While Robin stayed at SacredHeart Hospital at Riverbend, I found a source of comfort along the hallways: posters made by families showing how their kids grew and developed. So I made one of Robin for other families!

{this moment} – A [Sunday] ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. As inspired by Collecting the Moments … One by One and SouleMama

I saw a necklace for moms to wear while their baby was teething on the blog Away We Go via Pinterest.  I emailed one of my aunties with a plethora of supplies and she brought me a baggie of wooden beads and a strip of fabric which I sewed into a tube and knotted beads into.

Robin does not like to chew on it and would prefer that I not wear it, since it rubs against his head when he burrows into my neck.  Oh well!

I have been working on this project for the last three weeks in every spare moment I can find and I still haven’t gotten much done.  I printed out all of the photos related to my pregnancy and our time in the hospital with Robin. I stamped and wrote the names of the people in the photos and wrote in dates. I sorted them chronologically. I put them in an album so I can sort them into stories and have been putting those stories into the scrapbook. Yay, me, making progress!  But I haven’t felt any of it was photo/blog worthy.

So far I have completed the front and back of three pages.  It took only three pages to summarize my pregnancy. Including the month on bed rest in the hospital! At the time, it felt like what was happening was epic, but really … it was the most un-exciting vacation I’ve ever taken. I read, crocheted, and played on my computer for a month.  Woo.  Hoo.   But, I guess it makes things easier now! 😀

He’s a whole year old! I spent a great deal of time making decorations for his party. Early in the week (while the husband was at a conference) but late at night (while the baby was sleeping) I had a sandwich delivered and I dyed eggs. (Did you know Jimmy Johns delivers big fountain sodas and delivers UNTIL 4 AM!!??)

I emptied 3 dozen eggs and, using the recipes and procedures described at “not martha”, I dyed them up, leaving them to dry until the morning.

I was so pleased with how vibrant they were! The magenta was indistinguishable from the red (for me), but it worked out just fine. I filled them with candies and stickers, then glued matching tissue paper over the holes. They were a big hit with adults and children at the party!

Next, I was inspired by Half Baked – The Cake Blog to decorate his cake like a robin’s egg. I went a bit extreme, though, when I decided to make a two-tone cake to look like a hard boiled egg. Here’s what I ended up with (my dad made the cake stands for me, straight from this wedding blog):

One change to the directions given on the blog was that, instead of directly dabbing the cake with a brush, I cut the brush short, wore gloves, and drew my thumb against the brush to fleck cakes with chocolate.  It was messy on my hand, but didn’t get everywhere else.

To top the cake with little eggs (I didn’t like what I saw at the stores) I tried to make my own. I flecked them in the same manner as the cakes. First, I stuck pins into the ends of chocolate eggs (foil removed) and melted some candy chips:

I used the pins as handles to dip into the candy and then as hangers to let them dry:

After flecking them, I put them on the cake and cupcakes.

I also played with plastic eggs making a banner (inspired by skiptomylou) that ended up being not very noticeable hanging from the tree and a wreath (inspired by u-createcrafts) which I forgot to photograph.

We took his very first photo next to his height chart (inspired by ME! I’ve been making these for nearly 12 years now!) and I’m looking forward to doing this year after year. I’m sure he’ll be more comfortable with grass by next year and will stand on his own!

(Oh, I forgot I made a number “1”, following creative jewish mom‘s blog – you can see it on the other side of the chart from Robin)

It was a beautiful day and we had fun playing with the family in the spring sun.’

Happy Birthday, my darling bird!