Bravo!

You came home from daycare yesterday with a certificate of excellence in French. I know you can speak a little bit of French because I've heard you counting to 10 in French and sing Frère Jacques. I don't know if your teachers gave it out to everyone in your class, but according to you, only you and one other kid got it in your class. So, well done Aidan!

As soon as you got home you wanted me to hang it on your wall, but I didn't get a chance to until today. I decided to hang it on your closet door so that you can still see it when you open your closet, but it's not on your room wall. Maybe I'll hang a bulletin board for you one day, but I don't want your wall to be cluttered with stuff.

Kendall's cake

For your birthday cake, I'm getting Flour Studio to make your celebration cake. I found the cake shown above and we are doing a variation on that cake. I know lots of people do the cutesy animals on cakes, but I wanted to do something different. Since we are doing a tiered cake (6" and 8") we are going to get Flour Studio to do the top tier similar to the photo shown, but adding your name on the side of the cake. The bottom tier will have rainbow-coloured dots on the side of the cake. The cake flavours will be red velvet for the top tier and vanilla cake with strawberry for the bottom tier.

Esther from Flour Studio designed this cake, but she sent this to me because your name will
be written in the same style as the one shown above. 

I brought home sample cupcakes to try because we will also be having 2 dozen cupcakes.
We are going with vanilla with strawberry buttercream swirl and chocolate with mint buttercream
swirl.

No. 2 fiasco

You and mommy went to Wonderland this morning to go to Splash Works. We met my friends, YJ and Justine and their kids there. It was a sweltering and humid day so we thought it would be perfect to spend the day at the water park. Everything was going well- we went in the baby pool and the Lazy River. Afterwards we were all sitting by the kiddie pool and eating lunch. I had just breastfed you and you were sitting on my lap eating strawberries. Suddenly you started squirming and trying to stand up. I lifted you up and to my horror I saw a bit pile of poop on my crotch area where you had just been sitting. Your poop must have seeped through your swimming diapers and bathing suit and landed on my lap! I was so disgusted and shocked at the same time. I didn't know what to do. YJ, thankfully, started acting fast. She grabbed wipes and started wiping me down. I stood up after we got most of the poop out of my bathing suit and yours and when I looked down at the chair I realized that you had pooped even more and it had seeped through the chair and landed on the ground! There was also a puddle of pee below the chair! YJ just started scooping poop off the ground. I rushed you to the washroom nearby and started stripping you down to change your diaper. The park was so busy so the washroom was packed with people. Some girls looked at me disgustedly while I changed your dirty diaper. After taking a quick shower (while YJ held you) I changed back to my regular clothes and decided that I would head home to take a proper shower. I also wanted to give you a bath. 

I know I'm going to be laughing about this in the future, but I'm still so grossed out by the whole incident. Well, I thought that was the end with the poop fiasco, but no… there is more… Your brother was going No. 2 in the evening and while he was wiping his bum, some of the tissue got in the toilet and splashed onto me. I got bum water all over me! ARGH!

Is this how I have to bottle feed you??

As I have mentioned in the past, it's been a constant struggle teaching you how to drink from the bottle. There are days when you won't suck on the bottle unless I try for almost an hour. Even then it's not always a sure thing. I'm the only one that has the patience to keep trying. Daddy doesn't even try giving you the bottle. Today, I tried doing something different. I tried giving you the bottle while you were walking around. And it worked! You actually finished the whole bottle. I'm going to try it again next time, but I'm hoping this will do the trick now. Fingers crossed! 

Month-by-month- Month 11

Your brother Aidan was home today so I was able to get him to do peekaboo on you to get your attention. It's so hard getting you to stay still these days!

I styled your hair today for the shoot so I think you look super cute.

I can't wait until your hair is long enough so I can do pigtails or a ponytail on you.

Even though I was able to get some of photos of you staying still you can see from the above
outtakes that these photo shoots are H-A-R-D. It usually involves you eating the chair or shoes.

So here's what's new:

- You can stand on your own for 3 seconds and move side-to-side by holding onto objects.
- You can climb up the stairs on your own.
- You can put food in your mouth without dropping it as much.
- You can sip from your sippy cup for a second. I usually have to assist you.
- You put everything in your mouth.
- You said 'daddy' a few days ago. You already have said 'um-ma' in the past.
- You have started doing what daddy calls the 'bird call'. It's where you inhale your breath to make this particular sound. You always do that when you're excited or happy.

