Video: Playing with Doors
Daddy said “Mom, come look, Vincent can open doors now!” …. UH OH! I thought… But actually it is not too bad (yet). He can open this door because it does not latch when you close it, so actually, you just need to push it and it swings open. He had lots of fun though once he realized he accomplished this task.
Vincent Can Official Walk!
This week I noticed that Vincent figured out how to get to a “standing” position from sitting down without having to go to anything to grab to help him up. So — off he goes walking! He is pretty good at it, as you can tell. And having a blast!
Birthday Bear and Balloon Videos
Here are more videos of Vincent. He has his own mind and its fun to watch him play!
Kissing the Birthday Bear:
This is the bear my Uncle Yoshi and Aunty Lillian picked out for Vincent. He LOVES watching the bear sing. He will “kiss” the bear (or bite?) when he sees the mouth moving. I notice that he actually does this to almost all his stuffed animals — singing or not.
Playing with Balloons:
He LOVED the balloons at his birthday party! He grabbed them and just bounced them around. He would chase after them too. Luckily none ever popped!
Vincent’s First Birthday Party
Vincent’s first birthday theme was airplane! I thought to do this theme because he absolutely loves things that fly in the air. It all started when he was a newborn baby and he took notice of our ceiling fans. Daddy would make them spin by hand to get him to calm down. When he was 6 months old he went on his first airplane ride to Hawaii and did very well (despite pooping himself multiple times!). A month later we were at Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose and he was obsessed with this swirling airplane mobile! Anyway, so it was a perfect theme and I saw lots of inspiring ideas on Pinterest and party idea websites.
INVITATION
I made a logo for “VincentAir” and created a mock passenger ticket with all the details you might find on a boarding pass. I bought some airmail envelopes to put it in for that extra special touch. A few recipients were fooled into thinking it was an actual airline! Haha! Mission accomplished, i guess?
PARTY FOOD
Decided to keep it easy and do a “make your own sandwich” bar with all the fixings. We had turkey, ham, and chicken deli meats, 4 types of cheese, along with some bacon, avocado, tomatoes, red onion, butter lettuce, craisins, and pickles. We had Ruffles potato chips, tortilla chips, bean dip, and salsa. A fruit spread in which i tried to make a “rainbow”. My mom made a wheat thin cracker with blue cheese and creamcheese topped with candied pecan and pear. We also had some homemade chex mix.
DESSERT TABLE
I bought the table cloth on clearance from K-Mart after Fourth of July.
My mom and I made sugar cookies cut into airplanes, clouds, number 1s and mini airplanes. It took us several hours to finish baking and decorating but it was a lot of fun. I forgot to take more close-up photos of them though — these are the last ones i had left…all the “cool” designs i had given away.
The “smash” cake for Vinny was made from a spring-foam cake pan. Half the batter was died blue. I cut out a shape of cloud and put white frosting and 4 little plastic airplane candle holders i got online. Completed the look with a sparkly #1 candle.
I found this idea on Pinterest to make Sky Jello. Just raspberry blue jello and homemade whip cream that you stick to the side of the cup before you pour in the quick-set jello. Super yummy and fun!
The cupcakes were box-mix because i was too lazy and we had to make a bunch of cupcakes! Half where chocolate, half were yellow. I made little flags for them using my Cameo cutter (best invention ever!)
DECORATIONS
I made signs for the front door, the bathroom (lavatory), the candy game, the favor area (baggage claim), and the computer (photo booth).
I used the diagonal lines from the invite and added some clouds to the background. I actually made a new “VincentAir” logo using pilot “wings” since the star alone was kind of boring me. š
Our kitchen/bar area has a few pegs to hang things near the ceiling/wall area. So i used my Cameo to cut some airplane and cloud shapes in various design patterns, then took some red/white twine and hung them. I loved the way they came out! The first day i hung them up Vincent took notice of them RIGHT AWAY — he smiled and leaned his head back. Jeff said when the wind blew them, he would start laughing and giggling.
I made my first pennant sign! Happy 1st Birthday! Then cut out the letters for Vincent’s name.
