Happy Birthday Wallace!

Today Wallace turns 1. Yes, already. I can't believe it. What's more, I can't believe that 6 weeks from now Liv will be 1 as well. Where did this year go? How is it that these two are crawling, standing, "talking" and actually playing with each other? I know every parent says that it goes so fast, but this year I have come to know that first hand.

Sunday was W's birthday party and it was so fun. Liv dressed up... complete with a bow in her hair (for about 5 minutes!)

Wallace wasn't too sure what to do with his cake, but he figured it out and ended up really enjoying it! I think Liv was a little jealous. She crawled over to Meghan who was holding the candle to see if she could sneak a little lick of the frosting! :)

As soon as Wallace was done opening his presents I put Liv down and she made a beeline over toward the mountain of loot. I think she thought W's new toys were the best part of the party!

We may need to get her a truck for her birthday!

Liv has recently started kissing properly (ie, lips puckered, mouth closed) ... sometimes! She gave Auntie Sara a kiss at the party.

I like this shot of W, Liv and Harrison. Harrison is such a sweet boy and is so good with Liv. Here he's showing Liv how to make a baseball character fly. :) I love how W is checking out his new firetruck in the background.

It was a great party. Happy birthday, Wallace! We love you so much!!

Better pic

Kurt's phone did a better job capturing them when they were in our section... cool, huh? :)

Coldplay

Last night Kurt and I headed up to the Forum in Inglewood to see one of our favorite bands, Coldplay! First of all, the Forum is disgusting and should be condemned. It was dirty, parking was a nightmare, it took an hour to get from the freeway to the place (2 miles!!) and it smelled. Other than the venue, it was a great show. We saw Coldplay a few years ago at the Hollywood Bowl and that was such a fun concert we knew we had to go again when they came back to town. Here's a more in depth review if you're interested but I just wanted to show a couple pictures.

We decided to buy the "cheap" seats, which really aren't so cheap but are definitely FAR from the stage and definitely a lot cheaper than the seats on the floor. We were in Colonnade 5 at the very back and very top of the Forum. It was a great vantage point to see all of the crazy lasers and lights during the show but actually seeing the band was a little harder. Here's our view:


Well, towards the end of the show, the band left the stage and ran through the crowd. I had read the review from the night before so I knew they were headed somewhere to sing an acoustic version of "Yellow" with the audience. This of course prompted all sorts of cheering and everyone was thrilled to get a little closer glimpse of the band. They got closer and closer to us and right as they were in front of our little section, they stopped. The section they had arranged to do their little audience sing-along from was Colonnade 5! They were about 8 rows in front of us and it was awesome! I know this picture doesn't do it justice but you can see how close they were! (They were in that swath of light!) So fun for us cheapskates in the back!! Thanks Mom & Dad for watching Liv for us!!

Confession

I broke the law yesterday. Although I've been diligently donning my oh-so-stylish bluetooth earpiece since last Tuesday, yesterday I drove and held my phone while talking. And I didn't even think twice about it until later. Just wanted to come clean.

the latest

a few random happenings:

Liv LOVES being in her highchair... probably because she equates that with eating, which she also loves! :) Here she is making a complete mess with a teething biscuit. Why I didn't have a bib on her is beyond me!


This is what Liv looks like when she decides not to take a nap and to hang out in a pile of laundry.


One of Liv's new tricks is pointing. She started doing this in New York - probably because there were so many interesting things to look and point at! She loves pointing to trees, lights on the ceiling, food, other kids and a billion other things. She's also kind of saying "that" although it's more like "dat" and it's super random but we can pretend she's incredibly gifted, right?


Yes, that is a bow you see in Liv's hair! Her little patch on top is finally long enough and thick enough to support a little clippy! Of course she does love to pull them out and gnaw on them!


Last, but not least.... we have graduated to the bathtub! Liv had her first full-on real bathtub bath last night and I'm pretty sure she was mad at us for holding out on her! She loves water and had a blast kicking and splashing and chasing her duckies around! She and I went swimming the other night at Erin's and she was shrieking with delight and probably would have stayed in far longer than we did. I think we have a little swimmer on our hands!

Tall & skinny

I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I will never be tall and skinny. Definitely won't ever be tall and we'll see about the skinny... My daughter, however, just may be both. At least she is right now. Who would have ever guessed that Kurt and I would have a tall kid? The doctor has told me that she is tall and skinny at her last two check-ups. Let's hope this lasts so she doesn't have to know the world of too long pants & shirt sleeves & needing a step stool to reach the second shelf of her cupboards!

Unfortunately, according to this equation for genetic potential height, she doesn't have much hope!

(Dad's height - 5 inches) + Mom's height = Daughter's genetic growth potential
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj2

(5'8" - 5") + 5'3" = 5'3" = my height!
jjjjjjjjjjj2

Oh well. I hope she's enjoying it while she has it! :)

What is my problem?

I know I haven't blogged about our New York trip but I am working on it and it was a wonderful vacation. Right now I am trying to find a rug. When we were in New York I made a point to go to a few of the cool design stores to try to find something that would fit with our new couches... something fun, modern, different. Well, I found the PERFECT rug! We were meandering through one of my favorite sections of Soho and found a store called The Rug Company (original, I know!) We popped in and the super nice sales guy went through this huge pile of rugs with us and then we saw it.... THE rug. (It would look way better on my dark bamboo floors with my charcoal gray couches... in my opinion, of course!)


It's fun, different, modern AND it has both green and orange in it! (I've been trying to make my mind up about which one to have as my accent color downstairs.) Awesome! And, when we asked if they shipped, they told us they had a store in LA. Even more awesome! The super helpful sales guy wrote down the info for me and then I asked about the price. Ummmmm... yeah. He said it was one of their less expensive rugs because it didn't have any silk in it. Cool... I usually have a knack for picking out the most expensive thing in a store. Seriously, take me to a 99 cent store and I will probably find the one thing that is $1.50. Anyway, the price. $5700. Yeah... for a rug. Needless to say we won't be buying that rug. Not with our budget, and definitely not with a little girl who likes to spit-up.

So, I'm still looking for a rug. What do you think about these:




They are all significantly cheaper than my New York find, but I just can't make up my mind. Am I the only person out there who obsesses about a rug? Probably. If you have an opinion about the rugs, let me know!