Holidays with the Bragdon Bunch

My (Julie's) family was here for three big events: Ruby's 1st birthday, my dad's birthday (I'll keep his number a secret, but there's a rumor that it's his 2nd time celebrating 45.....), and Thanksgiving.  I cannot even describe how happy I am when family is here to celebrate holidays and special events.  I think that these things have become so much more important to me now since we live far away from family and miss a lot of them.  Plus, now that we have a kiddo in the mix, it's even more special than pre-kid.

Anyway, I already shared most of the birthday photos from Ruby's big day in the previous post, but here are a few that I thought I'd include in this post.  Ruby loved spending time with her Auntie Anoli, especially when it involved dancing after an "annoying" monthly photoshoot from mama:

Playing with all the toys with Auntie:

Getting a ride in the new wagon from Auntie (see, I told you, Auntie is seriously fun to be with):

Oma had much to offer too, like her shiny necklace.  Ruby went straight for it!

Since we had some babysitters on hand (thank you, Opa and Oma), Noa, Anoli, and I got to get out and catch our first ever Seattle Sounders game with our friends, Brad and Antje.  It was pretty exciting since it was a playoff game and we sat only a few rows from the field.  It rained pretty much the entire game, but that didn't stop the fans (or us) from cheering on our team.  We stood the entire game, even when the rain decided to come down in buckets.  Sadly, in the end, they lost, but it was still super fun and I loved the experience.  I'm hoping we'll get to go to another game next year.

And, why yes, that's David Beckham (#23), playing for the LA Galaxy (boo, hiss...):

Go Sounders!!

Dad's birthday fell on a Monday, so we decided that we'd celebrate at dinner that night.  We took the fam to one of our favorite little restaurants in downtown Poulsbo called Sogno di Vino.  I think the favorite meal of the night was the short ribs - oh so tender!  And I think we ordered one of every dessert!

We capped that night off with a viewing of the most recent Spiderman movie (dad's choice, of course). Since we were up late that night, Ruby didn't join us for dinner or the movie, but earlier in the day, she was sporting her "grandpa & me" shirt.  Cute, right?

Thanksgiving day was spent hanging out, cooking/baking, and just enjoying each other's company. Bonus: my mom is an excellent cook and made Thanksgiving oh so tasty!  I could probably swing the turkey, but I'm sure the sides would not have been so good.  Thank you mom, for all the delicious food!

The fam:

The Thanksgiving table (yes, those are birthday streamers in the background...I just wasn't ready to take them down...):

Time to eat!

Oma and Ruby reading before bed:

Ruby with her Opa and Oma before they left to go back to NH:

One Year Old!

Well, it finally came...Ruby's first birthday.  I'll admit, I was both excited and sad to see it come and go so quickly.  It seems like so long ago that she was a tiny, little peanut.  She could be placed on the bed  without fear of her rolling off or getting into something she shouldn't.  Months ago, I used to be able to put her in a bouncer while I got ready for work.  Now I have to hurry and get ready while she's sleeping or stick her in a pack n' play for a few moments while I throw on some hurried makeup and clothes.  She used to fall asleep in her swing at random times.  Now, we follow a routine that involves strict nap times.  At night, I used to have to get up four, five, even six times to nurse her and rock her back to sleep.  Now, both Noa and I usually get a full night's sleep (yay!!).  It has been a huge year of change for Ruby and for us.  Some of these changes happened with much excitement, like when she started babbling "mama" and "dada."  Others brought me to tears, like when I had to fold and put away her tiny newborn clothes.  I still can't believe that I'm a mother to a toddler.  Funny thing, I still feel as scared about parenting her as I did that first week I brought her home.  It seems to be a learning process every day.

Ruby's monthly photos became quite a chore over the past few months.  Once she began crawling and moving around, she wanted nothing to do with them.  This month was no exception.  It took much cajoling by me, Noa, and several of my family members to get her to stay still for a few fleeting moments and strike a smile.  Here's the final result:

Age: 12 months

Weight:  17 pounds, 13 ounces

Length:  29 inches

Sleep: sleeps in her crib, 2 daytime naps, sleeps through the night (amen!)

Eating: began drinking whole milk instead of formula, finger foods, beginning to wean from using a bottle

Appearance: blue eyes, wearing 6 - 12 month clothes, 7 teeth and teething again (so more teeth to come soon!)

Skills: can sit, roll, pull to a stand, crawl, cruise, and beginning to start standing independently, expresses lots of baby babble, repeat "dada," "mama", and "ga" (her word for dog), has basic pincer grasp, grabs toys and passes from hand to hand, can "catch" a ball that is rolled to her, "dances" to music, responds to the dogs (will try to pet them and will "bark" when they do), gives good eye contact and smiles!  She can also throw a mean tantrum, complete with arched back and wailing cry.  Ruby is really fast with crawling and cruising.  She began using push toys recently and loves to push her "babies" in her new wagon.  

And, my oh my, how she's grown!  Here'a look back at all her monthly photos over the past year:

Her birthday was last Friday and it was a low-key celebration at home with my family in town.  We did open some presents that evening and Ruby seemed to love her new toys.

