First Birthday

Spencer turned one on July 14! We are so blessed that we were able to fill our house with close family for her party. Shockingly, we had PINK and green decorations that featured monkeys with pink bows. We had the party early in the morning right after Spencer's nap so that she would be wide awake and very happy. She was absolutely spoiled with attention and wonderful gifts from all of our family.





She really liked her cake! It took just a few minutes, and then she slowly began shoveling cake and icing into her mouth. I think that she was really surprised that we would put a giant cake in front of her and then let her eat it.

Spencer has had a great time playing with all of her new gifts. She loves her Cozy Coupe so much that Wes and I have to hide it. She loves to be pushed around the house in it, but she gets very upset if you stop pushing her. We are not in good enough shape to do that all day long. We're waiting until she can drive herself in the car really well.

On her actual birthday, Wes got Munchkins since the two of us had Dunkin Donuts last year on the way to the hospital. Spencer really liked her first doughnuts! We had a nice, relaxing day together. We wanted to take Spencer out for a birthday dinner, but we don't know where her favorite restaurant is. Wes and I figured Red Robin was a pretty good place for a kiddie birthday, and we knew that we could help Spencer celebrate by drinking a chocolate malt.

Dear Spencer

How is it possible that you have been with us for an entire year? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing home a tiny bundle from the hospital, but it's also hard to remember what life was like before July 14, 2009. When I was pregnant with you, I was so excited to welcome a baby into my life. I knew that I would love holding you, caring for you, and playing with you, but I didn't know how much I would just fall in love with WHO you are. I honestly didn't realize how different all babies are. I had no idea how strongly that little Spencer personality would already exist. You are definitely our precious Spencer, the baby girl who was meant to be with us.
From the beginning, you have been such an easygoing child. When you were first born, your cry was never demanding; just a sweet little "la!" Several times you have been sick, and we didn't even know because you never cried. You definitely get your go with the flow attitude from Daddy. Unless you are really tired, you are happy with whatever is going on around you. You seem to be happy with whatever we feed you, you're happy wherever we take you, and you are happy around any and everyone. People always want to hold you, but they're scared that you won't take to them. I always hand you over and let them know that everyone is a friend to you. You've never cried when you've left our arms.
Spencer, you have made me a happier person. Of course, I'm happier now that I have a beautiful daughter in my life, but you actually make me choose to be happier. By watching you, I've learned that life is just so much better when you're happy. When Daddy and I are happy, you are happy, no matter what else is happening. If something upsetting happens to you, you get over it much more quickly when we remain calm and happy. Sometimes I think that you love to see us laugh and smile as much as we love watching you giggle and grin. I love that laughter is contagious with you. The minute we laugh about something, you start chuckling. If you've done something to make us laugh, you then start to do it again and again. Anytime that we sing, you dance and try to sing along. We love hearing you hum "This Old Man." Singing always makes you happier if you are grumpy. Our magical CD in the car is the Walt Disney CD. It always cheers you right up (except for the Italian Lady and the Tramp song...you always scream on cue with that one).
Everyone loves being around you, Spencer. I would love being with you even if you weren't my daughter. Wherever we go, people just seem to be drawn to you. It literally seems that you are magnetic. We cannot seem to move two feet in public without someone commenting on how perfect you are. When we were at the beach, even teenage boys couldn't stop watching you as you were laughing in the pool. You love to smile and wave and clap for them. You've become a little bit of a ham, and we can tell that you really like all of the attention that those big blue eyes and that sweet smile command. You definitely don't meet any strangers, and you've become more cuddly as you've gotten older.
You are now always on the go, but you will still stop for hugs and kisses when we ask for them. You've even begun to hug and kiss us without being prompted. We absolutely adore your hugs and kisses! You also know how to make us melt with this sweet smile where you tilt your head. Sometimes you sort of bat your eyelashes. I'm not kidding! You have really loved giving us that smile right before you know that we are about to tell you "No" about something.
Daddy and I are so amazed by how smart you are. Sometimes you are playing with your toys, not even watching us, and you will answer us or say something that matches our conversation. Before we went to the beach, Daddy was talking to me very softly about an Oscar cooler that we would take, and you quickly started calling for Oscar the dog. We love to watch you sort things. Today at Cracker Barrel you had the best time putting the butters and jellies into and out of the bowls at least a hundred times. One day when you were eating a banana, we looked up to see that you had put all of your banana bites into the cup holder on your high chair tray. You are a great independent player, but we have noticed you starting to enjoy your friends at school and church more and more.
We are beyond blessed that we have a healthy baby who is such an angel to be around. We thank God each day that He has entrusted us with you. We are so grateful that our family is so much richer with you in it.
We love you! Mommy and Daddy

My Eight Month Old (an old post)

I really want to be a better blogger. I don't know why I can't seem to get anything down on this blog. My hope was that this would be like a scrapbook (since I'll never scrapbook), but I seem to have missed out some of Spencer's most important months. Hopefully, I will turn this around into a scrapbook blog one day.

