Raising Watsons

It was a cold morning in our Manhattan Beach back yard on the day of the party.  Tucker and I shared a egg sandwich on a bagel while Dad started working on the pork around 7am.

Tucker was happy to help decorate when the sun came out.

Our friend Carmen came over early to hang out with Tucker while we finished setting up the backyard.  Tucker loves her.

They picked fruit from our orange tree

Carmen bought Tucker a Fisher Price record player, just like Ben & I had when we were kids.  Of course, Tucker will one day ask what’s a record, but it’s still pretty cool.

Friends showed up!

Like Caelan

Xavier

Caris came from London!

and Jameson.  His Mommy (Melissa Parillo-Day) went to Morristown High School.

This is the closest Tucker came to a nap all day.

He knew it was his day.

Big fan of the bubbles

and Dad.

There was singing and a homemade carrot cake cupcake with homemade cream cheese frosting.  The carrot cake did not have any refined sugar but the frosting sure did.  This was Tuckers first real sugar experience.

First taste..

What the???

FACE-PLANT

This cupcake was made with

Snuggling with his favorite yellow plastic hammer.

When Tucker is carrying around important items sometimes he needs to be fed.

Eating some pork after his first First Birthday party (there are two more coming).

Not exactly sure if Mom put the colander down for him to play with.

Yes, yes she did put it down to play with!

Big Birthday party this weekend, but for now something to smile about.

*socks not required

Better late than never.  Mexico Part III – Nightlife!

Tucker spent some time at Grandma and Pop Pops end of the table during the Origins of Mexico show.  Clearly Tucker is completely taken by the story of the spoon in front of him.

On the other end of the table is me and the soon-to-be-parents.

not giving up my spoon for all your kisses Grandma.

Jacqueline and Peter are going to be great parents.

His hair might not be as dark as mine but we’re all eyes.

Dad is better than the best toy.

Grabby McGrabberson.

This is my favorite photo of the entire vacation.  I knew it was the second I took it.

End of the evening he was pooped (so was Grandma).

Huge news today!

At 7:15 I woke up confused, put on my robe and walked in to Tucker’s room.  7:16 I placed my hand on Tucker’s back, gave him a gentle shake and told him it’s time to wake up and go to school.  This morning, for the first time ever, I woke up my son.

Usually Tucker wakes at 12-1ish, 4-5am and again at 7am when he’s up for good. Not only did he sleep past the 7am mark but he completely skipped the 4-5am wake-up.

I felt his head to see if he had a temperature, but he felt normal.    Please God, let him do it again tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s some pics from our mother/son weekend in Seattle that also happened to be during the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Board of Directors conference in Seattle.

Note the sweet roller derby action post-its in the background and I think Crackerjack slurping down some coffee or beer/boxed wine (pretty much the only options).

Aside from stealing everyone’s Sharpie’s, Tucker was good baby relief from the intense roller derby talk when he wasn’t crying or  slamming his head in to some precariously balanced object.

More pictures from Mexico.  Maybe we’ll have actual Christmas day pictures up before February.  Maybe, but not likely.

pool time with Aunt Catherine.

There was an island in the middle of the pool.  Great for warming up when his lips started turning blue.

All the pool excitement allowed for good naps.

Our little slice of pool side heaven always had the ipod playing

and Tuckers clothes drying on the umbrella.

I think these last pictures capture how happy our little Pisces was in the pool.  He couldn’t get enough.

Our trip to Mexico is going to take a few posts.  Mainly because we had nothing to do but take pictures, so there’s lots of them.  Also, we got a new DSLR camera for christmas (from ourselves) and this was an excellent opportunity to test it out.  Not to mention, Ben has gotten pretty good at touching up the photos afterwards.

This is part one of two of pool pictures.  Every day in Mexico Tucker would go swimming with Dad, Aunt Cathy and Aunt Jacqueline while Mom read pool side and took pictures.  There were large shallow sections where Tucker could crawl all around.  His other favorite thing to do was sit on the wall and jump in to Dad’s arms.

The first time Tucker met Santa was at a Tree Lighting ceremony in Culver City.  The Angel City Derby Girls were on hand passing out cookies and keeping Santa’s line in tact.  After two hours, Tucker and I dropped in line and took a photo with Santa.

At this time there were around 12 cooing roller girls fawning all over Tucker from behind the camera.   Santa who?

The next visit with the big guy was at the annual David & Goliath Kids Holiday party.    Tucker was decked out in an adorable elf suit from Grammy Bonnie.  Not trying to toot the ol’ Tuckerhorn here, but let’s just say there were a lot of photographs of Tucker.   What can I say, this guy loves the camera.

Then came time to meet Santa.  Not for nothing, but this guy was an AWFUL Santa.  Tucker spent most of the time stink-eyeing Santa from over my shoulder.  Any attempts at me getting him to sit on my lap were met with very unhappy results.

Okay, so Ben and I are still a little overwhelmed by life right now.   A week after The Watsons left The Hamilton-Friedel-Maloney-Yuscavage trip to Mexico happened.   It was one blissful week without internet or phones.  Wonderful for the soul but it left a heaping pile of catch-up waiting for us when we got home.

Tucker is growing and changing every day.  Since we last posted he has learned how to high five, give kisses and has started pointing.  Possibly the most important thing Tucker learned is how to get Pop-Pop to buy him something.  I think the look below explains it all.

so much for my green and brown nursery theme.