I thought of the idea to create a big airplane use the windows to display Vinny’s month photos. I used drafting tape and big art roll paper to create it. Then cut out the shape along the edge and tacked it to the wall.
I bought this star decoration from Target during Fourth of July. My mom bought a few airplane related toys to use as decoration. Patti gave us the airplane bear! Notice the pilot hat.
I placed red and blue pinwheels outside our house along the path to our door. I also bought a blue and silver mylar airplane balloon from Ebay, but i didnt get a photo of it! It flew outside — well more like nose dived constantly to the grass since it was a little windy outside!
ACTIVITIES
I had a “guess the amount of candy in the jar” game set up near the entrance.Ā The correct amount of candies in the jar as 1052, with the best guess being Markus’ daughter Rachel at 500 something!
Mom brought the “Styro-flyers” book that had punch-out airplanes you could make from the book. It also had instructions on how to make a airplane from a big mac box. LOL! I think this is from the ’80s.
I bought balsa wood airplanes for the kids to assemble and decorate. I had a bunch of markers and star and letter stickers for them to use. I wish i got a photo of them decorating because it looked like they were having fun! I saw some pretty nice designs.
FAVORS
For the kids, i bought these cool containers that matched my color scheme. I bought some “world” stress balls, a compass ring, a pen, bubbles, red and white lollipop, and a candy airplane.
This was made from two pieces of juicy fruit gum, a tootsie roll or a smartie (i used either), a rubber band, and two lifesavers. Pretty easy to make and very fitting for my theme!
I also made clothespin airplanes. This i placed in the kid goodie basket, and i also made a separate board to display these for the adult party-goers to take home as favors.
Again i used my Cameo to make a little tag on the end that said “Vincent’s First Birthday, 2012”
On the flip side, i put “Thanks for flying with us!” I used the red and white twine (purchased on Amazon for pretty cheap!) to tie it to the end. I loved the way these turned out! Super fun and easy to make.
THE PARTY
My parents, Jeff’s parents, and my sister Susan flew in to celebrate Vinny’s birthday. My mom helped out a lot with the baking and prepping for the party. I worked hard for a few weeks before hand to get the favors figured out, make the decorations and plan the menu. I stayed up till 2am on some nights using my cool new Cameo cutter! Kinda obsessed with that thing. We took a family photo and tried to “recreate” the originalĀ from 1 year ago when he was a few weeks old.
The party was on Saturday from 11am-2pm. We weren’t quite ready at 11am with the food but wasn’t running too much behind. Though i feel like i didnt have enough time to take photos of all my hard work!
Everyone ate and mingled. The kids played in the sunroom. The other smaller kids in attendance were Olivia (10 months, above), Charlotte (3 months — below with Bonnie), and Lilia (18 months).
I ordered Vinny a really neat shirt from Etsy with his name and the number 1 on it, but…. he was wearing a red bib the whole party! So no one got to see it. Wah wah!
SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY
We gathered the guests into the dining room to sing happy birthday to Vinny. I think he was a little stunned by all the people in the room but he didnt freak out or anything, just looked little confused.
After the song, Jeff and i blew the candle out then took the decorations off so he could eat the cake. He grabbed at it slowly at first, then started really digging in and eating! He loves his cake…
Here is the video:
OPENING GIFTS
Vincent had help from Olivia and Dad to open his gifts. He was so funny. After opening one gift he insisted on sitting on top of it.
He got some pretty cool stuff — a pop-up tent (Ikea) from Markus & family, a walker/activity center from Angie.
We got lots of airplane/helicopter related toys from “Little People” brand (we didnt have any duplicates, amazingly!) A few shirts and PJs, books, dump trucks, cars, puzzles and more! My cousin Sandee got hime a bunch of leapfrog toys and books. Even though we stated gifts were not needed,… uh… i think everyone gave something! Vinny loves his new toys!
Here is this cool ladybug that shoots bubbles out it’s butt from Carrie and Roger.
Overall the party was a big success! I had planned weeks and weeks… hemmed and hawed over so many details, and i am very pleased with the way everything came out! Party planning was more fun than i thought it would be — can’t wait for next year when he’ll be more aware of whats going on and maybe have more of his own buddies attending.
