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!

Cruisin'

And away she goes!

Well, sort of.  Our friends Rachel & Brian lent us their daughter Willow's ride-on walker for Freja recently, and in just a few days she's really made great strides (bada-bing!) with the walking. She loves cruising across the room almost as much as she loves riding across the room. We are so lucky to have great hand-me-downs and loaners from all of our other parent-friends.

My mom, Cecilia, arrives tomorrow, and we can't wait!  I'm really excited to get a few days of quality time with my mom and our baby, especially now that I am a SAHM (stay-at-home mom - just keeping you all up with the lingo) and have so much "free" time on my hands. Look for a guest post on the blog from my mom while she is here!

Mrs. Busybody

Here's just a minute and a half of Freja being Freja. As you see in the beginning, and much to my delight, she works hard at putting all of her toys away (some of the time, anyway). She's learning to wave, she plays the drum and as previously mentioned a few times, she LOVES to read books. Enjoy.

Mrs. Books

So Jan & I have a habit of calling Freja "Mrs. XX," where XX is whatever she's up to. Like if we're feeding her puffs she is Mrs. Puffs, and if we're putting her in her pajamas she is Mrs. PJs, etc. Here she is entertaining herself (we are so lucky) in her room, being Mrs. Books. She loves to get them ALL out of the basket, turn the pages, and babble-slash-read her books. It's very cute, more often than not the book is upside down, but never you mind she is reading it anyway!

Freja & I are enjoying my first week of being a SAHM. We went to story time at the library on Monday, music class this morning and met some friends in the park this afternoon. Breaking up with work has definitely been great so far! Being here playing with Freja and going on walks around the 'hood beat sitting in a cubicle any day. She is a great little co-worker.

Freja's Room Redux

As most of you know Freja's room has been our office nook off the living room for the past 10 1/2 months. Sometime after Thanksgiving we rearranged our living room & dining room to make the dining room Freja's playroom.  It gave us one big babyproofed space for her to roam around in.  Yesterday the transformation from dining room to baby's room became complete, after A LOT of work from me & the boss.  We are both exhausted and sore today - are we getting old or something? - and excited to have a dedicated office again.  Today's video gives a little tour of her new room.  As you can see, she's pretty much mastered "Uh oh!"  Now if you'll excuse me, I need a massage....

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays everyone. We are getting so excited about Freja's first Christmas. Presents are stacking up under our tree, and we are certain at this age that just like our cats, Freja will love the boxes and wrapping paper more than what's inside. She's wowing us lately with pulling herself up to a standing position, and even starting to move her feet a little bit. OF course, she wows us just by being her cute little self most days. xo