Happy 1st Birthday, E!

It is hard to believe that just a year ago, we held our sweet baby boy for the first time. He has come such a long way from that little bundle of joy that we welcomed into our lives on March 18, 2009.

 

It has been a wonderful year full of lots of fun firsts. Watching his personality take shape has been so exciting. We are truly blessed to be this little guy's parents. He is no longer our little baby. He has become our little boy. And we are enjoying him more and more each day!

 

To celebrate his special day, Daddy took off work, and we visited the zoo. The weather was perfect for our celebration. The animals were very active, which always makes for a good zoo visit!

We took a picnic lunch to enjoy together. E got to try his first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He liked it a lot...until he saw the pretzels and gold fish that is.

After the picnic, we visited with the animals. The African animals were coming surprisingly close to the fences, making for a great view of them. We really enjoyed that!

We spent some time in the Wee Play Zoo.

Of course no visit to the Knoxville Zoo is complete until you stop by to see the River Otters swimming around!

It was a great trip! So great that it left our little birthday boy plum tuckered out!

So we went home for a little rest and down time before dinner. He got to play some more with his present from Mommy and Daddy: the Little Tikes Ride and Rescue Cozy Coupe.

Then it was time for dinner at Gatti's Pizza. Yum-o!

He loves pizza, so that is why we went to Gatti's. But he also loves grapes. Fortunately they had grapes on the salad bar. I think he ate more of those than he did pizza! And to finish off his special meal, he had some lemon juice. The faces he made were priceless, but it was also hilarious to watch him lick it off his placemat.

We had a wonderful time celebrating our little guy on his special day. Happy birthday, Little E! Mommy and Daddy love you very much! We are so glad that God blessed us with the wonderful gift of you!

Be sure to stay tuned to hear about his birthday party which we had the following weekend.

My name is N and I am an addict...

addicted to finding great bargains! The past couple of weeks, there have been several great consignment sales in the Knoxville area. E and I have enjoyed shopping around looking for the greatest bargains to be found. I wanted to share just a few of our awesome finds.

We added a few orange pieces to E's wardrobe. After all, one can never have too much orange. The most we paid for any of these outfits is $5, and that one had never been worn! Since he is outgrowing his orange wear at a rapid pace, it was time to reload, especially since he will be making his first visit to Neyland Stadium next month for the Orange and White game. Go Vols!

 We also found several awesome rompers. Those are by far some of my favorite items of baby clothes. We can't wait for warmer weather to show these off!

 

No wardrobe is complete without a sweater vest or two. We found these two adorable little sweater vests and great bargains, and one of them still had the tags attached!

We rounded out our clothing purchases with some new pjs, a swimsuit cover, a sweater, and a couple of t-shirts.

Our little boy is a music lover! Below are several musical instruments we have been considering as presents for his first birthday. Collectively, they would have cost $49 + tax. We paid a grand total of $8.50 for all of them! He is really enjoying them so far.

 

We also found our share of Little People bargains. Those of you who know me well know that I have a Little People obsession. I think they are really great toys for kids!  We found the Little People airport, dump truck and fire truck to add to our collection. The two trucks make sounds and play music when you press down on the driver. He is a big fan of these as well.

We found a few things for outside as well. A weed eater that talks, vibrates, and has a spinning blade; a lantern that lights up and talks; and a front loader that will be great for playing in the dirt or sand will provide plenty of summer fun!

Meowmaw went with us to the last two sales we visited. I was so thankful to have her there to help me. As you saw on an earlier post, E is moving around with toys that have wheels. While he loves the hippo, he found a new walking toy at Duck, Duck, Goose that allowed his mobility to move to a whole new level. He can take the walker pictured below and pick it up and redirect himself at will instead of having to wait on Mommy and Daddy to turn the hippo around. He cruised all over the old K-Mart building for at least an hour with one of these toys, so his Meow decided he needed to have his own. He also got a popper toy so when he is ready to let go and move on his own, he can push that everywhere!

Last but not least, I want to share perhaps the greatest deal we have found to date. When we walked into our very first consignment sale, one of the first items we saw was an awesome Little Tikes teetering airplane. Sure, the handles had been gnawed on by a dog, but that would be an easy fix with a new dowel rod. I had to do a double take at the price tag. I couldn't believe my eyes: $3.25. Yes, you saw that correctly. Three dollars and twenty-five cents. A little soap and water and a new handle will bring hours of fun for our little pilot!

If you ask me, we had a pretty successful consignment experience for newbies!

Happy Hippo Dance

E's first birthday is quickly approaching. It is so hard to believe that our little guy is almost 1! This past weekend, he decided to demonstrate just how big he is getting. He has been cruising around the furniture and walls for several weeks now, but he wanted no part of things that weren't fixed. On Sunday, he started to show interest in the hippo, a push toy on wheels that allows him to walk along with support. He was making speedy passes back and forth across the family room within moments, and he hasn't stopped. Here's a video of the action. I hope you enjoy!

He also enjoys music. If he hears music, he usually stops what he is doing and dances. After several attempts, we were finally able to catch his on video. He is dancing to a music video that came on Noggin.