Straws and Geetars.

Today, I did a lot of sipping through my straw. Finally warmed up to the straw this week and i’m never looking back. Unless it’s dirty and mommy hands me a different sippy cup. i’ll drink from whatever

I also hung out with daddy all day because mommy’s finishing her last photo project for the year right now. We took some pictures of me and my sippy and me and daddy playing guitar. i learned some chords and held the strings down to make cool sounds. hard to dance and play at same time though. might prefer the booty shaking.

sunday with daddio.

bath, chair, horse and bedtime.

fresh outta the bath tub. mommy saw the camera sitting there and thought 'why not?'

lemme take a picture of you!

hey can i wear my construction truck jammies?

tell me the truth... is there a lion on ma head?

how i have to hold my mouth because all my molars are attacking me at once.

i have no idea how this got in my hands. i'm cute, still, right? cute enough that we can forget bout all this?

this is my special chair. i can do whatever i want on it. and i can fall off it, too. and tip it over. but i don't.

Bedtime?? No... ONE MORE MINUTE!

one year doctor visit.

today i spent my morning screaming at the doctors’ office. from the first time the nurse touched me until long after mommy got me dressed. the good news is that my ears are finally clear of infection. all my current ear hitting and frustration is coming from swollen molars that are taking FOREVER to break through to visibility. i see much baby motrin in my future.

my stats are pretty much the same.
i am >97th %tile for my height and my head. big ol’ head.
i am only 60th %tile for my weight. but look at mommy and daddy. no big deal.

Phone Picture Catch-up.

mommy's super artist friend, rae, made me another monsta. this one is a liiiiittle bit bigger than last year's. i call him CLOPPY! we are good friends already. he's soft, stripey, can stand on his own, and knows how to cuddle. my kinda softie.

birthday lunch at panera with mommy and daddy. D loaned me his hat cuz it was "blustery." i ate a ham n' cheese sammich with some squash. num num.

a child of my age and energy level ought to have a hobby. my new hobby: shaking maracas, tambourines, triangles, cymbals, and another wooden intrument with bumps.

overseeing all ma toys from ma new brown suede throne. i climb into it sometimes just to relax. workin' on the ottoman...haven't figured out what it does yet.

gotta brush ma teeth after teddy grahams or they'll get yucky!

playing with mimi in Borders' kids' section while her mommy looked for a present for B. they have one of these tables in the parents' center at Apex, too. i'm thinkin' about being difficult every service just so i can play on it!

stole ma comb. gonna do ma own hair tonight, mommio!

one year and a day: car seat turnaround.

well, folks. we did it. we moved from carbaby to carkid. i’m wearing too many layers to get much added visibility from my new vantage point, but i’m still purty stoked. when mommy turns to look over her shoulder now, i can look her in da face!

oh happy day oh happy day,
we put ma car seat the right way!
oh happy day oh happy day!
it’s never gonna be the saaaaaame.

big boy seat. chillin' one year old style now.

My Birthday.

Today is my actual birthday, if you did not know. happy birthday to me.

Gifts.

I know you all wanna see what my friends and family gave me for my birthday- what i’ve been playing with nonstop since the party on saturday. so, i’ll share. because it’s important to you .

a disclaimer: i’m an equal opportunity giftlover. if there is not a picture of your very special present, it is not my fault. or mommy’s. daddy was taking the pictures.

Waiting for people to pay attention to me so i could tear into my gifts. although i did not do much tearing. i was distracted. very distracted.

people? (check out ma new chair from gramma b. swank.)

My friend Amaya from house church. She was going to help me figure out the hammer and nail toy from grampa randy, but it looks like the side of the picture is pulling her away from me!

braeden told me bout my new fridge farm from unkie adam, aunt shannon and addison. he's got one, too. iz cool. i can make up new animals like a horse pig. haha.

this was my biggest distraction. a train. braeden brought me into the trainloving camp it's from cam, steph, b and mickie. i figured out how to make it go and now it's beeping and whirring all the time over here.

dinosaur shirt from gramma f! now i can practice all the dinosaur names from dinosaur train!