Spencer is eight months old, and she is already so much more fun than Wes and I had ever thought possible at this age. She is still really long, and she is mostly wearing 12-18 month clothes. She sometimes looks like a redneck baby in these because she is too skinny for them, but 6-12 month clothes would never fit her long torso. She loves to eat, and doesn't reject any certain type of baby food. She is working through stage two foods now. We are finally about to move out of our size two diapers, which is good, since we have boxes and boxes of size three diapers.


Spencer has slept through the night from about 6:30 to 6:30/7:00 since November. What an amazing sleeper! Wes and I are so grateful for this. It makes all three of us such wakeful, happy people. She is a dream when she wakes up in the morning, as well. She stretches right away, even before she opens her eyes, and it is the most adorable thing. She enjoys lying on her changing table, babbling, giggling, and getting tickled by her parents. She wiggles around, but when you take her clothes off, she really lets loose and starts to kick like a wild woman. She laughs the most when you tickle her tummy or her neck. She also thinks that any kind of funny noise is hilarious. She gives good belly laughs if you make a crazy noise for her.

We spend our afternoons playing with Spencer on the floor, watching her work toys like her bubble gum machine and her piano, and listening to her squeal and giggle. She really is just always happy. We are so blessed to have such a content baby who is always smiling at us. She is great medicine for lifting your mood. As soon as you're around her, bad days are just forgotten. She is so good that we hardly even notice when she's sick, which is kind of tricky. I always feel like the worst mom when I finally realize that she's been sick for several days. We've had such a problem with ear infections, fluid in the ears, and a little bit of hearing loss that we're getting ear tubes in two weeks.

One of my favorite Spencer laughs happened at Costco last week. Wes was holding her, and I walked ahead of them and turned around to look at them. He held her tightly and ran toward me, stopping right as he got to me. She laughed so hard that it didn't even sound like her voice. So of course I got Wes to do it again. This time she squealed so loudly that people probably though she was being kidnapped. Hilarious! Wes has decided that she's going to be a singer. I think so, too, especially if the amount of singing that goes on at our house is any indication.

Spencer is SO not into the idea of crawling, or of even being on her stomach at all. She absolutely hates it! We will let her ease herself onto her stomach and lay out several toys for her to grab for, but she just cries and cries and turns in circles. She can do a 360 degree turn in about one minute flat, but she refuses to attempt any other movement. The reverse army crawl doesn't seem to get her anywhere, so she just gets frustrated. We do think that she will love walking. She loves to stand and hold onto our fingers; she's brave enough to continue letting go and falling. I love to pull her up from sitting. Her little fit look just like she's in first position in ballet. I'll be interested to see if this child ever crawls, or if she just goes straight into walking.

Our Little Schroder

The Best Weekend

It may be months later, but I'm still remembering my best weekend of the winter. I want to document it so that I can recall how great it was when I'm fifty years old.

Valentine's weekend was better than I could have planned. I love those weekends where everything falls perfectly into place. On Friday afternoon, I was able to pick Spencer up at my parents' house because they were so kind to pick her up from school. We played around at their house for a little bit until I realized that it was snowing pretty hard and starting to stick! We quickly left for home but didn't get there for an hour due to the snow traffic. Usually, I would have been steaming, but it was really peaceful to watch the snow accumulate. Wes had already gone to the store to stock up on food, so I knew that we'd be snuggled in all cozy for the night.


The snow kept splattering down in big, chunky flakes, and we spent hours just staring out of the window. This kind of snow hasn't been around Greenville in at least a decade. It was beyond gorgeous as the snow started piling up all around our house. We took Spencer outside for the obligatory photos, but it was a bit cold to keep her outside for very long. We embarked on a cycle of eating, staring out of the window, finding another snack, and standing by the window again. In our house, when it snows, calories don't count. You are required to buy lots of fattening foods on the pre-snow grocery trip. I know that I gained at least three pounds because of the snow. We stayed up a little later than usual, and finally went to bed after looking out at the snow one more time (I fear disappearing snow, so I have to constantly check on it).


