My little swimmer

Shane had used his bath ring seat up until his 1st birthday last month because he was scared of slipping in the tub, but now he is fearless! His favorite new thing is to lay on his tummy and kick and splash and put his face in the water. I think we have a little swimmer on our hands! I know we aren't even officially into winter yet, but I can't wait to see how he does in the pool this summer. Just look at my cute little naked baby! :)



Shane's friend Dylan had his 1st birthday party last weekend. They weren't very interested in playing with each other, but Shane is really starting to get the hang of the whole opening presents situation now that he has been to so many birthday parties! After Christmas he will be a pro!




We also had a play date with Lennon. She is 6 weeks older than Shane and is just adorable. She LOVES to give hugs and kisses and always wants to share. I think she is a little too aggressive for Shane, but boy were they cute together!



P.S. I am VERY proud to report that Shane has been sleeping 11 hours straight EVERY NIGHT! WOO HOO! Hooray for me finally getting a decent nights sleep after a whole year!!! Let's hope I don't jinx it by talking about it :D

Halloween Fun

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Don't we have the cutest little puppy dog?!? Shane is a little young for trick-or-treating still, but we did go to Nora's 1st Birthday/Costume Party last weekend where he got to wear his cute doggy outfit. It was about 90 degrees that day and I can't say the kids were very thrilled to be dressed up!

Birthday girl Nora, her cousin Mazie and Shane

Shane told Nora how good cheese puff are...
now she is hooked!

Shane is looking good in Emily's Elvis glasses

Singing Happy 1st Birthday to Nora!


Nora wearing the cute hat I made for her
(minus the halo)

Ryan and I carved pumpkins a couple days before Halloween and Shane was very excited to be in on the action. I wasn't sure what he would think after he hated having the cake frosting all over his hands, but he dove right in! He was Mommy's big helper and would pick up each seed that dropped and would put it in the bowl for me. What a good boy!

Then it was off to Jackie's 27th Birthday/Halloween Party. Grandma Linda babysat Shane for us and it was his first ever sleep over away from Mom and Dad. I am proud to say that he did GREAT! He is now sleeping through the night (for the most part) and even took a 3 hour nap for Grandma which is unheard of! Ryan and I had a well deserved night out and had a great time at the party. The best part...I didn't get out of bed until NOON the following day. Ahh, it was wonderful!

King Leonidas & Queen Gorgo from the movie 300

We love each other...I swear!

Queen Gorgo, Morticia Addams, toga chick & Lara Croft

Jackie (the birthday girl) and I

My neighbors...Morticia and Gomez Addams

Me enjoying my night out...CHEERS!

The price I paid for wearing sexy shoes

Ryan was the first out of his costume of course

My best girls...April and Jackie

The end of the night...can you tell?

Another busy weekend

Look at my big boy! Shane now has 8 teeth in that cute little grin he gives. He is growing up so fast! We are working on weaning him off bottles now and it's going pretty good so far. He still wakes up twice a night wanting bottles, so this weekend we gave him NO BOTTLES at night and he is already down to waking up just once. A big improvement! I can't wait to get a whole night of uninterrupted sleep!!

He is also loving his new Baby Signing Time DVD. He still signs: eat, drink, more...but now he also does milk and cat (while he chases the neighbors cats outside!). He has been trying to talk A LOT lately too. We have 30 or so turkeys running around near our house and he has been trying to repeat "gobble, gobble, gobble" with a big smile on his face. It is soo cute!

We went to Dakota's 1st birthday last weekend at Helen Putnum Park. It was a beautiful day and we were so happy to celebrate with everyone. HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, DAKOTA!!

The Long's

Pretty little birthday girl!

Playing at the park

Peak-A-Boo!

He loves to be up high

Our little family!

Then we had a play date with Shannon and Samuel on Sunday. We went to Rincon Valley Park and then Howarth Park and went on the train and took Shane on the carousel for the first time. We can all tell by the smile on Shane's face that he loooves the train, but I was definitely more excited about the carousel ride than he was!

Pumpkin Patch

Dakota and Shane

2007

2008

Look how much our babies have grown! It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by already. It's been so much fun sharing these kinds of moments with Dominique and Dakota over the past year. We are so lucky to have such happy and healthy babies! Dakota's 1st birthday is this weekend and we can't wait. We have baby Nora's 1st birthday next weekend and it is a costume party! Stay tuned for cute babies in costume and pictures of our Jack-o-lanterns!

Ready to find our pumpkins!

It took forever to get Shane to sit still for this picture!

He really liked this green pumpkin

He finally decided on one that wasn't green

Aren't they adorable?!?

Shane is feeding Dakota pretzels....too cute!!

Yummy!

Mama's boy : )

First Birthday Pictures

The party was a success! It rained while we were setting up and I did panic for a half hour or so, but the weather cleared and we had a beautiful day and a great turnout.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Shane's first birthday.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes from those who couldn't make it.

Special thanks to everyone who helped me plan and set up this party

(Jackie, April, Chris, Tony, Del and Grandma)

because I couldn't have done it without you!! Shane is one lucky little guy to have such great friends and families.

Here is a slide show of the day's events.