James is one!

My baby boy is a year old! How can this be!!?? Watching this beautiful boy grow has been nothing short of amazing.  He brings so much joy to our lives every single day and I am so happy and proud to call him my son.

There are so many emotions and thought swirling around as you reach your baby's first birthday. Most of them sound cliche to say out loud.  Dear Jaime, know that your parents were and are completely enamoured with you.  Every day you make us proud with how smart and sweet you are and how much potential we see for you. Every day you make our hearts swell and add joy to our home. 

I am so happy that you are part of our family and can't wait to see what you look like as a two year old.

Home again

Before we knew it the midwest tour came to an end and we were back at the Milwaukee airport heading east. It was another very early in the morning but easy flight. And the highway from the airport to the city had very little traffic so next thing we knew we were back in our little apartment unpacking our bags.

We were all starving so headed down the street for brunch. Before our trip I was in desperate need of a break from the city and when we returned I felt rested and relaxed and ready to be home.  As we approached the city, it actually felt like home. 

You could see on Jaime's face that he felt like he returned home too... I suppose that NYC is the only home he knows so that makes sense. On the way to brunch he was waving at all of the people we passed and flirting with the surrounding tables at brunch while sharing his biscuit with the dog under the chair behind him. He might not have a huge house to call home but he was content with Amsterdam Avenue for stretching his legs after a morning of travel.

Part 4 of the Midwest Tour - The Farm

The next leg of our trip was spent visiting my family at the farm.  We borrowed the Explorer and headed northwest.  Jaime was a trooper for the drive but all three of us were so ready to be done driving by the time we arrived.

Jaime got to meet most of his cousins during the trip.  He thought it was pretty awesome and loved trying to keep up with all of the bigger boys. He thought Lainey was pretty neat too but mostly wanted to check out/pull her hair. He thought Uncle Ray was pretty cool.

We did a swimming pool trip with three families on Jaime's birthday. He loved seeing all the kids at the pool that he knew and getting to play with everyone.  And of course being a water baby he absolutely loved the swimming pool and went full steam for a very long time. Afterwards we did a stop at Dairy Queen so he could have some ice cream to celebrate 12 months.

We checked out the farm animals.  He got to visit with just hatched ducks, hens, kittens and a calf that was something like 6-12 hours old. He was waving at the cows but the hens just bewildered him.

For the fourth of July we watched a parade and headed to Clear Lake to go to the carnival and see the fireworks.  Again, he just loved having all the cousins around. He got to go on a ride at the carnival, the merry-go-round, which was pretty fantastic. The fireworks were pretty neat too. This kid was up way past his bedtime but was still very well behaved (thankfully).

The night before we left we celebrated Jaime's birthday and after he went to bed we did sparklers and smores by the firepit. (Sorry kid, you did stay up way past your normal bedtime but couldn't make it for the firepit to be lit, next time.)

And we also just hung out. It was a great visit.

Jaime, you weren't so interested in letting your relatives hold you on this trip.  You loved chatting with your papa but you needed to be in your separate seat so this is the best we could do getting a photo of you with papa and grammy....

This cracks me up.  Next time.

Part 3 of the Midwest Tour - Chicago Trips

While at the U. B&B we did a couple of trips to Chicago.  I went in to visit with a couple of friends and we did another partial day trip to show Jaime a few sights.

I had plans to have lunch with my old manager (gotta keep up the network) so we made a family sight seeing trip out of the morning and headed to the Millenium Park and Buckingham Fountain area. 

(Why yes, I am photo-bombing Dan's selfie... I gotta do what I gotta do to make sure there are photos of me.)

While I had lunch with my previous manager, Dan and Jaime had lunch with Darren in Bucktown.  Then we met back up and decided to squeeze in one more stop.  A visit to the Lincoln Park Zoo. 

(feeding time at the zoo!)

Jaime was fading fast and about to crash for a nap but he held on and had fun checking out a handful of exhibits.

Then we headed back north. It was lots of fun taking the little bug around our old city.

Part 2 of the Midwest Tour - The U's B&B

End of June we packed our bags and headed west to visit family. After two weeks of juggling work and being at home with Jaime during a major heat wave, we were ready for a break.

We were picked up by Grandpa and Grandma U in Milwaukee and headed to their house.  After chatting and lunch the three of us collapsed for a long nap crashing from our early morning.

We spent the next couple of days relaxing, catching up with family and eating good food alfresco. We hung out in the backyard and went up and down stairs. We also went to a movie. For real.  I can't remember the previous movie we went to see in the theater.

Jaime loved all of the space and so many rooms to explore practicing his new walking skills. He slept pretty good for being in a new place and enjoyed seeing the dogs.  Dogs are his favorite. We did an early birthday celebration, more on his first birthday in a separate post.

It was a nice relaxing visit, just what we needed. I found it funny that we packed totally wrong.  It had been oppressively hot forever in NYC but it was absolutely chilly in the Chicago area.  I ended up needing to buy a pair of jeans because all I had was shorts and skirts and my legs were freezing.