it's finally here!

not many of you would count down to the spring football game for the cavaliers of Virginia...unless, of course, you participate in the countdown and discussion on the sabre like my husband does...

sadly (or not so sadly) I didn't make it to the game this year, but that didn't stop Robert from making sure his son experienced is first spring football game (last year, miraculously, Robert got a pass...considering he was only a few days/weeks old)

They had a great photo op meeting the cavalier and his horse, Sabre, although our little guy wasn't too sure of the horse!


But he has gotten used to sitting on his dad's shoulders, and since he's now over 20 pounds, we enjoy it better than trying to carry him to!
too bad there weren't more fans there to cheer on the hoos...hopefully this fall brings a bigger crowd...don't you worry, our season tickets are all lined up...hoos surprised:)

Today is my first birthday:)

This has been such a crazy week, and it's only wednesday! Even though monday's are usually crazy, this one was especially so with two of our dear friends giving birth, which for meant the constant checking of blog/facebook for updates and photos..plus texting others to share the news! AND we got to spend our monday on a wonderful walk with our friends Holly and Hailey...it made for a fabulous start to my week.

Then came the usual tuesday trip up to DC for classes.....

BUT today my sweet boy turned one year old...whew, such an emotional roller coaster of a day. In order to prevent the tears, I'm going to pass you off on my sister-in-laws blog spot of photos of our little guy and my sweet niece, Adelyn...
http://luckisontheway.blogspot.com/
(thanks emily)

Here are a few photos from the day:

With grandpa in front of the happy birthday sign....for those of you that don't know, my mother has had this sign since I was about five years old, every birthday there is a photo taken standing/sitting near it. It's one of my favorite traditions at the Szymanski house.
Then it was opening gifts time...
(that's a fire engine wheel pal...which, before having a boy I wouldn't have known that amazingness of the wheel pal...thanks summer, aura and mrs. H)

Just testing it out to make sure it works:
We ended our day back in Richmond for a VERY special birthday dinner...aunt sissy, uncle william, pop rock and grami came from charlottesville and pop and gran luck from franklin drove in too! It's pop luck's birthday tomorrow so #1 and #4 are just a day apart (and a few years).

We just love the specialness of getting to spend time with Robert 1 and 2....daddy's ok too.

Roseola...what??

So first, I should mention that we are having major camera problems (read, doesn't hold battery power and constantly shuts off mid-photo) and that we are trying to get it fixed before the little guy turns one this week! That said, I don't have any new photos to offer you, unfortunately.

In addition to the camera issues we have been sick, sick, sick. It's so interesting what illnesses float around baby world. My sweet friend's daughter has hand, foot, mouth disease...WHO get's that really?? Apparently lots of babies, as it's the current popular illness among the pre-toddler set. Our little guy, no hand-foot-mouth for him, but roseola instead. This virus meant 104 temperature for us for two days, medicine every few hours and when the temperature finally went down a rash appeared all over his body (think chicken pox/measles), and since he's contagious until the rash goes away, we've had lots of Robert-mommy bonding time this week...mommy's exhausted and ready for a nice glass of wine.

This was our first real instance of a really sick baby, praise the Lord for that, but the memory of my child radiating heat won't escape me anytime soon.

catching and walking

here's a sweet video that we took the other day...

Little Rob's got throwing down, but not so much the catch part yet. BUT as you can see..he's starting to walk, and loves it...big surprise!

Peanut, Peanut Butter

Any parent, or really anyone that keeps up with student allergy news is aware that peanut allergies are amongst the top worry in today's schools..as a result, no PB and J for elementary schools anymore...needless to say, the prospect of our son having a peanut allergy has scared me to death since finding out we were having a baby. Robert however, has been itching to give our son some peanut butter since the doctor gave us the go-ahead a month ago....Aside for an easy display of how our parenting will differ over the years, Robert, like the good lawyer that he is, made a good argument in favor of letting the little guy try some. SO, this morning, we took the plunge. The result, like most other things that he gets his hands on, he loved it...well, he loved peanut butter in a strawberry smoothie. The rest of the morning saw me staring at him waiting for him to stop breathing or keel over...

another successful morning here on kensington avenue.

new furniture!

For those of you that don't know...Robert and I are a little obsessed with DIY...at least half our home was purchased from craigslist/antique stores and then changed in some way to fit our needs. BUT we splurged on a new couch for our den/guest room. We had the little guy test it out for comfort, and barely got the shot off before he tried to crawl off the edge!

Now, the couch is white with blue piping, but the pillow is navy with ORANGE piping...can you see a theme coming on?

why we love consignment

So many of you know my love of all things consignment...whether that we clothes and toys for the baby or couches and chairs for our home. To me, it's great getting things that are inexpensive, especially when it comes to Rob's clothes...which he grows out of way too quickly for my taste:)

Enter in my favorite consignment sale of the year, Here WEE Grow Again. It's held at Aldersgate United Methodist in Charlottesville, running from this saturday through the 13th. I get to shop early because I volunteer there, and let me tell you, we always have trouble deciding which things to keep and which to sadly part with.....that's my plug for them, if you come this saturday or next, look for me, i'll be working.

Just to give you an idea, here's what we scored, all for $120 bucks!

30 items of summer clothing...most of his summer wardrobe (we hope)..including a sweet easter polo, beach year, pjs and romping around clothes. Of course, we picked up three new UVA themed items...who's surprised.
10 new books...i was about to throw "the fire engine book" out the window I was so tired of it
4 new toys

My little man is loving his new toys already...he's getting to be such a big boy playing with trucks...



and, like any Luck boy, immediately trying to figure out how to take it apart...most likely to figure out how to lift it and paint it orange...just a thought.