.birthdays and unbirthdays.

This is a birthday post.
(Where did i find a shirt profiling riggdon as a self portrait? Wal-Mart, of course.)

For Riggdon's first birthday I asked Danny what kind of cake I should make.

He insisted that Riggdons favorite cake was angel food cake with cherry frosting.



funny how that's Danny's favorite cake as well....

he didn't like the candle.

Just for future reference... Riggdon, you can blame daddy for a pink birthday cake :)







YAY! TOYS!

Happy birthday RIGGY!

Now, for this next chapter....

I have a confession.

I contemplated lying to the world about this next bit.
I seriously thought about it.





but.... its Sunday. And I just received much spiritual enlightenment at my stake conference. And I would feel guilty forever.




so..............


These pictures are not from February.
I did not throw a party for my eldest son on his birthday,
February 5. I have not been meaning to post these pictures for over 3 months.




In fact I was planning on letting it go this year.


On Campbell's real birthday, we opened a few presents and whatnot.

whatnot meaning we opened 4 presents from his grandparents.
no cake.
no candles.
no "happy birthday to you"


you see, a lot of.......life was happening.
life has a tendency of doing that, ya know...
happening.


And I kept telling myself I'd throw his party next weekend.
and next weekend got pushed to the next.
and the next.
and the next.






until suddenly it was the end of March and i decided we would just do something FABULOUS for his third birthday.




And then Campbell learned his first song.

"happy birthday to you"
I don't know where he learned it. I don't know when. but he started singing it ALLLLLL the time.


And every time we sang to a cousin at Sunday dinner (which is practically every Sunday with 50 some odd grand kids) he'd look up at me and ask "My birthday?" and my heart would break.


"no, honey. not your birthday."


SO i decided it wasn't too late.
I threw Campbell a party.




in April.



an Unbirthday party.

We opened presents....

He got his very own ELMO.
(notice the "back off, he's mine" glare.)

And mommy baked a special cake....

He kinda liked it.

This is CJ's "Smile for the camera!"

Happy Birthday, boys!


Mommy loves you.

.Laundry Day.

the saying "put myself through the ringer" comes to mind.

but what does that really even mean?

ringer: the mechanical part of the first electrical washers that squeezed the water out of the clothes.

no, that's not quite right.

I feel more like i've been put through the dryer. on high, "cotton towel" setting.

thoroughly heated and tossed around. bumping my head repeatedly. dizzy, not knowing what was up... what was down.

yeah, that's more like it.

But I'm better for it.

like the cotton shirt all fluffed and yummy smelling after its hot beating from the modern houshold appliance.

life has a way of shaking you up to remind you what matters.

i'm back. and I'll be blogging soon. I have lots of pictures.

I blame the lame metaphor on laundry day.

.a boy and his dog. (with pictures)

As a mother, there are many "firsts" you get to witness in your child's life

First tooth.
First haircut.
First steps.

These events are exciting and fun, however each first you share with your baby brings a pang of impending sadness. These milestones serve as reminder that they are, despite your efforts, growing up. Each step brings them further away from the completely dependent baby you brought from the hospital. From baby, to toddler; toddler to child and child to, (shudder) teen.

these first "first's" bring you closer and closer to the firsts you do not get to experience with your baby.

first day of school.
first kiss.
first love.



Today I was given a gift. A treasure. Today I was able witness one of Campbell's firsts. One that I normally would not be a part of.

The First Adventure.

Now, I'm not talking first trip to the zoo kind of adventure. I'm talking bona-fide (how the heck do you spell that anyways?) lions and tigers and bears (oh my) adventure. The kind of adventure I think all boys should experience several times in their childhood. Remember the movie Stand By Me? (have you seen it? you should.)

Growing up in a family of only two girls I marvel at the difference between Danny and my childhoods. Mine was full barbie dolls and playing "house". At 6 years old Danny used to walk out the back door with a loaded rifle to shoot rabbits. (can you imagine sending your six year old out to play with a RIFLE? "don't shoot your eye out, kid" What am I going to do!?!)

He and his brothers can go on for hours telling stories of their adventures. I'll have to write them all down for him someday for posterity.

ANYWAYS.


