Canaan's First Birthday!!

We begin June 26, 2009, Canaan's FIRST birthday, with a birthday breakfast and some presents!

Canaan's favorite present--her very own cell phone. Now, she can not only call Andre whenever she wants, but she can also text and take pictures.

Just to make sure we haven't given her a knock-off rocket launcher for the pool, Canaan has to taste it to ensure it's authenticity.

Yes, it's a genuine rocket launcher.

Actually, her favorite present may be a tie between the cell phone and the turtles. Simon and Myrtle, thanks to Uncle Michael and Aunt Amy. Canaan was thinking about feeding them the tiny apple she has in her hand.

Next on the birthday agenda, a little picnic at her friend Sierra Pott's pool. (Thanks Pott's!) Here's Canaan digging into her peach. If it seems like she eats a lot, let me assure you that she does. We're priming her for the hot-dog-eating-contest when she grows up. After all, what parent wouldn't want to exploit their child's talents in order to make a pretty penny and buy an RV so we can retire at age 43?

After waiting 20 minutes for the food to digest (just kidding...that's an old wives tale. We jumped right in when Canaan was finished with her peach), Tim took Canaan down the waterslide! Canaan wanted to go down head first, but we were concerned that her light-weight body would launch right off the slide, so in the end, Tim kept sliding down with her in his lap.

That afternoon, we started a new birthday tradition! One which will bring tears to my eyes every year. Tim and Canaan danced to Carrie Underwood's song, "All-American Girl." Every year, they'll dance to the same song and when she gets married (hopefully...), we'll edit it all together into one video. And maybe she'll "choose" to dance to that song for the Father/Daughter dance! "Choose" is in quotation marks because when you give birth to a kid after 17 1/2 hours of labor and no pain medication, you earn the right to influence your kid's decisions. Including what song she will dance to with her dad at her wedding. No song, no wedding. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice freedom for a cute photo op.

Finally, on the June 26th agenda, the RODEO! Yes, we brought Canaan to a real rodeo for her birthday!!

And how could she attend a rodeo without Cowgirl Attire?

Her Grandpa is helping her fit the cowboy hat nicely over her bow.

It was a for real rodeo. Cowboys riding bucking broncos...

...and little girls riding mechanical bulls.

Finally, the actual birthday-day was complete. But when Sunday rolled around, Canaan realized that the birthday celebrations were far from over!

First stop: Andre's birthday! Andre, who is two days older, bigger, and bluer than Canaan, had a BLAST at his pool party! Thanks for being our favorite neighbor and friend, Andre! And maybe boyfriend one day, too...if you can wait till Canaan's 37.

First, Canaan had to change into her party outfit.

Then, we had to do a video documentary of the kid, cake, people, and backyard beach!

Next, a quick change into the birthday bathing suit (not to be confused with her actual birthday suit), a little song to celebrate Canaan's first birthday, then the cake!Due to the fondant icing (which I hand made! And I made the fish and the rest of the cake...finished it up at midnight the night before. What mother wouldn't make the fanciest cake imaginable for the most memorable birthday a kid has? Everyone remembers his/her first birthday, right?!?!)

Due to the hard icing, Canaan chose simply to eat the fish and not dive into the cake. So I helped her.

You can see she loved every bite of it! Including that squishy bite in her mouth.

This is also a good shot of her two front teeth. After months and months of endless "teething", four pop in. Then, we're waiting for the rest of them to appear--incisors, molars, etc. Apparently, they don't get those until they're two? Another year of rabbit-chewing with four front teeth??

It worked for the cake, though.

And the video documenting the cake experience. Note her confusion with the fondant icing, then her decision to just go with the pink fish.

The party was a blast--good friends and family were there. Uncle Michael Williams and Mackenzie Thornton (who are best friends, according to Mackenzie) were just a few!

The whole crew took a quick dip in the pool after cake and ice cream.

Finally, the end of the party draws near, and Canaan thanks her Mama with a big smooch. She felt like her first birthday was not only memorable, but filled with educational experiences (she sure taught that mechanical bull a lesson), fabulous cake (and fondant fish), wonderful friends (we missed Gracie and Joy Bardin!), unbelievable family (thanks for helping!!), and a very blessed life (Thank the LORD!)

