Happy Birthday to V and Happy Anniversary to Me and B!

Yesterday, we celebrated our son's 3rd birthday and my and my husband's 8th wedding anniversary. V was due on August 8th, 2006, but because he was breech, we went ahead and scheduled a C-section/external version. My husband wanted to schedule it on a Friday, so he could have an entire week at home with me, and it ended up being scheduled on our 5th wedding anniversary! The night before, I remembered that I hadn't bought anything for B for our anniversary. When I mentioned it, he pointed to my belly, and said, with a smile, "What do you think that is?". So, V was our big present to each other! On the morning of August 4th, 2006, we went up to the labor and delivery floor of my husband's hospital. The nurses strapped monitors on me, and we found out I was actually contracting every two minutes, but I wasn't laboring at all. Because V was breech (head up, feet down), my OB/GYN tried to turn V around by pushing on my stomach, but the little guy just wouldn't budge, so we went ahead and did a C-section. He was born at 9:44 am, and he was 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20 1/4 inches long. He came out with a full head of black hair, and I immediately thought he looked like my husband. Both of our families were at the hospital when he was born. Though I was full of drugs from the C-section, I still remember that those first few hours were very happy ones.
Yesterday, I decided to take V to the local mall. He always wants to run into the "Build-A-Bear" store to push the buttons and play on the computers. I thought it might be fun to actually make a stuffed animal for his birthday. We went to Subway for lunch first, and as we were eating, a massive thunderstorm blasted through our city and took out all the power in the mall! We waited and waited, and after two hours, I was about to leave the place, when the power suddenly came back on. We went back to the store, and V and I made a stuffed cat. He was more into the buttons and computers, so I ended up dressing the cat (named "Cally"). We went to Target, too, because there was a set of Matchbox cars he wanted. When we came home from our shopping trip, we discovered that the power in our house had also gone out during the storm. It didn't come back on until around 7 pm! I made dinner on our grill, which is luckily hooked up to a gas line. Then, B, V, and I sat around and caught up on things we couldn't do without power. I was working on a sewing project, and around 9 pm, we were going to have V blow out candles on a cupcake, but he had fallen asleep! He was just worn out from all the excitement of the day. B and I decided we'll celebrate his birthday with candles later today or tomorrow, when B can be there, too. B and I really didn't do much to celebrate our anniversary. We're saving that up for next week, when we get to spend four days at Gen Con (and at a hotel) alone! ;)
We had an awesome trip to Charleston, South Carolina, last week, and I'll try to post pics of our trip later.

V celebrating his birthday while in Charleston, SC

V and his new friend, Cally

Happy Anniversary, B! I love you!