Prepping for Vinny’s Party
Getting all our preparations ready for tomorrow’s party. The balloons and decorations are up! I put my dad and Mike to work! Haha!
Jeff bought a croquet set for people to play during the party. The guys played a round.
There were a couple of balloons that fell the ground and Vinny had a blast chasing after them, biting them, bouncing them, etc. I was afraid they would pop, but it never did.
Jeff dressed Vinny in his TEAM USA basketball jersey, since tonight is the start of the London Summer Olympics! (Of course you can’t see his jersey though since he is wearing a bib…dangit)
Getting ready for bed… i let my dad brush Vinny’s teeth. His first “professional” cleaning! And by that i just mean, a professional person doing it of course. Don’t think he’ll be to the dentist chair in a while. But he does have 4 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom so far!
Happy First Birthday Vincent!
Today is Vincent’s first birthday! Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Mike arrived in the afternoon. Vincent’s morning was spent with Grandpa Don while my mom and myself started baking cakes and cupcakes and getting other food ready for the party. Jeff took him for a walk around the block, but other than that not anything too exciting.
He did get a chance to eat a cupcake WITH frosting though! He loved it! I think he would have ate the whole thing if we let him. We all sang happy birthday to him. What a big boy!
Going for more cake! LOL! Kinda wish i took a video because it was so darn cute.
After cake we opening some gifts! Mostly gifts from my cousin Sandee, then some from us and the grandparents.
Taking off the wrapping paper.
A “Chica” doll from the Sunny Side Up Show on Sprout! This is quite possibly the most annoying character ever, so of course Vinny loves her.
My Uncle Yoshi picked out a singing happy birthday bear for Vincent. It is the cutest thing ever! He LOVED it. The head and mouth move as the bear sings. Its not as creepy as you would think… Vinny puts his finger in the bear’s mouth and kisses it on the lips (or actually bites!)
As far as growth and changes in Vincent — he is pretty capable of walking now. A few steps unassisted. He needs to pull himself up to standing by grabbing on to a piece of furniture or a wall. He is super fast at crawling. He gets big bruises on his legs, butt, and head from falling all the time!
I fed him some Lactaid milk a few days ago and he took to it well despite my hunch that he might have a milk allergy. So yay! Didn’t want to have to deal with that. He actually really loved the milk — gulped it down. I also bought lactose free yogurt and he couldn’t get enough of it, but wanted to be sure his tummy agreed with it before giving him lots.
He has been getting up at 5am lately for a nursing session which is weird because he was sleeping soundly through the night for over a month now… He goes back to sleep after i feed him, so i guess its ok…
He is super talkly-talky. Babbling mostly. Dadadaa, hi, dada, babah dig dog dug. Haha! He gets really loud sometimes and speaks with conviction, even holding his hand up like he is giving a sermon. He might be talker this one! Better learn some words quick! Speaking of words .. i do want to start learning baby sign language with him. I bought book on it, just have to start using them.
Can’t wait for the party!
Grandparents Arrive, Visit to San Juan
Grandma Don, Grandma Jerrie flew in from Hawaii on Tuesday night to be here for the week to celebrate Vinny’s birthday. They arrived late so Vinny was already sleeping. But they were so eager to play with him the next morning when he got up at 5am for his feeding … i had to take him away from them because he was not ready to get up! I had to actually rock vinny back to sleep (which i dont ever do!) because they kept wanting to come in and carry him when he cried! *sigh* But once Vinny got his rest and was ready to wake up, all was fine.
Mom and I went to get haircuts from Bonnie Skizzors in the morning, then we headed to San Juan to celebrate Kathy’s birthday (which is on Sunday).
On the drive up, Vinny and Grandma Jerrie were playing peek-a-boo. So cute. He loves peek-a-boo so much!
We had a potluck for Kathy’s birthday. I bought Spam Musubis. I love it, not sure everyone else did! Haha more for me…
Kathy loved her birthday gift of charm bracelet and individual charms from everyone. I got her a camera, typwriter, and a boston terrier.
