First Birthday Party for the Little Man

Brandon had a huge shelf exam on Halloween, so we celebrated Oliver's Birthday two days late on November 1st instead. We wanted to share Oliver's first cake experience with people, and since we don't live near any immediate family (they're in Utah, mostly), we decided to put together a birthday party for him.

My mom (Nona) was really sad she was going to miss Oliver's first birthday (he's the first grandchild on my side of the family), but she didn't think she would be able to make it. I was disappointed, but I hadn't really expected her to come out from Utah. Apparently, a couple days before the party, she decided she couldn't stand it, and that she was going to be there. My dad (Papi) said he would drive with her if she waited until Friday (I NEVER thought I would be able to get him to come to Portland, and my Mom didn't think so either), so she said: "Ok. Let's do this thing."

They left around 5 p.m. Halloween night and drove all night to surprise us that morning. We had been up for about an hour and were getting things ready for the party, when there was a knock at the door. Brandon went to answer it, and I heard my Mom's voice, and then my Dad's. Shock. Complete shock.

I basically cried. A lot. I'm tearing up now just thinking about it.

We like Portland. We really do. I think we'd be okay ending up in Oregon, but there's nothing quite like family, and being a 12-15 hour drive away is hard. It made my entire year to have my mom and dad there with us to help celebrate Oliver's birthday. They were only there for the one day, and left on Sunday, but we loved having them with us for every minute they were able to be there!

#best{grand}parentsinallthegalaxies.

I was horrible about taking photos because we were running late getting everything ready, and I never fully recovered. Luckily, I got a few from my parents and friends.

When it came time to break into the cake, Oliver was fastidious. He ate it crumb by crumb and didn't really get his hands dirty. He nibbled at it for a few minutes and then was done. 

 He liked the Gingermen though, mustaches and all.

Happy Birthday Oliver! Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great day and a great party! 

This Is Halloween...

In our ward, the ward Halloween party is a BIG deal. It's the biggest event of the year (though I don't really know why). In fact, our ward has garnered a bit of a reputation in the area for our awesome Halloween parties. Really, they go all out!

Brandon and I ended up on the Halloween party committee again this year. It was fun coming up with ideas for the Harry Potter theme they had decided on, but it was stressful to execute. We were in charge of the photo booth and commissioned with somehow turning a cake walk into a game of quidditch. 

I was stationed at the photo booth the entire evening, so I didn't really see anything else everyone had going on, though I did managed to snap a few photos while we were setting up and right before the party began.

The decorations really were quite impressive, and the pictures really don't do it justice. Sorry for the poor quality. They had a real boar's head above the head table and floating candles. They also had a sorting hat, the Forbidden Forest, the Hogwarts Express train ride (apparently with a video and trolley and everything to make you feel like you were actually in a train), the Leaky Cauldron (where they served butterbeer), the "owlry" (where people wrote letters to post to the missionaries serving from the ward), and a number of games, like guessing how many Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans were in a jar.

As I said, we were in charge of the photo booth. Some ward members loaned us black graduation robes and broomsticks as props for the photo booth, and I made magic wands and Harry Potter glasses to go along with them. Other people brought the giant spider and snake.

Brandon and I went as wizards dressed as muggles (what, you couldn't tell from the pictures?), and we posed as photographers from the Daily Prophet  (Get it? Because I was stuck at the photo booth all night...I know, aren't we clever?).

I had a hard time deciding what to dress Oliver up as this year. I love dressing up, but I feel silly spending tons of money or time on an outfit I'm only going to wear for one day a year, and I felt the same way about Oliver's costume. I had some fun ideas: golden snitch, mandrake baby, garden gnome, Mario, Totoro, but none were really sticking. Then a couple of days before the party, I decided I would make good use of Oliver's bald head (I mean, it probably won't be bald next year, right?) and as I was thinking about all the famous people with bald heads (Charlie Brown most prominent), I had a flash of inspiration. 

                 

Baby Aang! We love the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. For a last minute costume using only things I had on hand, I thought it turned out pretty good. Drawing a perfectly shaped arrow on the head of a wriggling one year old is not easy, in case you were wondering.

The cake walk/quidditch game had promise, but kind of failed miserably (according to Bran, who was helping run it). I heard some people thought it was clever and fun, though. It was just too convoluted of a game to play in the short amount of time per game we were allotted. We should have  made it much simpler, or maybe just put our foot down and said we would either do a cake walk or quidditch, not both. When you try and mesh the two, it does not work. If anyone would like me to outline the rules of the game and we came up with and explain the pictures, let me know in the comments and I'd be more than happy to oblige. At least the decorations for the quidditch cake walk were phenomenal, even if our planning and execution were poor, thanks to two ward members who really went all out to make it look fantastic. 

The party was mostly just stressful for Bran and me, but the food was good, and we were glad everybody else seemed to have a fun time. Hopefully next year we will have fun attending the party and not worrying about how to put it on!

The Rest of Summer 2014 and September Too

The rest of the summer was very hot, and went somewhat quickly. Brandon had started his first rotation, which happened to be his Internal Med rotation (also known as Eternal Med). His days were 12-14 hours long, and he worked 6 days a week. Consequently, Oliver and I didn't see him very often, but we got good at taking public transit and having fun by ourselves. This was when I finally made myself sit down and start writing about Oliver's birth and my postpartum depression, which kickstarted this whole "blogging to catch up" campaign. 

Oliver learned to crawl, and started learning how to walk, cruising around clinging to furniture and the walls. He also learned how to climb things. Luckily, he has not realized the climbing potential of the bookshelves yet, but I'm afraid it is only a matter of time.

One thing I absolutely adore about summer in Portland are the outdoor markets. Food, music, activities, fresh flowers and people watching...what's not to love? I guess if you're not a crowd person you might not like them, but I don't mind crowds in markets. It makes it easier to blend in and observe. I did not go to as many as I would have liked, but Oliver and I did go to a few. Once I splurged a little bit and got an artichoke tamale (SO GOOD!), and to my surprise, Oliver really wanted to try some. Then he did not want to stop eating it, and he was most put out when there was no more left. It appears he has been aptly named Oliver Scott: Scott after my father who is the king of hot and spicy, and loves Mexican food.

Other than surviving Bran's I.M. rotation, and trying to get used to not having a car, the latter part of summer was pretty uneventful, though there were plenty of adorable Oliver moments to capture with film. I could flood Facebook and Instagram with pictures of Oliver, but I try to be discreet and not annoy you all with the overwhelming cuteness. So, it gets translated to my blog instead, where you may look at them if you like, but you don't have to. Enjoy!

In September, right before Brandon finished with his Internal med rotation, Oliver and I flew out for a visit in Utah. It was about a week, and we had a great time with my family and we even got to see Brandon's family for a little bit as well. He loved his first experience on a swing, but had dubious feelings about the slide. We had a great time and can't wait to go back for Christmas!