a boat with little people in it from sarah. bathtime has taken twice as long every night since saturday. i build on it with the blocks and use the whale to squirt mommy in the face

i asked aunt nikki and uncle rick for trucks and they got me this huge school bus and 4 little trucks. i like to make them drive on lupa's back. she'll warm up to the idea eventually...

petting my new horsey with amaya again. she's a good friend. helped me a lot. daddy is in the background figuring out the handles. it took all the daddies at the party to get them on so i could ride! now i ride every night during wheel ooooooof fortuuuuuune!

i ’spect mommy will take some pictures of me playing with other goodies soon, so many gifts #2 will be a post for the future!

gotta play now. don’t want any toys to feel left out!

sheppa-da-cutie

cold stone, baby.

today is not my favorite day. something’s botherin’ me and i can’t shake it off. so i go wah wah wah. mommy go uuuh oh. then she decide we need to shake things up. lunch and ICE CREAM! i’ve never had it before. not even at my birthday party.

so… we bundled up in the freezing cold and drove to Cold Stone Creamery. There were so many choices. I was eyeing the cake batter, but mommy asked for a sample of the very berry frozen yogurt to try, and my eyes just bout popped outta ma head. it was amazing. so we got some of that for me and sat down in their little high chair with the tray and went to town.

thank you gramma for such a lovely first experience. when i wake up from my nap, i’m gonna eat more. if i can get past mommy to the car to drive ma self up the hill

phone documentation:

Tidy Shep and His First Cuppy.

I would like to share my first cake experience with all you peoples using some pictures. If you are hoping for funny snapshots of a silly baby smashing cake into his poor wittle face, you will not find them here. i, shep the tidy, ate my cupcake while making the tiniest of messes. the mess i left could not be avoided as the sweet snickerdoodly cake was topped a giant swirl of luscious icing. had the great whirl been a bit smaller, i’d have left nary a crumb in my wake. alas, that was not the case. so i give you, tidy shep’s first cuppy. in ten photos.

licking my finger so i could pinch the fire out.

haha. gotcha. i not gonna touch da fire.

it's all for me, right?

yeaaaaa. come to sheppy, little cuppy.

hmm... these little pieces i'm breaking off taste pretty good. (i held it upside down so i could feel icing squish tween ma fingers!)

hmmm... why are you all staring at me?

uh oh! too much! what do i do?!

thanks for the push, mommy. now i gotta try to swallow it all!

grand finale. whole cuppy in the mouth.

post-cuppy. pre-cleanup. hardly any mess! this egg is cute. but i'm not going to eat it.

the end.

love, sheppy

my birthday cake.

i just wanted to tell you peoples bout ma birthday cake.

it was a green eggs and ham cake. i love when mommy and daddy read me dr.seuss and so we tried to make my birthday all seussical and silly!

BUT no one around here sells anything seussy for decorations, so mommy and gramma made up red and white stuff to remind people of the cat in the hat.

for da cake, tho, nobody needed any ‘magination.it very very suessy.

people walk in. they look at ma table. they go “oooooh. green eggs and ham.”

i go. “yeah, mine.”

“but i share “

hee hee.

here are some pictures my daddy took. mommy too busy chasing me around gramma’s big ol’ house to do anything with da camera.

front of da ham and a little egg cuppy. you can't see inside the big cake, but you's in fer a big surprise

suuuuuuuuurprise! the whole cake be green! hee hee.

cake go "take my picture, take my picture!" what a ham this is after two people snatched cupcakes. stinkers.

da cake was so big, we gave everyone super-seussically large pieces. four layers of green almondy deliciousness surrounded by buttercream like ma tongue never tasted before. literally. yesterday was my first cake.

this cuppy had ma name on it. the cuppies were snickerdoodle instead of almond cuz my mommy knows how much i love me some cinnamon. i devoured my cuppie. delicately. but that's another post.

thank you to dear mrs. teague from cakehopeandlove.com for bartering with mommy for portraits and giving me this cake. i loved it with all ma heart and i think it looked just like the book, only more delicious!

love,
shep

p.s. mommy and daddy trade photos for stuff like this all the time if you have interest. and mrs.teague makes cakes all the time at her house, so you can get yer very own cake if you know how to go to the web site i typed up above. it’s cakehopeandlove.com if you have short ‘tention span like me.