I loved waking up to a white yard, and we took Spencer outside to see if she would play in it. She was really hating on the snow. We tried to sit her up in her Randy from Christmas story jacket, but she just slowly drifted back, back, and back until she was lying back completely in the snow. Then she started crying, so we gave up on this idea.

"What are you doing to me?"

"Enough of this!"

We were able to relax for the rest of the day until it was time to get ready to go to Wicked! I have been wanting tickets for Wicked since I found out it was coming to Greenville a year and a half ago. We went to Liberty for dinner and began with Mai Tais at the bar. Liberty is my absolute favorite bar, and Wes and I love to sit there drinking Mai Tais even if we are getting a table to eat. We left just in time to get to Wicked. We had much better seats than when we saw it at The Fox, so we were thrilled to really be able to see what was going on.

Wes and I have never been out to a nice dinner on Valentine's Day. We've usually gone to Clemson basketball games for Valentine's Day, but we just didn't get that together this year. Since I didn't have to work the next day, we felt like giving the Valentine's Day date a try. We had crazy thoughts that we could make it to an early dinner on Valentine's Day since it was on a Sunday. We drove around town and stopped at about four restaurants before realizing that we would wait forever at a decent place. We finally broke down and headed to Red Robin for our romantic meal. It actually turned out better than if we had gone to a fancy Italian place. We so enjoyed it, and it was hilarious to go on a date without our daughter and be surrounded by families.

Thirty

I'm now thirty and almost four months! I had a busy birthday weekend full of activities. I love having several mini birthday parties. On Friday night, we went to Anita's with Wes's side of the family. Yummy! I hadn't been to Anita's since before I got pregnant, and I missed it so much. Spencer did really well, considering it was past her bedtime for most of the night. When we went back to Wes's parents' house, I was surprised with an orange and white cookie cake and a beautiful silver frame from Pottery Barn that I've had my eye on for quite some time. What fabulous treats!

We met my side of the family the next night at Portofino's. Two great restaurants in a row are spoiling me! I was so happy that my brother and sister both came home from school for my birthday. I actually ventured out and ordered something different here, and I loved it! I've found my new favorite Portofino's meal. We went back to my parents' house afterward, and they had a Paddy Cake waiting for me. This is my absolute favorite cake from Brick Street. My family was so generous, giving me cowboy boots, some replacement earrings for ones that Spencer pulled out of my ears and lost, rain boots, a rain jacket (I've been getting drenched at rainy day car duty), and a cute bulletin board that I've wanted for my kitchen. I loved being with the whole family, and Spencer loved getting spoiled by everyone.


On my actual birthday, Wes worked hard to make the day special. He got up early to pick up my favorite Dunkin Donuts so that I could enjoy them before I left for school. He showed up at school with flowers and Chick-Fil-A. That evening, we were fortunate to have some great grandparent babysitters to stay while we went to dinner at Saskatoon. I loved my meal, and of course we finished it off with the gigantic chocolate mousse cake.


Everyone is great to give into my Birthday Nazi wishes. I think next year I'll have a banner that says, "Happy Birthday, Lilly Aldrin!"

Christmas

Even though Spencer was too young to know that anything was going on, we truly enjoyed her first Christmas. We had a great time during the week prior to Christmas shopping and spending time at home together. Spencer did spend this week with a stomach bug, so we were limited in how often we could get out. Wes and I were able to take a date night to see "A Christmas Carol" at Greenville Little Theater and to eat at our new favorite adult place, Liberty. We hope to be able to take Spencer to more Christmas activities next year.
We had lunch with Wes's family on Christmas Eve and spent some time with them. We got to go to our candlelight service at church, which is my favorite part of Christmas. Luckily for us, the service was moved to an earlier time so Spencer was wide awake. I left her in the nursery for the service, but I picked her up before we lit our candles and sang "Silent Night." Holding a baby in my arms at that point in the service was just perfect. I hope to make it a tradition that Spencer is always with us in church for this part. We went to dinner with my family at Corona. We chose Corona for their great Chrismtas margaritas.
We started Christmas morning together as a family. We loved opening presents with Spencer. She surprised both of us with she decided to sit up for the first time! The rest of the day was crazy, and Spencer did especially well considering that she got very sick on Christmas night. She was spoiled with all of the love and presents that her family showered on her.

Spencer and her Christmas friends


Our family with the best grandmother in the world


Spencer and her new toys


Sitting up for the first time