New Orleans and the Aquarium

1/14th of my life ago (which is last month for the rest of you but it's been so long since Momma has posted that I'm starting to think of it in those terms) we went to New Orleans for a few days.

Mommy and Daddy didn't install the car seat in Daddy's truck very well so I was sitting vertical and couldn't keep my head up while I was sleeping, so Mommy tried to prop it as seen above. It didn't work very well - it was a long ride.

We got to go to the Aquarium that afternoon which was lots of fun. I even got to slide by myself for the first time.

Look at all those cool fish and sharks

And even a hotel room is fun when you have a fun Daddy playing peek-a-boo with you through the door to the living area.

The Newest Addition - our pet elephant :)

Here's our newest family member, our little pet elephant...

Wait a second! That's ME! Mommy took so long to do this post that I nearly forgot that I was Dumbo for Halloween.

Mimi gave me this outfit. I'm trying my best to look comfortable, but let's just be honest, no child has ever been comfortable in get-up like this.

But instead of pouting over my discomfort, I like to make the best of it and keep on trucking, pushing my wagon in circles like usual.

On a positive note, these ears do work quite nicely as a sun shade.

No more National Geographic for this little spud

Cole's a little embarrassed to tell this story so as his mother I'll recount for posterity's sake:

I was sitting in the carport watching Cole push his trash-to-treasure car around the driveway when suddenly he looked up at the sky for a few seconds and then dropped to his knees and started whining and crawling back to me as fast as he could. This seemed a little odd so I picked him up and walked out there to see what had scared him. There were 4 hawks circling overhead! I stayed out there with him but he kept a watchful eye on those hawks, stopping to survey their location every 10 or 15 seconds as he pushed his car around. I guess even a one-year-old knows that he might be mistaken for a large rabbit if he's not careful :).

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I am a one-year-old!!

We had a party on my birthday and Mommy and Daddy's families came over for some cake and ice cream. Here's Mimi and Mamena.

And Nana and cousin Simon

And Uncle Joel, Aunt Rachel, and Millie and Simon

and my two fave peeps, Mom and Dad :)

Cake part 1

Mommy made me a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. I've never had cake at all before, but everyone else seemed excited about it. Not only was there cake, but there was FIRE on top of the cake! On tv they do those kinds of things in fancy restaurants. If I would've known it was going to be fancy I might have kept my shirt on.

Millie helped me blow out the candle. Mommy decorated the cake all by herself and she was pretty proud of it. I heard her telling Daddy that she had made me my own little cake but it fell apart when she took it out of the oven, so I just got a piece of the big one - no great loss to me.

I'm a cautious child all the way around and this piece of cake needed to be inspected before I just dove in. So I tore half of it apart with one finger before I even took a bite.

Hmmm....this stuff is pretty good!!

Cake part 2

Can't get enough!

Taking a breather to make more room...I'm in the zone...

I've seen a few of those eating contests and they always drink a lot to eat more, so I better do that too...

Loading up the last few crumbs...

SOOO DELICIOUS!!! (And I even got to keep my new favorite ball the whole time!)

Presents!

I'm ready to go!!

Mommy helped me open a few...

But Millie was my real helper :)

Little Ransacker

Are we being robbed by this hooded bandit?

Nope, it's just me, playing in the socks again :) (note the cute candy-going-into-my-tummy shirt that Mimi got me). One of my favorite things to do is for Momma to open the sock drawer of my dresser and let me pull all the socks out. Then I can get about 3 pairs in each hand at a time and I carry them all over the house. I don't know what it is about socks, but I sure do love them.

My burp cloths that I sleep with all the time are right next to the socks, but I never give them a second look. I'm only interested in the socks. All those glorious socks...

Taking Matters into My Own Hands

Sometimes that Momma needs to learn a lesson. When I'm hungry, she needs to feed me...

Pulling a Grandpa

Nice ride, huh?

My Grandpa went to heaven before I was born so I didn't get to meet him, but Mommy tells me about him and a few days ago I got to experience first-hand one of the tricks he taught mommy.

I'm a little distracted by this leaf that just blew into the picture, but I'll try to concentrate to tell the story. Mommy was dropping me off at Mimi's house and it happened to be trash day and we drove by this cute little red car next to someone's trash can (i'll refrain from telling you what neighborhood it was in so Daddy's not embarrassed). When Mommy was little they had a big red station wagon and Grandpa would pull over all the time to pull a treasure out of someone's trash and haul it home in the back of the car. He wasn't too proud to find his kids fun stuff that someone else didn't want anymore. He would clean it up and fix it and they'd have all sorts of cool toys.

I have to have this leaf! Anyway, so Mommy dropped me off at Mimi's house and decided she would swallow her own pride and get me that little car. She's still a little bit proud, though, so she had to circle the block for about 10 minutes until no one was around. She popped it in the trunk and cleaned it up for me 2 days ago (I helped by chewing on the hose while she washed it) and we've been taking walks in it every day. I LOVE it! It has a stearing wheel that I can hold onto and a seat belt to keep me from leaping out when I see things like this leaf. She didn't tell Daddy it was in her trunk for a few days because Daddy's not really into the whole trash-diving bit, but even Daddy thinks it's the best little car a boy could want.