The Birthday Girl

Yesterday, I turned 32 years old. I really can't believe that I'm in my thirties. I guess when you're really young, you think that 30 is old. Then, you get there, and you realize that it's not at all. A lot has happened in the past year. We've moved to a new town, I've made some great new friends, I'm closer to my family, and I just feel settled in life. Some days that's really good, and some days it's not, but that's okay. I spent the first day of my 32nd year on this planet with the two men in my life. Even though I got up before the boys, my husband still made me breakfast in bed. Then, I went to the eye doctor to pick up my new glasses (Juicy Couture; I couldn't help myself), and we went to the mall to do a little shopping. I also picked up an iced mocha from Panera Bread, one of my favorite morning drinks. I don't get it very often, so it was a real treat. At the mall, I bought a couple of cute tops from Old Navy to wear with a skirt I'd bought there previously. I just happened to be wearing the skirt at the time, so it helped me to find exactly what I wanted. The only bad thing about the day was my husband had scheduled a surgery, even though he wasn't on-call over the weekend. I guess he decided that he wanted to be responsible for that particular patient. He sort of apologized in his own way for scheduling it, but it didn't bother me too much. I've gotten used to him having to forgo holidays with the family because of his job. Happily, the surgery didn't take very long, and he was home fairly quickly after it was over. I spent that time playing a fun video game, called "Viva Pinata", on the XBox 360. It's a cute little game, very family-friendly, and very similar to "The Sims". The player builds gardens to attract living pinata animals. You can get them to "romance" to make more pinatas, and you can plant different seeds that grow into plants to feed and/or attract the pinatas. It can be very addictive and sometimes frustrating, but I always seem to come back for more! After both my husband and I had spent some time on the XBox, we loaded our son's diaper bag up and took him over to a friend's house. Then, Hubby and I went to see the new "Star Trek" movie. It was phenomenal! We both agreed that the retcon to the series' plot was done very well, and I adored all of the main characters. The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was superb, and overall, it was just a fun movie to watch. It will definitely be a film I add to my DVD collection. Afterward, we headed to a local Italian place for a very late dinner. I went ahead and ordered a glass of Mosel Riesling wine, which B and I shared. Actually, we shared the entire dinner: appetizer, salad, bread, entree, and dessert! It was very nice, and enough food for both of us. The rigatoni con pollo (large tube pasta with chicken, wilted spinach, roasted tomatoes, and an alfredo sauce) was excellent, and I absolutely loved the tirimisu. It was a little pricey, but we had a gift card, and since we shared the entire meal, we only paid about $15 (including tip) for dinner. Since "Star Trek" has been in theaters for a while, it had moved to the $5 per screening rate, so all told, we only spent about $30 or so for our entire evening out! It was a great way to end the day, and I'm so glad we were able to spend it together. Oh, and my husband tried to get me a bread machine for my birthday, but none of the stores around here carry them for some reason. He ended up buying it on-line, so I look forward to receiving it in the mail. It's always fun to get new appliances! And, I'm looking forward to the next year of my life, as well.
Namaste,
Amanda

Happy Birthday, V!

On August 4, 2006, at 9:44 a.m., my husband and I celebrated our fifth anniversary by welcoming our beautiful 8 pound, 8 ounce baby boy into the world. Two years later, he's become a walking, talking, dancing, singing, smiling, laughing, rockin' little boy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, V!!!! We love you!

I'm having issues uploading pictures, so I'll try to repost later.
Update: Apparently, I'm not the only one who is having issues with posting pictures, so I guess we'll all have to wait until someone at Blogger fixes the problem.
In the meantime, V had a great birthday. This past weekend, we went to my in-laws' house to celebrate not only V's birthday, but his two cousins' birthdays as well. All three of them have birthdays within a week of each other, and his cousins are brother and sister, which means V's aunt is very busy with cakes and presents and parties and the like. Her husband's birthday is the same week as their children's, so I really feel for my sister-in-law at this time of year! We decided to have a big party at V's grandparents' house for the kids with a great dinner and cupcakes that spelled out their names and pie and ice cream and lots of presents. We also spent the afternoon swimming in my in-laws' pool. There were a few leftover cupcakes, so this evening after dinner, hubby and I sang "Happy Birthday" to V and helped him blow out two candles on his cupcake. It was a fun little party for just the three of us, and V really made a mess while eating his yellow cupcake with milk chocolate frosting! V's favorite presents so far have been the "Yo Gabba Gabba" guitar we bought him, his new crayons and coloring pad, the cell phone and tiger water bottle he received from his aunt and uncle, and the "Sesame Street" DVDs from his grandparents. We were unable to meet up with my own family this past weekend because of scheduling problems, but we're hoping to celebrate with them some time in the next couple of weeks. Today is also B and my seventh wedding anniversary. We really haven't done anything to celebrate that milestone yet, but next week my family is going to watch V for a few days, while B and I attend Gen Con Indy. We'll have lots of time together, so I'm sure we'll celebrate then! ;)
Hope you're all having as much fun as us!
Best to you all, and "Happy Birthday" to anyone sharing the day with our son.
Amanda