Happy 1st Birthday Kayla!

We were able to celebrate Kayla's first birthday by moving into our new apartment. Woohoo! Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa Wolf had come along for the long ride out from Chicago with us, so Kayla had more than just her boring parents to party with. She opened her presents all throughout May. (We have a really hard time waiting to open presents around here. :) ) Some presents were opened in the car during the drive and the rest Kayla got to open in the midst of piles of boxes here in Cambridge. The next day we were unpacked enough for me to make her a little chocolate cake. Although she made a huge mess, she didn't eat any of it! Apparently the girl doesn't like chocolate cake. We love her anyway! I guess next year we'll have an ice cream cake for her; she loves her ice cream!

Uncertain about this chocolate cake business...

"Haven't I been cute long enough? Let me outta here!"

Her first official birthday cake mess. Although she refused to eat it, messiness was accomplished.

Memorial Day 2010

We have officially moved to Boston. I'll post more on that later, but for now I'll stick to our Memorial Day. Last year we spent Memorial Day in the Labor & Delivery room, waiting for our little girl to be born. Now she's here and we've enjoyed this past year and six days of being her parents (more on her birthday later, too).

This year was quite different. We were moved into our new home enough to be able to take the day off from unpacking to walk along the Freedom Trail. It took much of the day, but it was a fitting was to spend this holiday. There were many historic sites that we took in today: Boston Common, King's Chapel, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Boston Massacre site, Bunker Hill Monument, and all the rest along the trail. It was great to be able to just follow the red brick trail through the city...no getting lost! I think we walked about 7 miles today, and we got our first light Boston sunbu-hns . It was a fun day and a great way to spend our last day before Braden starts the LGO program.

John Hancock's grave marker.

Paul Revere's grave marker.

Kayla hung out with the notorious "Mother Goose" (well, her grave stone).

I rode on and fought against the "Democratic Donkey".

The balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read in July 1776 and the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770.

12 Month Appointment

Our Little Miss had her well-baby check-up today. Everyone at the doctor's office couldn't get over how happy she was the whole time. Kayla is just our sweet little girl who makes everyone around her happy.

Here's her newest stats:

Length: 29.5 in. (60th percentile)

Weight: 19 lbs. 3.5 oz. (23rd percentile)

Mother's Day 2010

This was my first Mother's Day as a Mom. It was wonderful! Braden let me sleep in while he took care of Kayla and made breakfast -- waffles topped with strawberries, sausage links, hash browns, and pineapple-mango juice. Delicious! I got a new pair of running shoes from my sweet hubster and a little herb garden from my adorable daughter (the cilantro has already sprouted!).

We took Mother's Day to try brushing Kayla's teeth for the first time. You can tell how much she enjoyed it. I guess we'll keep trying...

I hope all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day!

A Day at the Park

We are lucky enough to have a park just walking distance from our apartment. We like to meet up with friends there when the weather is nice (which it was a couple of weeks ago). Here's what Kayla likes to do at the park...

She'll swing all day long if I let her!

Enjoying the flowers, or "pulling weeds", as Braden says.

And after all that activity, a nice long nap during the walk home. What a life!

The Supper Club Experience

Braden's work group from last year got together for a little reunion over dinner this weekend. We went to Gil's Supper Club in a tiny town in the middle of corn fields. We had never been to a Supper Club before so we were very excited (I was particularly excited because I had been hearing ads on the radio for this place and was thoroughly enticed!). Turns out, though, a Supper Club is just like any other small-town eateries. Nonetheless, it was fun to meet some of Braden's past co-workers and their SO's and try some new food. Gil's is known for their fried chicken and fried catfish. I was going to get the chicken, but I had never had catfish so I thought I'd be adventurous. It was pretty tasty! (A very mild fish. Even Braden thought it was pretty good, and he does NOT like fish.)

Considering how late it was and all the new, strange people looking at her, Kayla did very well. (Notice one of her bows is missing? She and I fight all the time over those!)

We had to get a picture in front of the Gil's sign! One more Mid-West experience to check off our list!

Hello New Friend! Tiffany is 24! We've been married for 2 whole years (and a month)!

Well, Tiffany sure knows how to pull at your heart-strings huh? I must say, I'll miss ol' Gus quite a bit myself, but as they say south of the border "Asi es la vida". And so, without further ado - I introduce you to our new ride:

So far all we can figure is to call him The Captain, but we're still ironing out the name. Any suggestions? He's a 2004 Honda Pilot, and one nice thing is that he has a third row seat (see it back there, three rows!!) which means seating for 8! Well, seating for 8 people that are the size of Tiff and I or smaller, but still - 8 seatbelts! Quite frankly I still can't believe it. We'll keep the third row folded flat until we fill it up with a soccer team or two, but it's always available if any of you want to come and visit!

Kayla-Bear's car seat fits nicely in the back seat, she's easy to get in and out, grocery shopping is now much easier, and the Pilot is great for road trips. Here's Kayla giving it the once-over before we made the purchase. It passed her thorough inspection.

As well, there's plenty of room to grow (which Tiff keeps reminding me).

Next up - Tiffany had a birthday, shout Hooray!!! My eternal 24-year-old companion* celebrated another year, and I must say she was radiant. She's an awesome mom and an even awesomer wife, and I still can't figure how a goofball like me ended up with her, but I'm not complaining! I love you babe! To demonstrate my love, I made her cupcakes, which we devoured.

Also - Anniversary!!! 2 whole years! I can't believe how fast they've flown! Last year I thought we'd had a full plate, but this year I think it's even fuller, because this year we've HAD A BABY! And I think we've both grown up about 20 years or so as a result. I changed my first diaper, and my second, and my third, and so on. Tiffany has changed about a billion more than that. We've watched Kayla roll over, crawl, fall off the bed, eat an m&m, stand, pop some teeth, giggle, become ticklish, cuddle occasionally, and learn to clap! It never ceases to amaze me how amazing it is to watch her grow, and how tiring (yet rewarding)it can be to be a parent. We took a road-trip to the South Carolina where we saw real live gators in a swamp, and camped in the Great Smoky Mountains where we saw some real live black bears. We ate hot dogs whenever we could in the summer time, and caught fireflies and tried to take pictures of them in a jar (it didn't work too well). We avoided frostbite in the Illinois winter, and sang about springtime to avoid seasonal depression. As well, this past year Tiffany made her first cheesecake, and I ate that cheesecake (it was delicious). We moved from one side of the apartment complex to another because of mold (thanks to some help from our friends Ben and Katie), and we didn't get everything unpacked before it was time to start packing things up again. I studied for and took the GMAT, and applied to business school. Tiff put up with me being busy applying, and then put up with me as I was nervous with anticipation waiting to hear back. Then she says she knew I had nothing to worry about when I got in. It's been a pretty good year, and the future looks bright! I love you again Tiffany Louise!

Here is the aforementioned deliciosity made by the love of my life!

Look at that! Just look! It's edibley incredible!

And here's the little girl that's changed our lives

In closing, those of you that didn't know already probably noticed from the spiel that I'm going back to school. I've been accepted to the LGO program at MIT in Boston, which is a joint MBA/Master's in Engineering. It's a two-year program with a 6 month internship, likely in yet another different part of the country, so needless to say it's going to be an adventure these next two years! Class starts June 1 so we're starting the preparations to move the rest of the way across the country, to the land of patriots and the long forgotten "R". We're really excited (among other things, read: stressed-out beyond belief), but thus far we've taken life by the horns, so we figure we better not mess with a good thing!

*Yes I am aware that my wife was born in 1984.