Anderson's 1st Birthday Party

My brutal work schedule lately has really interfered with my blogging. So...trying to catch up now. Here are a few pics from Anderson's first birthday party in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago.It was the first time he had eaten cake so he was a little leary at first.But as you can see, he quickly got into it. Some of it actually made it into his mouth.Dad took us all for a hayride to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon.While there he got to walk around a pick out a pumpkin.Grandma and Grandpa Deutscher made the trip with us, their first trip to my parents' house in Porter, OK.Papa Essary helps him in the pumpkin patchLooking a little embarrassed her as he makes his appearance before church.We all had a great time! Back at the house, here he is enjoying some of the things he got for his birthday.
Mike
Fort Riley, KS

Riding in style

Since he's approaching the ripe old age of 1 year and a total weight soaking wet of 23 pounds we decided to go ahead and get him a new car seat, the Britax Marathon CS.

I think we threw him off by letting him try out his new seat with his pajamas on. Here he looks disappointed and probably thinks he's going somewhere instead of going to bed.Very confused here, not sure why he's in his car seat in the house. He looks at me as if he's waiting on me to explain it to him.This doesn't look too comfortable but he laid in this basket for quite a while playing with his toys.He finally managed to get himself out.Then he realized it was more fun to just dump all the toys out onto the living room floor.He's become quite the hugger. So to all of you who will see him this weekend in Oklahoma, be ready. This is typically the last sight you see before he launches himself into your arms.Looking at a face like this, it's easy to practice hugging with him all day.
Mike
Fort Riley, KS

Oral hygiene time

Since the boy now has six teeth, we figured it's about time to start brushing them. He eventually liked it and enjoyed watching himself in the mirror.He wasn't quite so sure at first though. It was a face similar to the one we saw when he first tried peas.This is what happens when you get him undressed for his bath and tell him to meet you in the bathroom. Guess he got a little disoriented and ended up in the kitchen.As we close in on him he makes a run for it, trying to make it to the laundry room.Although exhausted, we eventually caught up with him and plopped him into the tub.These were taken Sunday before church.Ready for winter, he tries out one of his hoodies.He and Daphne spent a lot of time each day looking out the window at neighbors and other dogs.We're all excited about his 1st birthday party next weekend in Oklahoma!

Mike
Fort Riley, KS

75% of us are walking now

At the spunky young age of 10 1/2 months our little boy is officially a walker now. He started off about a month ago walking a few feet between Shelly and me. Then all of the sudden last weekend he decided he would just walk all over the house.But the day he started walking is the day Shelly had foot surgery. So we still haven't gotten to the point where all four of us (including Daphne) are walking at the same time.Shelly got fitted with a walking boot a couple of days ago so she's a little more mobile now.Now that he's more mobile we really have to keep an eye on him. Usually, he either heads straight into the laundry room and tries to eat Daphne's dog food, or he heads into the middle bathroom and tries to put his hand into the toilet, or he goes into the kitchen and gets into the same cabinet every time trying to pull out cookie sheets, or he opens the dishwasher and tries to pull out the silverware, or he goes into the master bathroom and sits in our shower, or he goes into the spare bedroom and drags all the picture frames into the hallway, or he goes into the living room and changes the TV station with the remote, or he goes into our bedroom and hides in the closet. You get the idea.

But the place he goes most consistently is back in his bedroom. Once there he goes immediately to his changing table where he gets into a basket and drags out the baby lotion, diaper rash cream, and anything else in there. Here he is in action. He doesn't know I've snuck up behind him or he would turn around with a guilty look.Once he gets busted he tries to make a run for it.But I must admit his mischievous behavior all evens out because he's just so darn cute and such a great little boy every other time.In this picture he jams out on the keyboard (and he's very proud of himself by the way).When he gets shy, like when a cute girl oohs and aahs over him when we're out or when the camera is on him, he puts his hand in his mouth. You might have seen him do this before when he first sees you.And finally, we've retired many of his "baby" toys but we weren't sure how long he would want to use his exer-saucer. As you can see by this video, we should probably retire this before he breaks out of it.

Mike
Manhattan, KS