CONGRATULATIONS TEAM JACOBS!!!!!!

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things that happened today:

1)  I spent most of the day in Korea, but also toured South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Hawaii..........(it was international day and it was AWESOME!).    

2)  I saw Kelly Culhane!  In passing.  But we had enough time to hug and that was also AWESOME!  I can't wait to see him at breakfast tomorrow morning :) 

3)  School ended early (at 12:30!) and we don't have to return to work until March 2nd!  HIP, HIP!

4)  Mom P took us to a wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch.  Halfway through the meal, Nory decided it was time to go for a little walk and ended up beside a Kuwaiti lady at a neighbouring table.  THEN she ended up with a bracelet - given to her as a gift directly from the lady's wrist!!!!  Can you BELIEVE THAT?!  What a sweet, sweet soul she was!

You're never too young to play dress up, right?!

5)  Nory had her first boy crush.  See my previous post for details.  He's HANDSOME and, after meeting his family, I totally approve ;)

6)  Nory had a SERIOUS temper tantrum before bath time.  It was her second one in the last few days.  Has she entered the terrible two's early?  Or does it get EVEN WORSE?  

7)  We watched the first period of the Canada vs USA hockey game with an AMERICAN!  YA.  WE.  DID.  And let's just say that her fan behaviour was much, much better than the original Parkinson's in this house.....

Just another day at the mall.....

Who Knew?!

Had I known that curling involved skipping, Ferbey's, and blank-it's, I would have gained interest LONG, LONG ago!  Perfect timing, I suppose.  Phil's friends just advanced to the finals!!!!!!

Congratulations TEAM JACOBS!  You can bet there's lots of skipping, blank-it-wearing, and Ferbey-lovin' in this house ;)

Eleanor's First Birthday Party!

I've told you before that it was ALL EMILY'S DOING, but just in case you forgot:  IT WAS ALL EMILY'S DOING!!!!!  Emily was the mastermind behind every last detail and I don't want to be given any credit for its perfection.  (MINUS the perfect little one year old that everyone came to see.  I was 100% involved in that part!).

Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was our Emily's inspiration for the big day.  Pictures will say it best.  Here they are!      

The Birthday Girl!  Decked out in polka dots and pigtails! (So maybe I played a role in dress selection....)

This little critter was a HIGH MAINTENANCE one.  Between securing the pom-pom's, puffing them up, taping them to the ceiling, and RE-TAPING them to the ceiling......we had our work cut out for us!  Alas, it really did add a special something to the room and I'm glad we went through the hassle!

Subtle (or not so) reminders of AGE ONE were everywhere!  Can you tell that Emily is a kindergarten teacher???

12 months of ELEANOR!  In CATERPILLAR FORM!

The snack table - complete with some delicious, book-featured foods!

As Auntie Gem said, "Every ONE YEAR OLD needs their own, personalized water bottles!"

Party hats!  Or shall we say REALLY ADORABLE ANTENNAS that were mandatory for all attendees!

A little party favour for all :)

The caterpillar jar that now holds many, many warm wishes for Eleanor's future.  It's looking BRIGHT, I tell ya! xo

HIP, HIP for PARTIES!!!!  The world's biggest thank you to Emily who spent hours on end planning, creating and decorating.  WE LOVE YOU, GEM!!!!! xo

The Cake Smash.

You know I really thought Nory would be ALL ABOUT this special moment.  I thought she'd be thrilled about the encouraged mess (how often does THAT happen?!) and have a joyful response to her first taste of icing.  I wasn't even sure the cake required the extra appeal added by my hand-made, glittery heart toppers.  Isn't an all-access pass to something usually forbidden appealing enough?!  Well...........we thought so.  Until the photo-shoot came along.   

Nory's response to the cake smash was not the overly-excited one we had hoped for.  Thank goodness I didn't spend hours making a low-sugar, super-baby-friendly cake as I had initially planned on doing.  She could have cared LESS about the cake and was appalled that we were asking her to "smash" it.  Make a mess?!  Get sticky hands?!  Sit in one place?!  You've got to be kidding me!  All of these thoughts were NO DOUBT running through her mind as we attempted to keep her in the general cake area and tried many times to place her feet, hands, WHATEVER in the cake itself.  She is DEFINITELY her Daddy's daughter.  DEFINITELY.

A big thank you to Emily for doing her darnedest to capture SOMETHING that resembles the new cake smash fad.  Alas, I CONFESS, the cake would have been in PRISTINE condition if there hadn't been three intervening adults around..............      

 

Let's be honest here, people.  Do you know ANY babies that LEGITIMATELY smashed their own first birthday cakes?  Because my mind is boggled and I just don't get it.  I know our darling is one-of-a-kind (everyone's is!).......but THIS one-of-a-kind seems a little rare, no?  Who doesn't LOVE a piece of cake?!  A WHOLE CAKE at that?!  It makes zero sense to me! 