A Weekday Visit to Gilroy Gardens
I’m on vacation for a week to celebrate Vinny’s first birthday. Jeff has been off already for a week before this, and he had fun taking Vinny to the aquarium, and hiking in the redwoods. Last week his friend Pete visited from Colorado with his girlfriend Nanda. We had a good time hanging out, going to Farmer’s Market and playing with Vinny. They are expecting a baby boy in September.
We decided to make use of our weekday off and go to Gilroy Gardens – a theme park for the littler kids (about 8 and under, i’d say). We weren’t sure how many rides vinny could go on but heard from a friend that he would have a good time. When we got there a nice lady in front of us gave us a coupon to use so we only paid $55 for the two of us — though parking was $10.
Jeff and I have been here before but only during the Christmas nighttime openings with my workplace. The grounds are really pretty and well kept. It wasn’t busy so no waiting in lines except for one ride at the end.
We first visited the strawberry baskets. Jeff took vinny in that ride. He didn’t seem to know what was going on.
After that we took a train ride around the park. That was nice because you could kind of tour the whole park.
We continued through the park and found a good spot for lunch. I bought some nachos and we fed vinny some avocado and sausages. There was a stage right where we were sitting and the staff was pulling kids from the audience to sing songs. That was pretty cute to see little toddlers sing nursery rhymes and sort of get the words right.
We stopped by the waterfall area, and Jeff and Vinny got all wet!
We happened to pass a weird jiggling machine that Jeff wanted to try.
Got some silly pictures of my boys having fun.
Next was my turn for a ride! The artichoke dip ride was more adventurous than the strawberry ride and it had a wonderful view of the lake.
Vinny wanted to stand on his own for the ride.
Right next to that ride was a caterpillar ride going around an apple core. I swear these rides are super super cute!
We decided to try for one more ride then head home since vinny hadn’t mapped yet. We wanted to try the hot air ballon ride but we weren’t sure they would let him on or not.
We decided to go for it when a family in front of us with a younger infant went in line. The baby boy was hapa too. Cute photo alert!
This was the only rode we had to actually wait a couple rotations to get in. Vinny was getting fussy while we were waiting in line.
Finally, we get in a balloon and it was a little sketchy since he had to also sit “on his own” on the ride! But it all worked out. I don’t think Vincent knew what was going on!
We headed for the exit, bought some super sweet lemonade (disappointing), took some photos on the bridge (Jeff lost the camera lens over the side and has to trespass to get it back!), and lastly purchased a cool bubble gun!
What a fun day! Glad we decided to go because it was the perfect opportunity to go on a weekday and we all had a blast.
Vincent Can Walk
Vinny can walk a few steps now. He has to be standing and holding on to something to start with, but he can take a good 5 steps or more.
Vincent is 11 months… Starting a New Daycare
Vincent is just 1 month shy of a year old! He is growing up so fast. He’s so active and always narrowly escaping trouble! And by that i mean, hitting his head often on furniture and the floor, crawling to areas he is not supposed to be in (litter box, anyone?) and putting things in his mouth that are not meant to be eaten! It keeps us quite busy, i shall say.
Every morning while i am getting ready for the day i let him play in the cupboards in the bathroom. It’s the perfect size and height for him. He will open the cabinets and pull out everything and find new things to gnaw on.
He will crawl over to the toilet paper and begin to unravel it. I have to watch closely as he’ll end up putting the TP in his mouth.Ā He likes banging on the glass of the shower door.
The other day he climbed right into the laundry basket! He stayed there and just watched the TV. Looked comfy, actually.
He just recently started taking a few steps without holding on to anything. He needs to start off standing up and holding onto a table or something upright… but then he will turn and walk toward you.
He gets so excited when he does this, he goes up on his tippy toes and starts to wave his arms real big, which in turn throws off his balance, so he falls! Its pretty darn cute to watch. He did a few real good steps during his last couple days at Miss Becky’s.
Speaking of which, yes, Miss Becky has “retired” from her job as Vinny’s sitter. Her husband had a work-related injury /Ā job change, which effected her ability to run her daycare since she’s got her own family to take care of. We were super bummed, but life goes on!
She threw Vinny an early birthday party with presents! She got him a Barney DVD set, a polo shirt and shorts, a walkman toy, a beach ball, a beach truck, and some super cute bibs with sayings like “Friend Me!”
