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