Twelve Months Old

Today is Claudia's birthday. It's so hard to believe that her first year has come to a close. It's gone by too quickly.

Winter ONE-derland

Claudia's birthday is in a few days and we celebrated her first birthday on Saturday with a Winter ONE-derland themed brunch.

Mommy and baby before the party

Claudia with Grandma Kelley

Daddy, mommy and Claudia

The cake! 

One of the guests' tables

Claudia's seat

Party hat and smash cupcake

Claudia with some of her friends

Claudia with her grandparents

Gift table

All guests got decorated sugar cookies - either a "1" or a snowflake

Claudia eyeing her first cupcake

With mom and dad

After a couple bites of cake. Overall, not a fan of it. 

Sign outside the banquet room 

All the baby friends received a gift bag with either a polar bear or penguin inside

Lights!

One year ago today, we wanted to check out the Arboretum's new holiday interactive light display. I was very pregnant and my doctor had just put me on a trial bed rest for the week of Thanksgiving to see if I could get my blood pressure to come down. I was off work that week and mostly taking it easy but decided a little holiday lights would be okay. We did not purchase tickets in advance and when we got there the wait was two hours long. Needless to say, we left and went home never seeing the lights.

What a difference a year makes. Tonight, exactly one year later, we headed out to see the light display with an 11 1/2 month old baby. Fortunately, the weather was in the high 40s, and Miss C was bundled up and warm.

Next year we will try to remember and take a better camera. iPhone photos do not do the beautiful lights justice.

Father and daughter.

Chandeliers hanging from the trees. 

The lights were accompanied by music from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

First Thanksgiving

Claudia had her first Thanksgiving yesterday and her last "first" holiday. We stayed home most of the day and had dinner with some friends. It was quieter than usual but that's because we have grandmas and grandpas coming for a big birthday bash next weekend.

First order of business on Thanksgiving is to get dressed and go to Starbucks. 

Second order of business on Thanksgiving is to put on holiday-appropriate attire. 

First Party!

Last weekend Claudia was invited to attend her first-ever party. Her friend, Ellie turned one!

Ellie getting her pumpkin cupcake. 

The babies in attendance. Claudia is such a social gal. 

Celebration!

It's a little late but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Joe celebrated his birthday on Saturday. Originally we had planned to go out for a fancy dinner but after checking with five (!) different people to babysit and not finding a sitter, we just went out for a nice lunch as a family. And, actually, that ended up probably being the very best option.

Play Date

We had a play date with our friend, Laila earlier this week. I love how Claudia is actually starting to interact with her friends.

Eleven Months Old

Claudia turned 11 months old yesterday. She has 9 teeth, is very social, loves to be tickled, is standing without holding on to anything and is a very happy baby. We cannot believe she is almost a year old.

First Halloween

Today was Claudia's first Halloween and we had a very fun day.

We had lunch and played at Rose's house. 

We went to visit (in costume) daddy's office. 

And now this skeleton baby is in bed for the night! 

Halloween Party

Today was the Halloween party at the mom's group I attend on Tuesdays.

Look at all these cuties! 

And how clever is this costume? Scuba diver complete with flippers, goggles, oxygen tank and everything!

Fun with an Old Friend

My friend, Kim who lives in South Dakota visited us for a couple days. It was a mellow couple of days since we were hanging with a ten-month-old but we did go to a canvas painting studio while she was here. It was so great to see her and spend time together after not seeing each other for a few years.

Claudia & Kim

Our works of art. Fun Halloween theme night at the studio. 

Ten Months Old

I'm 10 months old. I love to pull up on things and have even started doing a little cruising. I am very curious and love to explore. I also love eating table food and am always very interested in what everyone is eating.

Pumpkin Patch Cuteness

Today we met our baby friends at the pumpkin patch. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much cuteness in one place. They were a little confused over the costumes and all the fussing. Also, I'm pretty grass was ingested by several babies.

With our friends. Left to right: Tiger (barely visible), Elephant, Pumpkin, Cookie Monster, Monkey, Owl, Dinosaur & Bear. 

Stoic owl

With mommy

BFFs - Rose & Claudia

Party of Three

We went to brunch one day this week with my friend, Kelly. It was a milestone event because I ordered C something off the kids' menu - french toast, no syrup. She loved it! What a big kid.

Tis the season

Growing up we had two black cats - Angel & Mr. Whiskers. They were fabulous cats and my family has kind of been obsessed with black cats ever since. In fact, my parents still have a black cat. This one is named, Ru, short for Rufus. (Yes, a dog name for a cat but he was named before they got him.) What better time of year than now to honor our favorite family pets. We've been seeing cute black cat clothes everywhere so we have to have it. All of it. Here's Claudia just from today.

Photo op before church today. We love her black cat sweater. 

On our way to see some pumpkins. 

Claudia loved the pumpkins and all the people watching from our adventure today. She had so much fun! Can't wait until next year when she's running ahead of us. 

Baby Fashionista

Claudia and I went shopping with friends yesterday. We didn't buy the hat but she sure looked cute in it.

Play Date

Now that Claudia is crawling and mobile, we can go to play places where she can crawl around (safely!) and I can just sit instead of chasing her. It's a win-win. Today we met my friend and her daughter at a place very close to our house that has a special section just for crawlers. The good news is that Claudia loved it. The bad news is that it's permanently closing at the end of the month.