Toddler Thanksgiving

I've been really blessed this past year to become friends with some incredible women bloggers in the St. Louis area.  We've had a couple dinners together over the last few months and they always feel so warm and friendly - like we've all known each other forever.  One of the great things about being friends with other bloggers is that they "get" the whole blogging thing - the love of comments, the delicate balance of how much of your life to put out there and what to keep private, the love of writing and creativity, the fear of feeling like you've sold out.  Things only bloggers worry about.  Our conversations span the range of how we met our husbands, to our struggles with infertility, to baby food, to how to get sponsorship on our blogs.  

A handful of these amazing women were pregnant all around the same time I was pregnant with Mac, and while I didn't have a chance to meet them (and their little ones) until this year, I feel like we've been together now since the beginning.  Our kids are all around the same age, some within weeks/days of each other (Alyssa checked out of our hospital on the day I checked in).    We've helped each other through sleep issues, food allergies, travel questions, toy choices and everything in between.  It's been an honor and a privilege to be able to call these women friends and to know that they "get it."  

This past weekend, one of my favorite bloggers, Alyssa from My Husband's Watching TV While I'm Watching the Baby, hosted a Toddler Thanksgiving for all the kids.  She made a turkey and cranberry salad and had crafts, games and toys available for the littles.  Her decorations were amazing and made us feel so welcome.  We all brought a dish and the food was outstanding!  It was so much fun to finally meet all the kids and great to watch them play together so well.  There were minimal fights over toys, they loved running up and down the hallway and dancing in AR's room.  You can check out Alyssa's post (here) to see all the incredible decorations, food and crafts she did.   We had a blast.  

 Thank you again, Alyssa and AR for being such wonderful hostesses.  

We can't wait to do it again next year! 

You can check out the other bloggers on their sites:

Liz from But...Will There Be Cake

Meg from Meg In Training

Jenn from In the Brink of an Eye

Alyssa from My Husband's Watching TV While I'm Watching the Baby

Mac's First Haircut

Last month we figured it was finally time to get Mac's hair cut.  I resisted for so long (because, oh, those baby curls!), but it was definitely the right call.  As much as I'd like to keep him a baby forever, having a toddler with wild unruly pancake-syrup-caked hair was not the way to do it.  Perhaps I'll just keep pushing  down on his head hoping he'll stay small forever?  Not sure that's a better solution.  

Anyway, after weeks of Ryan telling me it was time, I finally made an appointment for Mac at The Hairy Elephant and tried to keep myself composed.  Mac was pretty indifferent and not at all nervous about hitting such a gigantic milestone as a first haircut.  "He always looks so cool" (name that book).  However, once we got there, it was a different story.  He wasn't having any of it.  Perhaps it was the fun train table in the front of the store that he wanted to play with or the stranger with scissors, but he did not want in that chair. And it was even shaped like a car, so that was pretty surprising.  However, candy to the rescue and he was won over by a lollipop.  He also had to hold my keys and refused to wear the cape, but it was progress.  

He was pretty apprehensive about the lady with the comb and the spray bottle.

I got a lot of those "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!" looks. 

See...it was time.  Baby mullet.

At one point he acted like the loss of his hair physically hurt him.

Poor poor baby.

Little did he know that it did hurt me, as I wiped away tears and imagined him leaving me to go to college.  WHY?!!!

My heart broke a little bit with every snip.

How is he this big?!

When did this happen?

Wasn't he just in diapers yesterday?!  

(Yes, actually that was yesterday and today and tomorrow.)

And then all of a sudden my little baby was a toddler...a kid...a fully-grown child. 

He aged 3 years in 15 minutes.

Tomorrow he'll be going on dates and stealing my booze.

I'm not ready! 

Of course he's still absolutely adorable (maybe even more so now).

I mean, what a handsome devil. 

He knows it too.

Stud muffin.

(Please excuse my wet hair - I'm too lazy to blow dry these days.)

Of course everyone had to come over and tell him how handsome he was.

It's too bad this kid doesn't like attention...

And then I got to the car and bawled all the way to work.  

Have you done "baby's first haircut" yet?  

Was it traumatic for you?