Friday, February 20, 2009

Tapas and Teeth

I had not realized just how long it’s been since I updated the blog, until a friend mentioned she wanted to check it out and see some updated pictures. Ooops… sorry. The days have been slipping by with lightening speed. One day it’s the beginning of the month, then in the blink of an eye it’s almost the end of it! Wow!We’ve had some ups and downs this month. The biggest up has been that Tommy finally has teeth! Yep, that’s right, I said teeth – plural. His first tooth emerged amongst many a sleepless night, nasty diaper, and crankiness on the 11th. Tony had collected Tommy out of his crib that morning when he noticed that first pearly white! Within days the whole process began again, and just this week tooth number two finally emerged. We are excited to reach yet another milestone of the many Tommy’s had this year, but also it’s a little bittersweet. It means our baby is growing up! He will be ten months old tomorrow. It’s astonishing to me that we are beginning to plan his first birthday bash! I can’t wait. It’s going to be such a fun party. We’ve decided to go with a dinosaur theme. I’ve been jotting down ideas, and coming up with ways we can throw a great party while still keeping within a fairly tight budget.
Here is a picture of Tommy while teething...even while crying and cranky, he still takes time to smile at the camera.
In this picture you can almost see Tommy's tooth - it's glinting from the flash of the camera. Last weekend my sister and her husband came up for a visit. Tommy was able to spend some quality time with them, and I know he loved it. They and my parents watched Tommy for his very first overnight! I cried the entire way to my parents house, not because I didn’t think they would do well with him or anything…he loves them, and they love him too…it was ALL me. I couldn’t stand being away from him. It broke my heart to drop him off, and I felt incredibly guilty, but I am proud of myself for taking that first step. We also had our first Tapas party last weekend. A tapas party is basically like having a bunch of small meals, sort of like appetizers, but with a Spanish flair. We had everything from Potatas Bravas to Albondigas, Tortilla Espana, and my personal favorite Calamari Frito, amongst other things. We washed all of the great food down with some Spanish wine and Sangria (Tana, you make the best Sangria!!). I even made up a couple small desserts including three little heart shaped coconut angel food cakes. The evening was a great success, and we had an absolute blast with the two other couples who joined us. It’s definitely something we hope to do again soon. (This pictures shows just SOME of the Tapas we had, there was so much food! Picture below: Albondigas [Spainish meatballs], Gambas A La Plancha [pan fried shrimp], a hummus platter, An appetizer platter featuring Spanish olives and Manchego [a Spanish cheese] and other things, Tortilla Espana, Patatas Bravas, and Pollo Con Ajo [chicken thighs fried in olive oil and garlic])The end of this week, Tommy has begun to try and stand on his own. Soon, he’s going to learn to really balance…and it will only be a matter of time before he takes that first step toward walking! We think he’ll be running around chasing after his friends at his first birthday party.I’ve also discovered something new about Tommy. He’s still really into music…in fact just today he was rocking and singing along to a Steely Dan song which came on the radio this afternoon. But to my great surprise, I’ve learned just how much my child likes books!! SO EXCITED!!! He’s always enjoyed it when we read to him, but lately he has been getting really (REALLY) upset at the end of the story, when it is time to close the book and put it back onto the shelf. He tends to grab the book and try to open it again. We hope to encourage his love of reading as much as possible in the hopes that it will help him learn to read words a lot easier, and we also believe that encouraging a love of reading will eventually help him with his schoolwork. (In this picture below, he pulled all of the books off the shelf then sat and looked through them.)Next week I am meeting some friends for a relaxing Girls Night at a local pottery painting shop. I can’t wait. It’ll be my first time doing something like this. I plan to make something I can use in my kitchen that will tie in the pretty browns and tans of my dishes and the lovely olive green colors of our walls. I’m thinking something with bunches of green grapes or a grapevine will be pretty. We’ll see what happens!

1 comment:

Reunion Committee said...

Oh I love the pics of Tommy.. ESPECIALLY the last one.
Tapas night was wonderful.. now on to the next "theme" lol