In Honor of St. Patrick's Day

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

"Super Mad" Just Goes Medium

Autumn had her first swimming lesson yesterday . . . and loved it! Ironically, over the last few months, Autumn has been putting on her bathing suit and pretending to be taking swim lessons in her bedroom (there is a very large imaginary pool in the center of her room . . . and she'll let you know if you step in it). I've been planning for these lessons since before her birth (since I'm a terrible swimmer myself) . . . and then the whole poo funk disease spread around last summer and limited our options. So, the first opportunity I found, we jumped on it!

Autumn was so sweet and polite and so attentive with her teacher. She announced to everyone in the locker room afterwards that she "just loved her teacher." She blew bubbles, put her face in the water and kicked and splashed upon command.

She put her arms in the Super Mad position as instructed by her teacher. No . . . that was not a typo. I assumed she learned the Super Man position. But, Autumn quickly corrected me. "No Mom . . . it's Super MaDDDD."

Ahhh . . . ok.



Today, when most of the other kids in the class jumped in the pool with life jackets on . . . and she scooted in . . . I asked her why she didn't decide to "go big."

She informed me, "I just wanted to go medium so I wouldn't get my face in the water."

Gavin's Birthday Cake #2

In the Peterson tradition, we cannot stop with just one celebration. Despite all of us having coughs and colds, we powered through to make Gavin's birthday special.

Luckily for us, he has just realized that table food is actually quite tasty (and hasn't puked in about a week when eating). It started with pizza on Wednesday and spread to honeydew, peas, pears and meat by Saturday. It gave me hope that maybe Gavin would not only touch his cake, but actually put some in his mouth (and not throw up).

Gavin was very methodical and serious about destroying his cake. He ate much of the piece that we gave him last night . . . but, he was much more artistic with today's new whole cake.





He was very willing to share with his sister. And . . . by the way . . . it was Autumn's idea to strip down. As soon as she saw Gavin sitting with just his diaper for a cake-smashing session . . . she couldn't resist and declared, "I have to get naked and help Gavin." And, so she did (nothing can stop her once she sets her mind to stripping down and/or getting in the bath).

And, of course, this naked, cake-eating-smashing fun was followed by a bubbly bath for two.

Gavin's First Birthday Cake

My Big Birthday Boy!!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

That Bloody Vacuum!

Jeff's brother, Jared, and his wife, Lynnsey, and 2 of their 3 children came to visit this weekend. We had big plans - including another visit to Kangaroo Zoo! Saturday morning, while the boys were on their way to Ogden, Kayla (4 1/2) and Autumn struggled through 'wanting' to play together - but, not having the will-power to resist continuous arguing. After several attempts at cordial play, a few stern comments from the moms and some yelling and throwing . . . the incident occurred.

I can definitely say that I am incredibly grateful to the other moms that have shared "head wound" stories - so, that the amount of blood that surged so quickly from Autumn's head didn't send me into complete panic. I saw the tail end of the incident . . . enough to know that Autumn fell straight back onto the vacuum - smashing the back of her head onto the base. There was speculation and conflicting stories about possible pushing since Autumn wanted to take a turn playing computer games . . . and Kayla was not prepared to switch. Blood drenched her shirt, my shirt, my pants, her pants, the two wash rags that we used to try to find the source of the pain . . . which we eventually discovered to be a surprisingly tiny - but significant - little puncture.

After a lot of love, cuddling, a little chocolate milk and reassurance that we would still be able to go to Kangaroo Zoo . . . we all returned to the normal pace of the day . . . with Autumn and Kayla pushing each others' buttons as much and often as possible.

All Grown Up

Gavin was a bit overdue for his first hair cut. I have a little girl that has NEVER had her hair cut (in fact, right now, I have her convinced that little girls just DON'T get haircuts) . . . so, clearly I'm not entirely familiar with the hair-cutting process. But, the fact that the thought even crossed my mind that maybe I should just "pin that hair out of his face" shocked me into making the call to my hair-cutting friend immediately.

BEFORE



DURING (Gavin - who despises his head being touched or grabbed - sat perfectly still during the whole ordeal)



AFTER



Where did my little baby boy go? He looks so grown up to me (minus the ziplock bag FULL of hair). I can't believe he is going to be one in just a few weeks. Wow.