The Children's Museum

We took Mark and his cousins to the Children's Museum today. They had a wonderful time. They especially enjoyed the pirate ship, the grocery store, the teddy bear hospital and the dress-up area. When MVP saw the dog costumes, he started barking. It was lots of fun.

Another Day, Another Disaster!

This was what awaited me one morning after getting out of the shower. I guess it was my wake-up call that MVP is now getting tall enough to grab things off the kitchen table.

Fun with mullets

As the YM President, Andy got to attend an 80's dance. He purchased a mullet wig for the occasion and, needless to say, I was quite pleased with his entire ensamble. Notice the pegged pants, the loose high tops and the snazzy sweater that I had no idea was in his closet. What a find!

Here he is with his coolest 80's expression.

Of course we can't fully celebrate the mullet without an appearance by MVP. He was not amused and can't understand why one person would choose to have so much hair...in the back, at least.

Basketball!

In order to properly prepare MVP for March Madness, we snagged a couple free basketball hoops from neighbors whose kids have outgrown them and we are now teaching MVP how to "SLAM DUNK"! It's to the point now that when I ask him where the ball is and ask if he wants to slam dunk, he will immediately head toward the basketball hoop. If course he gets a big kick out of it and it's as much fun for us to watch as it is for him to play. Here's some video of his mad skills and here's a photo of the cutest Laker ever!

What's really funny is that he is getting REALLY close to walking, but is just scared enough of taking more than a few timid steps that he has to hold onto something at all times. There was one day when Andy and I caught him sidestepping toward something and neither one of us said anything because we knew that if we pointed it out he would immediately drop to his knees. All of this is perfectly fine with me because I know that as soon as he starts to walk, it's all over for me. He will be unstoppable.

Bubble Baths

MVP took his first bubble bath this week. Of course he loved it. He tried to eat the bubbles, but, thankfully, he didn't like the way they taste. Here are a couple cute pictures I took and there's a video too.
Mirror, mirror, in the tub...

Chocolate-Covered Popcorn

Just to prove that I can blog about things other than MVP, I'm sharing a recipe for Chocolate-Covered Popcorn. I'll warn you that this is highly addictive but it also makes a great neighbor gift for the holidays. Try it and let me know what you think!

1 bag microwave popcorn
1/2 cup white chocolate candy wafers
M&M's or other candies, nuts or Fritos (Fritos are my favorite mix-in!)

Pop Popcorn, put it into a large bowl and remove any unpopped kernels. Melt the candy wafers in the microwave. In a microwave-safe dish, heat wafers for one minute. Stir. Chocolate will probably not be melted yet. Place back in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir again. Repeat until wafers are melted, but be careful to not burn the chocolate. Pour the white chocolate over the popcorn and stir until well coated. It won't stir well at first, but it will become evenly coated as you continue to stir. Add mix-ins before chocolate hardens. Let the mixture dry (either in the bowl or on wax paper). Once it's dry, you can spoon it into cello bags for gifts or, if you're like me, it won't quite make it to the bags. :-)

The NC Aquarium

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, admission to the NC Aquarium is free, so we took the opportunity to introduce MVP to the aquarium in spite of all the rain! He had a lot of fun, but it was difficult to work around his nap schedule since the aquarium is about 45 minutes away from our house. He had a good time looking at all the fish--especially the giant lobsters, sting rays and all the huge fish tanks.

The Birthday Boy

It's a tradition in Hawaii to have a big luau when a baby turns one because a long time ago so few babies would make it to their first birthday. This has become a tradition in my family so we had a luau for MVP. We had Kalua Pig, Chicken Long Rice, Sticky Rice, Shoyu Chicken, Hawaiian Meatballs, Pani Popo, macaroni salad, tossed salad, juice and Passion Fruit/Guava cake (note to self: Wilmington is seriously deprived in the tropical fruit juice department!!) I had to improvise due to the lack of guava juice--so sad. Andy will be the first one to point out that we had WAAAY too much food. I will openly admit that I don't know the first thing about cooking for 30+ people--except that it's better to have more than enough than not enough food.

Last summer, I taught some of the neighborhood girls how to dance to the Hukilau for their mom's birthday luau. They were kind enough to dance with me at MVP's luau. I also danced another dance and a friend from church who is Hawaiian brought his ukulele and sang some songs too. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.

MVP really attacked his birthday cake. It was quite entertaining. He just wanted to smack it around until he finally discovered that he could eat it...and that it was delicious!
Here's a family photo after the birthday cake carnage.

Here's a quick video of MVP opening a birthday present on his birthday. I like how he rocks out to the music. Andy's parents were able to come out for a week to help us celebrate, so it was fun to have them here. Earlier that day we had a family birthday party at Jungle Rapids. Here he is posing with one of his birthday gifts. I think his expression is hilarious.

We are so grateful to have MVP in our lives. When people comment to me that the year has flown by or that they can't believe he's already one, I think they're crazy! This last year has been really stressful for me because of the challenges I had with nursing, working part time (without day care) and all the normal adjustments that come to first-time parents. I'm sooo grateful that Andy has been able to come home for lunch almost every day so I could have the time to really focus on work. As MVP gets older it is becoming more and more challenging to figure out ways to entertain him while I finish things that need to get done. Even with all the challenges, MVP has us wrapped around his busy little fingers. He has a wonderful personality and is a happy, adorable little boy. We love him very much!!

NYE in Tennessee

We spent the New Year's weekend in Tennessee with family and it was a lot of fun. We went to the Loveless Cafe where we ate some of the most delicious good ole American food ever. I was so shocked at how much MVP ate! I guess when the cooking's good, he will eat a lot! Suffice it to say, this was news to me. Here's Auntie M with all the nieces and nephews at Loveless Cafe.
Andy took the nieces and nephews on some adventures in the woods. They love it when he comes to visit. Auntie Amy took a break from playing as many board games as humanly possible to take some wonderful pictures of MVP. I couldn't resist getting some shots of him in a cowboy hat and overalls. Too cute!
We also had frozen yogurt for FHE. Here, Ty looks like...a kid in a candy store.
We had a blast and MVP LOVED spending time with his cousins. He really is a people person and gets so excited whenever he has the chance to be around other kids. This is a picture of him CRACKING UP at Brianna while in the car.

The 12 Days of Christmas

One thing I did not include in my previous post was that as part of the church Christmas party, Andy participated in a 12 Days of Christmas skit that was the highlight of the party. I have video of the final countdown, but you can imagine that the entire skit was pretty hilarious. Andy and Brian really hammed it up. Here are a few pictures and you can watch the video here.