1st Birthday Snapshots

Maryn's 1st birthday was a very low key affair, which was nice. Mike made the cake and frosting. He followed the Barefoot Contessa's b-day cake recipe- a white cake (which included lemon zest) with semi-sweet chocolate frosting. I was a bit skeptical about the lemon zest, but it really added dimension to the flavor! Yum-O! If you look closely you can see he wrote "ME" with M&Ms instead of spelling Maryn Elise ... every time I look at the pictures it cracks me up. She dug into the cake with her hands but wasn't really that interested in eating it.



Then after she was cleaned up she opened some of her presents. Yes, Mike and I got her doll house furniture. She's too young now, but has lots of other age appropriate toys so we thought we'd get a head start on furnishing the dollhouse we built years ago. I love the picture of her with the miniature stuff .. she looks so perplexed. What am I supposed to do with this tiny fireplace?

One Year -A Look Back

Basement Room with a View

I should start by saying that there is a reason for my slowed posting pace. A couple of weeks ago we packed up our house and relocated temporarily to my dad's basement. The remodeling project we've been talking about for several years has finally begun. My dad's house is conveniently about 1/2 way between Mike's work and my work and did I mention he has a walk-out basement with a full-bath, bedroom, and mini kitchenette?

Not being in your own space, especially when you have a baby in tow, can be challenging and stressful, but we've been very fortunate. The transition has gone smoothly. And, yes, this beautiful view greets us every morning!

The work started on December 10th and the project timeline is 4 months, but if we don't run into any surprises the contractors are confident it should be done closer to 3. You always hear remodeling takes twice as long as you anticipate so I guess we should be ready to be here until summer.

Thank you to all of you who posted a comment! And for those of you who haven't there is still time.

And now that my laptop is re-connected to the Internet posting may happen at any time. In fact, why don't you tune in Wednesday for a special birthday treat!

Want to be in the Baby Book?

I'm planning to have the 1st year of this blog printed and made into a book. I thought it might be nice for Maryn to have when she's older--a sort of baby book of her first year. I also thought it might be fun for her to be able to look back and see who all was checking in with the blog. If you are interested, I encourage you to post a comment with your name and perhaps how you know our family/Maryn or how you found the blog.
You can post a comment without having a blogger account here's how:

Click on the post title or comment link (at the bottom of the post).

Type your name and/or comment

Then select "anonymous" from the drop down box under "comment as:" and click "post comment"

If you get an error try clicking "post comment" again or try back later

If it goes through you will be asked for a word verification. Simply type the word you see in the box & click "post comment" and you are done!

Thanks for taking the time!

Another Neuro Visit

Yesterday was Maryn's 4th visit to the pediatric neurologist (to see the last one click here). I was so anxious about this visit, as many of you know, not because I thought he would see anything unusual during his evaluation-which he didn't, but because I was certain he would order another MRI. It's apparently difficult to see detail on a newborn MRI, but the MRI of a 1 year old shows much more. I was ready to fight it, at least for now. She's been exposed to enough radiation already in her short life and it's likely another swallow study is in her future.


So, he examined her, took her measurements, asked me some questions about her development and various other specialist appointments she's had and said, "Okay, she's progressing nicely, we'll see you again in April."

"No, MRI order?"

"No, I don't see a reason for one right now."

And that was that.

Still Working on that 1st Tooth

It's close I can feel it! Literally, I mean .. I can feel the tip.

First Thanksgiving Snippets