Summer is a BLAST!

Summer activities of Canaan: finger painting.

Mix some pretty colors, spread some newspaper on the grass (although I'm not sure why I was trying to keep the grass clean), put a gigantic paint shirt on Canaan (I'm sure Target makes kid-size paint gear), give her some paper and we're ready for a Norman Rockwell.

In this video, you can see that Canaan realizes in order to produce a quality finger painting, one must first evenly spread the paint all over the place. Including the sleeves of your paint shirt.

Soon, Canaan is side-tracked by the glorious squish of paint between your fingers.

And of course, no experimentation is complete without the ole' trusty "Taste Test." Crayola blue paint: non-toxic for sure. Taste tested and mother approved.

And for our final finger painting video, you get to experience Canaan's ultimate product.

The next summer activity for Canaan: getting a "big girl" car seat. While I think she's still too peanutty for this seat, apparently, she's ready. According to Consumer Reports. You can see in the following video that Canaan enjoys some leisurely reading while riding in the car. Until she gets frustrated that the free Chick-Fil-A book doesn't have any information to contact the publisher in regards to the text being upside down.

And thankfully her attention is quickly averted to the new car seat button. Crisis managed thanks to the bright red "release" button.

Summer activities continued: getting dressed up and throwing a tea party with the "girls."

Donning her purple tu-tu and tiara (thanks, Nana), Canaan is ready to get out the Bunko game and relax with a spot of tea.

Any proper hostess knows you first serve the cucumber sandwiches then the you offer the dinner mints.

"Is this the Earl Grey or the Passion Fruit tea from Starbucks?" Canaan is wondering while admiring the real pottery tea set her Grammy from Minnesota gave her.

Finally, it's time for one last Bunko call and then the clean up. Canaan is very efficient in cleaning up. Disclaimer: nothing was broken in the filming of this scene.

Not knowing what to do with the sugar cover, Canaan resorts to eating it.

Injuries come hand-in-hand with summer time. Bike crashes, bee stings, skinned knees, and falling off the bed. Actually, rolling out of the Bumpo seat which was strategically placed in the middle of the bed (for safety while I was vacuuming...of course.) Then, rolling off the bed, hitting her lip on the side table, and having it bleed only slightly. Then, an intense amount of swelling which went down after some miraculous application of the Boo-Boo Bunny. You can see the right side of the lip is slightly more "puffy" than the left. At first, I wondered if I was a bad mother, but then I realized I've just joined the ranks of millions of mothers whose kids have fallen off the bed and still live to see the day they graduate from college with a 3.78 GPA--no brain damage evident.

While the summer hasn't consisted of bike crashes or bee stings (yet), what summer would be complete without a little midnight trip to the ER? After two days of high fevers, a trip to the pediatrician who signs us off with a clean bill of health (except for the mysterious high-fever causing virus that's ravaging her little 18lb. body), we return home, put her to bed with a 100 degree fever, and an hour later, she wakes with a 105 fever!! Good LORD! So here we are, soaking her with tepid-water, praying for no brain damaging febrile seizures, calling the pediatrician's midnight hotline every 26 seconds, and finally, decide to take her to the ER. After double doses of Tylenol and Motrin, the fever goes back down, and by the end of the night, she's literally jumping on the bed and squealing at her roommate who's suffering from some mysterious pain in her abdomen. Next day: fever free and healthy as an ox.

Midnight trip to the ER: $1,259. Krystal's burger and fries after the most scary experience in your life: $6.89. Having a kid who is healthy and normal and enjoying every bit of her first summer: absolutely priceless!

St. Louis!

Last week, Tim and I took Canaan on her first BIG road trip to St. Louis, MO! Her Uncle Josh, Aunt Sarah, and cousin Courtney accompanied us. We went to visit Sarah's AWESOME family and take in some of the "Dirty Lou" sights!

After a long and grueling eight hour trip, we finally arrive at the Science Museum! Entry: free...thanks to Budweiser and their trillions of dollars.

We had quite a few educational experiences. One in particular: T-Rex's like to eat little girls. Thankfully, this ferocious dinosaur was only a life-size replica.