We did throw her a "small" party the next day.  Noa laughed when he saw all the decorations I was putting up all over the house.  Initially we planned on having a small, intimate celebration without much fanfare, but what Noa considered "small" and what I considered "small" were vastly different.  Thankfully, he usually defers to my preferences on things like this.  Here's the dining room:

Anoli hung the streamers.  I loved them.  I actually kept them up over the past week because I liked them so much.  I had other banners throughout the house, like my new "Happy Birthday" banner that I ordered from Etsy.  I'm excited to use this for many birthdays to come:

And her monthly photos on a banner:

More photos in the entryway and on the mantle.  I had my dad put together the paper chain, which looked so fun and festive so it also stayed up all week.

The tv also played photos of Ruby throughout the year.  

I couldn't have put this all together without the help of my family.  It was also nice to have them around to play with Ruby while I ran around the house getting things ready for the event. 

We had around 25 people at the house - adults and children mingled about while Ruby crawled everywhere, chased balloons, and played with the other kids.

Ruby has officially joined the kids table, although I had to help her out a bit.  Our conversation focused on what out favorite colors were and which party hats we liked best.   She obviously preferred the pink polka dotted one.

Ruby got to hang out with some of her favorite babysitters.  They are really sweet with her, so I'm glad they could be there to celebrate with us.

We stripped her down for the cake, since she'd be getting her own.  I had done a lot of online research about first birthday parties and I learned that the birthday boy/girl, when given their own cake, will decimate it - and most of it will end up ON him or her.  So, I figured I'd save some of her clothes by keeping her in a diaper.  We put her in her high chair, gathered the guests, and sang happy birthday.  She pretty much watched while sucking her thumb - not sure how to respond.

Then we let her go at it.  

She hesitantly touched the frosting.  It didn't go anywhere near her mouth.

So, I'd thought I'd help her out and break the cupcake into pieces.

Still no dice.  Not even a taste.  So, I decided to help a little more by putting some frosting on her lips.  

She did not like that idea.  

So, the cake was a no-go, but those were the only tears of the day.  And, really, is it so bad that she's not a huge fan of sugar.  Guess I have a health nut on my hands.

The rest of the day was spent napping, playing, and spending time together.  It was a wonderful party and although Ruby won't remember it, I'm glad we were able to host the event.  Someday she'll be able to look back at the pictures.  I hope that she'll always know how much she is loved and will continue to be loved as she grows.

Happy birthday, Ruby!  We love you!

The Job Juggle

You may or may not know that I've began another new position at the humane society.  I am now in charge of the foster care program, which means that I coordinate the care of our shelter's foster population, which usually includes kittens and puppies (too young to adopt out), nursing moms, animals with behavior or medical issues, and hospice animals.  It's a very people-oriented job and also very hands-on, but the challenge is trying to do it all with part-time hours.  While finding this balance has been difficult, I've really enjoyed the job itself so far.  I have some absolutely wonderful volunteers that are more than willing to take care of sick, furry critters at a moment's notice.  I also get to share an office with my friend and favorite co-worker, Laura, which makes my days happy.  I thought I'd share of some the cute animals I have worked to place in foster homes.  Most are kittens, since our kitten season is still going on (usually it's over by late October...).  Warning - there's some serious cuteness going on....

 

Halloween 2012

This year we held our annual (yes, it's an annual thing now) Halloween Open House.  You may remember from last year that it gets pretty wild in our neighborhood around this time of year.  Hundreds of kids come through our neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  They even close our street to vehicles. Last year, I remember Halloween night being really cold.  This year, it was WET.  It rained and rained and rained.  However, even with torrential downpours, we still went through about 10 Costco-sized bags of candy.  The rain slowed down the crowds a little, but not by much.

This was also Ruby's first Halloween.  We didn't take her trick-or-treating, but we did dress her up and she played with friends who came through our home.  She was our little love bug:

Before our friends showed up, she helped get things ready and man the door.  It was already pretty wet outside and the weather only got worse.

 

Noa and I dressed as hippies.  Yeah, it's pretty boring for us, but we had to think of something in a pinch and I had bought Ruby's costume back in November, not really thinking about what we could be.  I think we pulled it together pretty well and you know that Noa loved the wig and 'stach.

 

Surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind wearing the costume.  Ruby was in a pretty good mood all evening.

We had lots of friends come through and hang out at our place.  It's always fun to see all the different costumes and this year was no exception.

The Landers: Lego theme (they even had a costume for the dog, but he wasn't here)

 The Caldwells: homemade creativity, even a traditional ghost

The Berneys: random assortment of costumes, including ketchup, a skeleton, and a werewolf

 

The James: an angel and a dinosaur

The Giesbrechts: they get the prize for the best Goodwill find: an inflatable sumo wrestler costume!

 By the time most everyone got here, the rain really started pouring.  But that didn't deter the trick-or-treaters.  They still went out - even if it meant using garbage bags as costume protection.

It's hard to tell in the picture below because it was dark, but the sky was dumping buckets!  On a separate note, you can see that I did the same style of pumpkins as last year. I love taking a drill to a hallowed out pumpkin.  They look good and are fun to make!

I decorated the house a little for the event.  As much as I hate using the fake cobwebs, they sure do add a lot of punch to the Halloween decor.  One of my friends kept wanting to dust my lights (she then realized that the cobwebs were there on purpose - ha ha!).

In spite of the horrible weather, it turned out to be a really fun evening.  I'm glad that this is becoming a tradition in our home.  I'm already trying to think of a good costume theme for the three of us for next year.