We sure will miss her and her family… Vinny loved playing with her 3 kids. And we’ll miss Mr. Logan, too! His partner in crime.
I posted a bunch of photos on my Flickr taken from Becky while Vincent was under her care. He was so small when he started out there in December at 4 months!
So as far as our current sitter — we’ve found a new one a couple of blocks down the road. Her name is Cori, and she has 2 little boys of her own (age 2 1/2 and 15 months) and she watches two others, who are between those ages.Ā So a full house of little toddlers! Vinny is the youngest right now but that will soon change, as one of her other mom’s is expecting a baby boy in the winter, and Cori is pregnant herself (due in February).
Here is Vinny meeting her youngest Ash when i dropped off some paper work. I don’t think Ash likes Vinny very much since he has to “share” his mommy with him! But i think they get along okay. Although it looks like he is in the middle of hitting Vincent in this photo! LOL! I guess it is just not the same relationship that Vincent had with Logan, who absolutely adored him. So far, Vincent has adjusted well to being under Cori’s care – he’s only been there two days but seems to be eating, sleeping, and behaving very well.
Vinny and I still go grocery shopping on the weekends. He loves smiling at all the different people, looking at the balloons, signs, pinatas, and whatever else is hanging down from the ceiling, and hearing the loud sounds of the cars in the parking lot. He behaves very well, and only starts to fuss if i take him to two stores and/or take too long shopping (like when i go to Target!) I’ve started buying stuff to get ready for his birthday party already.
Here is Vinny trying some strawberries. He is so funny when he eats something that is a “solid” food like fruit or vegetables. He gets a funny look on his face everytime. I think is the texture and the taste that perplexes him.
He seems to tolerate tofu. He looks really happy in this photo, but i think he just liked the camera, not the food in front of him. If we mash it up and feed it to him he seems to eat it more, he isnt too much of a fan of feeding tofu to himself.
Besides “walking”, this month Vincent has learned how to do a “high-five” though he does not do it consistently yet. He can still clap his hands. He LOVES playing Peek-a-boo,.. case-in-point the bib video i posted earlier.
Here is another video of him playing with his bucket that Becky gave him. At first he just was putting toys in and out of it. But then he realized he could play the peek-a-boo game.
Vinny still loves the TV. He gets that blank stare and just zones out. He really enjoys the music and songs. He lights up when we sing ‘The Wheels on the Bus” or “If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands”. He is really only into the kid-stuff though. If you turn on the regular old radio, he won’t care, but if it’s Barney or some Sprout show, he will beam a big smile and start bouncing even sometimes!
We have been letting him “cry-it-out” during nap time and bedtime. This works about 99% of the time for bed time, but nap time not so much, only works about 50% of the time. He can cry pretty bad at times — which will lead to him coughing really bad… but eventually he can get tired and fall asleep. One day during naptime, he was playing with his mobile and we heard a cracking sound. We don’t normally check on him until it is quiet (for fear he will see us and it will work him into more of a fit). When we went in this time, the mobile was in pieces in his crib. Well that was the end of that – he totally broke the plastic part that holds it up! Poor guy, he really enjoyed that mobile. Now all he has is his bedtime story book that Grandma Jerrie got him, and some beanie baby stuffed animals.
Last weekend we took him to Chili’s for some lunch. It was the first time we used his red chair that clamps on to the table. Since we used it over the booth area, he kept standing up on the chair (not safe)! He had already had his lunch at home, but we gave him some of our food to keep him occupied. I fed him my steamed broccoli. He liked that fine, until Jeff fed him his first french fry! Now that he definitely preferred.
We are starting to think of how to wean him from nursing and transition him to milkĀ — even though we suspect he has a milk allergy since the last two times he had formula he puked it up and was had mucous coming from his nose (eww). So we’re scared to have that happen again if we give him milk, but i guess one can only try again, seeing as he COULD have outgrown the allergy by now. Fun times ahead with that one!
He’s such a joy to watch grow… i am starting to no longer think of him as a baby as he gets more and more mobile each day! He is definitely more of a toddler now, and he will be walking in no time!