45. red trolley, denver

here are a few photos i have to share that are from a few days before mischa's birthday, when we met up w/ a couple friends (katharine & hillary) and their kiddos (alex & piper), at our favorite local homemade ice cream place, Red Trolley. for some reason these pictures just sum up for me that mischa has somehow become a grown up kid -- no longer a baby.

ok in this one he is still a baby...
but in the next few he reminds me of a teenage rockstar of some sort:




(gazing longingly at the chocolate mousse. inherited mom's (and dad's) sweet tooth, have we?)

my favorite.
(he's not really pigeon-toed. just coy.)

on to Year Two...

44. birthday weekend, part 2

so here is the rest of mischa's birthday adventure.
you'd think that breakfast w/ mom & dad at a hip vegetarian diner, and a frolic through the children's museum, would be enough, right? a birthday any 1-year-old would write home about. but NOOO, mischa is no ordinary kid. he needs to have everything. so, after Family Day on saturday, we gave in and threw him a little shindig on sunday.

it was nothing fancy -- no decorations, no clowns (god no!), not even funny hats (sorry vicki, i know you're sorely disappointed), but what we did have was a few dear friends, a few fun kiddos (most of whom happened to be uncannily the exact same size as mischa), some delicious fruit salad and tasty cheeses, and some kick-butt made-from-scratch (i know, its shocking) birthday cupcakes. here are some pics:

isaac platt, evelyn garrington, mischa, & max dial.

somehow they allowed us to line them up nicely on the stairs. it was pretty cute that evelyn, the one girl in the mix, could not get off the phone the entire party.

mischa & evelyn are used to pushing each other around.


enough of this sitting, i've got places to GO.


heather helping mischa open a few presents.

we'd asked for no presents (seeing as he didnt really know it was his birthday anyway), but a few renegade gifts made their way in nonetheless (all excellent, i must admit).

then came my, er, i mean mischa's, favorite part -- the cupcakes. seeing as i rarely enter the kitchen, let alone bake something from scratch, i was pretty darn excited about the Snickerdoodle cupcakes i'd decided to make for the party (quite tasty, fun to make, and, totally vegan).

(pre-frosting, so you can see the snickerdoodleness. yes, that is a word).

the finished product. look enticing?

they seemed to be received well.
i started mischa off by just pinching off a couple tiny bites for him to try, considering this was pretty much the first time he's ever had anything made largely of sugar.
however, after feeding him his second little bite, i turned my head away for a split second, and suddenly the entire cupcake was in his paws:

and nanoseconds later, in his mouth:

it was really rather hilarious -- never, ever in his life has he just devoured such a large item (or really, anything) with such unbridled glee and enthusiasm.






Hanging w/ our friends -- here w/ heather kunst & evelyn garrington:

and sara garrington:


and max and jenny & dan. here trying to give max a hug goodbye:

the hug itself being less than successful:


finally, mischa sat sadly at the piano, melancholy that his friends were all leaving:

and tried to lure them back with a heartfelt serenade:


all in all, the gathering was a lot of fun, but also exhausting for someone who'd been a year old for mere hours. by the end of it it was clear that someone was in pretty major need of a birthday nap. and, as expected, the instant our guests all left, mischa crashed, and slept like a log for 3 hours straight. he woke up content and happily played with his fun new toys for a while.
but at the end of the day, what did we find him amusing himself with for minutes in a row?
a pen, a wooden doughnut, and an empty toilet paper roll. reminding us that at heart, he's really just the simplest of kids.

43. birthday weekend, part 1

well, as far as birthdays go, i think our man misch was pretty well hooked up for Number One.

it started on saturday, his actual birthday (1-1-2-2), with getting to go out to his favorite breakfast joint in denver, Watercourse. he enjoyed nibbling on bits of sweet potato fries, buckwheat pancakes, and of course, bananas.



but i think he enjoyed the wait for the food even more:


After a good meal and a morning nap, it was time to open a few presents from Nana and Papa. he didnt entirely get the concept right away, thinking the wrapping paper was the present:

but eventually he got the hang of it.



Then it was off to the Children's Museum for a little birthday adventure:


which left him pretty well pooped.


Not a bad first day of Birthday Weekend. Stay tuned for photos from his actual birthday party the next day, and his adventures with shoving an entire cupcake in his mouth...

42. a few more halloween pics (and mischa's first girlfriend?)

taken by my friend matt's blurry cameraphone, but fun nonetheless. mischa is already having to stave off the older women... (and i dont mean me)

41. Halloween 2008

we always knew he was superhuman...

though sometimes superheros need a toy break too.



waiting for more trick or treaters.

40. and a couple more...

these are still from his earlier, wobblier days, but i couldnt resist posting them:

39. walker kucher reid

well, its been about 2 weeks now since little misch took his first few steps, and now he's a walking maniac. he has so much fun walking that sometimes he walks around in circles just for the fun of it. though you'll see he's still a speed-demon crawler despite his new joy in walking)...

38. bit of walking, caught on tape

37. 11 months: a dozen small steps for mischa, one huge leap for mankind

Breaking news: mischa ryan kucher reid, the one and only, has taken his first steps -- unsupported, on his own, not holding on to anything.

It's true. and we hadn't even been encouraging him. we just assumed that sometime around 1-year he'd just feel like giving it a shot. we were still getting used to his speed-demon crawling and all his funny attempts at talking. but all of a sudden, this weekend, he just decided it was time. he's got places to go and cute feet to take him there -- why wait?

His first 2 steps were at the house of Chris Wood, Kirk Weinert, and their daughter Vienne, who were generously helping us out this weekend by watching misch while we worked. I'd just run out to the car to grab something i'd forgotten... and when i returned Chris's eyes were wide open with excitement and she was holding Fozzy the dog back and saying "SHHH!" to me and pointing silently at the standing misch. Turned out he'd just stood himself up and started walking - one step, two. I proceeded to stare at him excitedly, showering him with praise and encouraging him to take more, but he just took two more little half steps (which were really more like catching your balance than actually going somewhere), then plopped down & quickly crawled away. I think the pressure was just too much.

This morning, however, he took two more steps, right in front of my very eyes. Real ones, steps with purpose. Since then he's done it half a dozen more times or so -- always just a couple steps at a time, but you can tell he's getting the hang of it. Too soon i think to call it actual "walking," but he's definitely on that path. Perhaps just in time for some election-day canvassing... or some trick-or-treating to bring Mom back the good candy -- it's been way too long.

No pictures of the step-stepping adventures yet, but i thought i'd post these two photos i'd never seen before -- our friend Deirdre took them a while back while she was watching mischa:

36. New Cousin!

Mischa's very first cousin on the Kucher side was born this morning in Madison Wisconsin: Charles Alexander Liakos, otherwise known as Charlie. (this is mischa's fourth immediate cousin overall, ALL BOYS).
Congratulations Aunt Vicki & Uncle Casey!

35. getting ready to start walking (with a little help)...

a bit like a drunken sailor, but he's gettin' there...

34. little schroeder

33. family

some pictures from early september when we took a last-minute trip up north to visit Great Grandpa Reid, Nana, Papa, and gang...
(excuse the super-poor-quality cellphone photos)

first plane ride:




mischa, dad, & Great Grandpa Reid:

at thornden park with Aunt Erin and Cousin Sage:


...and cousin Daden:
hangin' with Nana & Papa:


one nice thing about having so many cousins -- whole big box of hand-me-down toys to explore:





we miss it already!

but we know a visit with the kuchers is coming soon...