditional birthday dish of cupcakes and Ice Crème. Everyone was anticipating Ian Eating his first birthday cake but being the hippy mom that I am, I fed him gluten free brownies but Grandma Shaw managed to slide a few spoonfuls of Vanilla Ice Crème into his mouth. Anyway, Ian got some awesome gifts including some adorable clothes, some great toys ( in particular, a Sesame Street remote control) and a hilarious T-shirt from Audrey and Hailey that had Ian's mug on it that read, I'm coming unglued. After opening gifts, I decide that since we have been chilling in the room for over an hour that it was time to get this party stared and hit the pool. I start packing up the room and Tyler rounds the kids together to pay for their pool admission. It takes me about 35-40 minutes to get the room packed up and change and get down to the pool. It is so warm and nice in the pool area, such a contrast to the weather outside. We strip off the towels and join the rest of the group to splash and swim. 10 minutes into the fun the life guards blows their whistles. Everyone evacuates the pool cuz; you guessed it...some kid pooped in the pool. It was going to be 45 minutes until the kiddie pool opens again and half our guest decides to leave. For ten minutes Ian was having the time of his life until a rouge log appeared amongst the waves. Happy Valentine’s Day Ian and Happy Birthday too...better luck next year.