Cake.  It's calling my name something fierce on this it's-only-Monday-evening.  Lucky for me, we have chocolate cake leftovers in the fridge!!!!!!

Tonight we had a FAMILY OLYMPIC PARTY!

Complete with official Team Canada gear (imported by Mom P!).

And a super-biased flower and medal ceremony!

What nationality are we?!  Haha.  

GO CANADA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who's the gift REALLY for?!

Let's begin by talking about how POLAR OPPOSITE my sister Dana and I are....

I am a morning bird.  She is a night owl.  The movies I love win Teen Choice Awards.  The movies she loves win Oscars.  I prefer malls.  She prefers forests.  I love arts and crafts.  She loves fine arts and zero crafts.  My biggest fear is a bear in the backyard.  Her biggest hope is a bear in the backyard.  I'm into decorating Christmas trees.  She's into identifying tree species....

You get the picture?  We're as DIFFERENT as sisters come, with one of our only similarities being our mutual love for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (and that's what matters most, agreed?). 

Anyways, she had this book delivered to Nory for Christmas.  It just arrived TODAY and almost didn't arrive at all due to postal issues that we might as well ignore for the sake of expat happiness (originally, we were told the package had been destroyed!).  Nonetheless, here it is:

"How To Be a World Explorer:  Your All-Terrain Training Manual"!!!!!  Thank you, Auntie Dana!  The gift is TERRIFIC!  HOWEVER. Yes, however.  Three things are leading me to believe that this book is actually intended for ME...

1)  It isn't exactly age appropriate for Nory at this point in time.

2)  The cover exclaims, "NOT-FOR-PARENTS" and you know darn well I censor every book in her personal library.

3)  After the censoring process, I realize that I have a complete LACK OF KNOWLEDGE on all subjects the book discusses.  And, I feel you believe that I should have a PLETHORA OF KNOWLEDGE on all subjects the book discusses.  Here's a sampling of what I'm referring to:

I'm the worst fire starter.  Although...you must admit I'm the best "YOU should start a fire" girl around! 

I know I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.  But in all seriousness, we had a bazillion people working for us.  Clearly these items would have been packed in their bags....just in case!

How about "DON'T CAMP!"  That would make the book one page shorter, right?

So, Sissy.  I have reason to believe that this book is ACTUALLY a gift for for ME.  And I'm okay with it.  Really, I see where you're coming from.  It's important to have these survival skills in my back pocket, especially since I am the mother of an adventurous one year old....That being said, it was not I who booked the Crowne Plaza in Dubai as our accommodations for next week's reunion.  It was YOU!  And I will willingly step in and give you every single "GLAMPING" lesson you need throughout our stay!  Step one.....THE SPA!!!!!! ;) 

LOVE YOU!!!!!! xo 

A little something Grandma taught her this week..

The Day After The Party.

Not to say that it wasn't a memorable event, but PHEWFFFF!!!! The party was fantastic (like, Emily should go into the party-planning business FANTASTIC), yet the exhausted mama in me is kinda glad the whole sha-bang is over.  I'm not sure if that confession makes me a bad person or not, but at least it makes me an HONEST person.  My mind has been worry-mania for weeks.  I had big fears about everything getting done in time and even bigger fears about Nory being in a good mood for the whole two hours.  The latter was instigated by first birthday horror stories that came at me like white on rice.  EVEN TODAY I heard one at the dentist's office.  The dentist's baby cried the ENTIRE PARTY and wanted NOTHING to do with ANYBODY (even close family members!).  He said that he's never been more humiliated in his life.  In fact, he refused to host a first birthday party for his daughter due to emotional scars from the premiere attempt.  Ah-hem, it was THAT BAD!  So I suppose my worry was warranted.........right?

Thankfully, Emily is the best godmother ever and Nory is the best baby ever.  Everything for the party DID get done on time and Nory had a WONDERFUL time at her birthday party.  She loved the hours of attention and I believe her guests enjoyed the hours of entertainment.  (That girl knows how to turn it on, I tell you.  You just might see her name in lights one day.....)

All of our friends and family members were extra generous with their gifts (as in:  we need a bigger house!).  Nory has many new flowers to smell, toys to play with, books to read, and clothes to show off at the Avenues.  I think she's spent quality time with every item she received, with a few extra minutes being enjoyed with her first little hammer.  Did I mention that in that bigger house, we ALSO NEED an endless supply of earplugs? ;)  All jokes aside, A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!  We love you! xo

I will try to post some pictures in a few days.  For now, I will tell you that we are back to the simpler times.  Just us and a whole lot of toys on the living room floor.  The stuff that all good afternoons are made of ;)