Freja's First Birthday!

Guest post for the birthday girl from Grandma Marsha & Grandpa Gene!

Wow!  A birthday party for Freja!  With balloons and cupcakes and everything, including other children and their mommies and daddies.  She likes balloons.

Our little birthday girl has been so special and fun to be with this week.  From talking on her pretend cell phone saying "Hello, hello!" to cuddling before bedtime.  She has been a pleasure to be with--many smiles, much jabbering, and even some words.

One highlight was our trip to her music class.  Many little ones and their mommies and one grandma and one grandpa (us) beating on drums and dancing and swaying to the music, singing songs.  We all had a lot of fun.

Just waking up and hearing her jabbering, and then being the first to chat with her in the AM.  And you all know how much I  (Grandpa Gene) like to chat in the morning.  A special trip.  

We will miss her very much until the next visit.

Dirk & Jeanne, you all need to join us in Indiana the next time that Freja comes to visit.  We have two extra bedrooms.  So get with Kelly and Jan and let's geterdone.

Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Gene

Note: it looks like we lost the Flickr photostream gadget on Sweet Koorn, but you can check out some new pictures I put on Flickr by following this link.  The video below is a little long, but it took Freja a while to warm up to the cupcake! 

Guest Blogger: Grandma Cecilia!

Grandma Cecilia here… what a fun time I have had these past several days visiting Freja (Jan & Kelly have been pretty busy celebrating Kellly’s BIG birthday, so I’ve had a LOT of quality time with the baby).  It has been such fun watching Freja – it seems she learns something new every day.  She has lots of toys that have buttons and switches and she has figured how to turn them all on and off and knows which ones have music – she starts “dancing” almost before they start.  She’s also quite the reader; she LOVES books and spends a lot of quiet time every day looking through her “stash.”  She isn’t quite ready to walk but gets around pretty fast crawling.  A third tooth appeared about the time I got here and two more are quite visible.  She’s discovered her voice and I’m sure she says “thank you” at the appropriate times.  One of her favorite things is playing peek-a-boo, anywhere and everywhere.  She is just lots of fun! Check Facebook for more pictures!