Loot bags for daycare

We are going to do an intimate party for your birthday with just family, but I want to make sure I have something prepared for your daycare as parents normally get a cake and loot bags prepared for all the kids. I don't want you to feel like we neglected your birthday this year. I got an idea of picking up zip bags from Ikea as they are prettier than the Ziploc-brand bags and stuffing it with dollar store goodies for your friends. 

I got all the names of your daycare classmates from your teacher so I made personalized labels
and stuck them on the top right-hand corner. I used purple for the girls and blue for the boys.

There was actually an Ikea logo on the top right-hand corner, but I made labels that were big
enough to cover the logo.

Unfortunately Ikea didn't have the same sized bags for the blue bags as the purple ones. So the blue
bags are a bit bigger.

Here's a close-up of the blue version.

More party décor

So I finished a few more things off my list for your birthday party. Here's what I've been working on so far:

I spray painted all the mason jar lids- mint green, pink, purple, white. I'm going to be filling these
jars with flavoured popcorn to give out as favours for all the guests.

Here's a close-up of the spray painted animals that I glued onto the lids.

I picked up votive candles and glass votive candle holders at Ikea yesterday. I taped washi tape
around the sides of the votive candles. I think it adds a nice dimension.

Here are the different votive candle designs.

Aren't they pretty?

My favourite is the floral print.

I'm going to put 2 candles to a table and the mason jar mug will be the flower holder.

For the flower I want to put fresh cut peonies. I picked these peonies at Whole Foods. I'm hoping
that I can still pick these up near your birthday date.

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers, if not my favourite :-)
I also love ranunculus.

Brother-sister love

Aren't you so cute sucking your thumb? I know some people say it's not good for a baby to suck their thumb as it can lead to teeth growing out improperly, cracked/dry skin, etc., but I think it's so cute. I do normally check to see if you have dry/cracked skin, but it seems fine. You suck your thumb when you are hungry, unhappy (so you comfort yourself by sucking your thumb) and when you're tired.

There's something endearing about watching you and Aidan play. I love when you two interact because it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I took 2 videos of you guys playing today after dinner. So cute!

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Pictures of Kendall on manzanita branches

I've crossed another thing off my checklist for your birthday. Yay!

I wanted to do something to display your pictures at the party and I immediately thought of using my manzanita branch to do so. Initially I wanted to stick 2" round punches of your photos (that I got printed at Costco) on 2.75" scallop circled punches, but I couldn't find any at Michael's that were that size. Then, I found a package of wooden doilies that were on sale for $1.99 for a set of 3. I thought that these would make the perfect back drop to stick your photos on and hang it on the branches like an ornament. Well, I finished this project today and I'm really liking how it looks! I might change some of the photos to pictures of Aidan so that I can keep them on the branches after I'm done with the party.

Here's a close up.

I love how the doilies are different shapes and sizes. I was thinking of spray painting it in the colour
of your birthday colour scheme, but then I thought it would take away from the photos. It also
blends in nicely with the branch colour.

How cute are you in this pic!

And here is a far off view. It's much nicer in person.

Let's hope this place works out

I was able to find another venue for your birthday party- Bulgogi Brothers.

We actually went to a friend's daughter's 1-year birthday party here a few months ago and our other friend's dad is a co-owner here. We decided to go here for daddy's Father's Day lunch to check out the food again and to talk to the manager. 

It was a hot day so Aidan and daddy both wore muscle shirts.

The food was good, but the service was horrible.
I don't know what happened because the service was good the last time we came here.
Let's hope the service is good at your party…

You were so loud. I didn't know why, but later I found out it was because you pooped in your diaper!
Oh Kendall…

This is the party room area.

The bar. The drinks will be included in the meal at no extra cost.

Fireplace

There were square tables set up, but I will get them to set up round tables. There will also be
white tablecloths on top of the tables.

This wall will have the head table set up.
I'm not happy because I had in mind the white back drop at Dahn when I was designing the
banner and backdrop decorations. Bulgogi Brothers won't be setting up a white back drop so
I'm not sure if the banner and decoration will pop.

There are doors leading to the patio. The manager said if the weather is nice we can utilize this
space. That will be nice!

The wall across from the head table wall will have the buffet station set up.

Again, we will be using round tables.

There was a $25 menu vs a $35 menu. We will be going with the $35 menu and we will also
ask them to include sushi in the menu. I don't think they will charge us extra for that. I underlined
what is different from the $35 menu.