Next bit of astronomical trivia: Mars can actually fit in the foyer of a large Museum. You can see that Courtney and Canaan are thrilled to actually be touching the "Red Planet."

And since we were in St. Louis, it was only fitting to re-construct the arch using large foam blocks. Pictured on the right is Uncle Josh (Tim's brother), Sarah in the blue (my AWESOME sister-in-law (almost!!!)), Courtney in the pink (Canaan's cousin who was oddly born on the same day as Canaan...June 26...weird), and Sarah's mom and dad, Jane and Jim (native St. Louisinians.)

Another scientific fact: Canaan's head can in fact float on the table. The trick is actually getting her to squeeze her head through the hole and holding her still enough to get a good picture.

And what Museum is complete without the old "Holographic Spring in a Box" experience?

Next stop: the famous arch--gateway to the West and thrilling ride to the 630 foot pinnacle for the Goodwin family.

After coaxing Tim and Josh and Courtney to suck it up and ride to the top, we make it (just like the thousands before us...you wimps). Pictured here: Tim and Canaan on the horn, discussing Tim's exit strategy in case the arch tips over once we're at the top.

Here I am, squealing with delight as we witness our daughter bravely looking out the miniature windows, baring her diaper and her courage to the world.

She takes after her mother.

In the following video, you can clearly see how high up we are. One day, Canaan and I will bungee jump together while Daddy videos from the safety of the ground. Keep an eye out for that blog in the future--it'll be a good one.

Once we've conquered the arch, it's off to the St. Louis Zoo! Canaan's first zoo experience proved to a wonderful afternoon filled with unanswered zoological questions.

For example, where are the rhino's going so quickly? There's a wall in front of them. Canaan is trying to tell them to stop.

And another: Where did that butterfly just go? I swear it was right here. At least, it was before Aunt Sarah screamed when a different beautiful butterfly landed on her arm. Thanks, Sarah. We were this close.

In this video, you can see that Canaan is desperately trying to get the elephants' attention by waving her arm (I think it's the baby sign language symbol for "elephant"...or it could be "I have a cold and my nose is stuffed up." That could be why the elephants weren't responding.)

Despite the unanswered questions, we had a blast at the Zoo. It was a wonderful place to take Canaan and she really did love all the animals!

On our final day in glorious St. Louie, we go to the pool! Another one of Canaan's most favorite places! Tim and I decided that this is the day to teach Canaan how to dive off the diving board. You can see that she is thrilled to be diving off the twelve foot board into her father's waiting hands. Actually, it's more like nine inches. We think she's going to be an Olympic synchronized diver.

St. Louis experience: check.

Cutie kid: double check.

Thank the Lord for a great life: Heck yeah.

Gardening!

Every year we have a garden in our backyard--except last year when my toes were the size and consistency of Vienna Sausages and my cankles rendered me immobile--we always plant a lovely vegetable garden!

Naturally, Canaan must earn her keep, so we quickly teach her how to hoe the rows, pick the weeds, water the garden, prune the tomatoes, and look for the slugs that try to eat the lettuce. Unfortunately, Canaan has only mastered one vital component of gardening--eating the dirt. Much like a worm, Canaan helps aerate the soil and ensures her saliva adds a PH balance that only an 11-month old's mouth could produce.

In the following video, you can see how Canaan struggles to move the rake out of the way so she can clear a section of dirt to eat.

And after a long, hard day working in the garden, Canaan is OUT. In her typical "Mowgli" fashion, (in The Jungle Book when Mowgli was walking around with the elephants...Canaan crawls just like that), Canaan leaves the yard. Off to eat bigger and dirtier things.

This is a picture of Canaan by our mailbox and those flowers. It looks like she's waiting for the mail man.

And these are the CUTEST pictures of Canaan at our mountain house where my dad has "strategically" let the flowers/grass grow really long in his backyard. Nice, dad.

In this picture, Canaan makes an important discovery--if flowers grow in dirt, and I like to eat dirt, then surely I would like to eat flowers, too!

All I can say, is Canaan does not have a deficiency in certain vitamins and minerals found in "naturally derived substances." And that's why we only use organic soil and plants.