Today Campbell went on his first adventure.

Without his mommy.

The Snow had melted from wyomings latest season hiccough, and we were blessed with a rare showing of an authentic autumn day. Campbell had been cooped up in the house for about 3 days (snow, remember?) and so I gladly shoved him out the door to play. It kinda freaks me out that I have a baby old enough to "shove" outside to entertain himself

After changing a load of laundry I went to the window to check on him.

He wasn't in the back yard.

I rushed out side to find the little twirp, thinking I had somehow left the front gate open and he was on his way to grandmas across the way.

The front gate was closed.

Hm. The only other exit is a heavy wooden gate in the very back corner of the yard. One I thought campbell was much to small to open. Turns out I was wrong. As I wander over to the gate I hear giggles from the other side of the fence. I peer over to find CJ and Aslan (the golden doodle) about 30 feet away near the far fence of the horse corral. Campbell is throwing dirt clods at Aslan and Aslan, thinking they're balls for fetching is slaming his face into the ground, desparatly trying to grab them. And campbell thinks its hillarious. Quite frankly, so do I.

I decide to watch.

Campbell periodically glances back to the gate, waiting for me to burst through, no doubt, screaming his name. Once he realizes I am not coming he decides to venture further away from the yard. I follow him along the back fence in silence. The further away he gets, I notice, the more confident he becomes. His walk became a full fledged strut! He felt pretty dang cool being this far away from home, without his mom.



But the best part of the story, was Aslan. He's the real reason I wanted to write this down. I want Campbell to be able to come back to this story and read about another first that happened today, The day campbell made his first best friend.


Aslan never left his side. He pranced alongside him, always within arms reach, as they crawled under the horse corral down towards the barn. Campbell jabbered to him (he still doesn't say many words) and Aslan perked his ears and cocked his head as if to listen intently. Campbell laughed when a cat jumped out of a bush Aslan was sniffing. Aslan rushed over to sniff Campbell when he fell from a block of wood he was trying to balance on.

It was wonderful to watch.

They were inseparable from the moment they left the corral, as they explored the barn, the chicken coop, down to the garden and back up the barn where I, sadly, had to pull the mommy card. Campbell was on the edge of a very large mud puddle Aslan had just jumped into. It was up to Aslan's knees and, being laundry day, I decided that was just part of the adventure he'd have to save for another day.

My baby is not a baby.

He's a boy.

A boy and his dog.

.Haircut.

I have been waiting. praying. wishing. dreaming Campbells hair would start showing signs of those adoreable curls.

It never happened.

Poor kid's got some frizzy, fine hair...
and it was starting to mullet-ize. and the mullet would constantly have these horrendous knots in it.

so I gave up.

meet baldy. he's the cutest bald man you've ever seen, right?

I think so.

I about cried because it makes him look like a little man, all growed up. sniffle.






And for those of you who wonder what mothers of little one year old boys do all day....

They clean.

messes like such as this.

several times a day.

This is cambpell dismantling the dvd's from their rack. His other favorite disassembling messes include: the pots an pans cupboard. The bookshelf. the bathroom cupboards. His bottom drawers.


He also enjoys unrolling the toilet paper. He's not satisfied until the entire roll is unraveled.

.No.

Campbell has recently acquired a new skill. His first form of communication, in fact. (aside from crying, of course) Campbell can shake his head "no". Cute, right? I'm sure the cuteness will wear off fast as he learns to use it more, but as of right now its the most adorable thing any baby has ever done. I'm sure of it ;).

Today we were in the Wal-Mart check out line and Campbell was shaking his head non-stop. He loves the attention he gets from everyone when he does it. A young Hispanic man was standing behind him, laughing. The man says

"well, what are you disagreeing with, little one?"

At the sound of his deep voice CJ stopped mid head shake and stared. There's something about a manly voice that puts him into a trance. He was staring so intently at the man that I joked,

"Campbell, its impolite to stare!"

The man laughed and said

"It's okay, he's just thinking "I've never seen such a handsome Mexican before""

and right on cue Campbell started shaking his head no, no, no. Like he was saying "uhhh yeah right, dude" I'm sure you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but the whole line was laughing hysterically.