Tag Archives: birthdays

Andrew

Andrew’s Birthday

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It landed on a Saturday this year so we got to do things up a bit more than usual. Highlights of the day included:

  • Sarah’s parents drove up for the day so that Sarah and I could go out without hiring a babysitter.
  • A date with Sarah at Can Can Wonderland, featuring miniature golf, hipster food, and a sense of relief that we didn’t have a herd of children to manage.
  • The Black Panther — my second viewing, but I really wanted Sarah to see it too so that we could talk about it. It was just as good the second time.
  • Temperatures rising above 60° for the first time since November.
  • Digging out the grill and firing it up for some delicious items Sarah picked out at the St. Paul Meat Shop.

We haven’t been photo-documenting things as assiduously as we sometimes do, but I did snap this shot of Sarah standing over the crack of doom at Can Can:

Sarah over the crack of doom.

 

 

Oliver, Photo

Oliver’s First Birthday

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Oliver’s birthday landed two days after Thanksgiving this year. Pam and Jeff were able to join us for the day. Sarah had been pummeled by a rough case of strep earlier in the week, but everyone was healthy by the weekend. We went for a walk around Lake Como, ate cake, and enjoyed more Thanksgiving leftovers.

We began the day with Oliver’s presents.
Breakfast from PJ Murphy’s (who also baked the cake)
Suited up for a chilly walk around Lake Como.
The never-to-be-topped “Amazing Lotus Flower Birthday Exciting Candle” (which may have slightly traumatized the birthday boy).
In case we run out of birthday cake… we have a whole cheesecake!

 

Maggie, Photo

Happy Birthday Maggie!

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We celebrated Maggie’s fifth birthday today at Highland Park. Maggie is a brash, confident, dynamo at this stage in her life. Her party, at her request, featured rampaging around the park, pin-the-horn-on-the-unicorn, various unicorn- and rainbow-themed crafts, cupcakes, and then more rampaging. I love this firebrand who believes absolutely that princesses can save themselves. Happy birthday, Maggie!

Pin the horn on the unicorn.
Pretty good showing, overall.
Cupcakes
Getting ready
Oliver with evidence of his razor sharp nails.
Birthday girl
Andrew, Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Sarah

Oliver Louis Stocco Roy

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Sarah’s water broke at 7:15 AM on November 25, 2016, and Oliver Louis Stocco Roy was born twelve and a half hours later, at 7:44 PM. He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long. We’ll post more about his name later, but it should be noted that “Louis” is pronounced LOUee after his great grandfather, Louis Stocco.

Sarah’s labor was complicated by the fact that Oliver’s umbilical cord was both wrapped around his neck and fully knotted, cutting off oxygen during contractions. It was an emotionally intense experience for all of us, including the medical staff. Because of the urgency to get the baby out, it was also far more painful and physically traumatic for Sarah than we had anticipated.

Fortunately, moments after his rather dicey arrival, little Oliver loudly proclaimed his health and hunger. He was a rock star overnight, dividing his time between eating and sleeping. Today he got to meet two of his grandparents (the other two, we hope, in January), and his older sister and brother. They were very excited to meet and hold him.

Below are some pictures from Oliver’s first 24 hours. Click on any picture for a larger version.

Maggie

Maggie’s Birthday Bike

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Maggie started showing interest in her balance bike at the end of February, and by the time her birthday loomed near at the beginning of April, it was clear she would probably be ready for a bike with pedals this summer! She’s much smaller than Griffin was when he started on a pedal bike, so I hunted down a smaller version and we gave it to her on Sunday for her birthday. She was beyond excited to try it! However, it was raining pretty hard all day that day, and even into the morning on Monday. She begged me to let her try it, but knowing there would inevitably be some spills, I told her we needed to wait until it stopped raining.

Well, Monday afternoon it stopped raining, and she was raring to go! I wasn’t sure how it would go for her, but low and behold, on one of her first tries, she took off! I pulled my phone out and grabbed some video. We spent the rest of the day touring the neighborhood with her practicing her new pedal bike. She’s hooked and asks to ride it at every opportunity now! It’s pretty amazing, and such a testament to the balance bike.

I hope you enjoy these short videos of her first rides!

https://youtu.be/VHzvlUPWVV0 https://youtu.be/F5PubCaf5CA
Griffin, Maggie, Photo

Joint Birthday Party

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Griffin and Maggie, turning seven and four respectively, agreed to have a joint birthday party this year. Each of them invited seven friends, and we all gathered at a local park for cupcakes and fun. It was a gorgeous day, and the whole event felt unusually relaxed. The kids rampaged around while the adults chatted, kept nominal watch, and guarded the cupcakes (my strategy: eat them).

Cupcakes, designed by Griffin and Maggie.
Maggie required some elements from Frozen.
Birthday sparklers… Griffin was nervous that they would be loud.
Building a fort.
Bones.
Griffin, Maggie, Photo, Travel

Bethesda

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We scheduled our Bethesda segment with my parents primarily to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday and originally planned to stay for five or six days and then do some Appalachian camping on our way north to Ithaca.  As it turned out, we needed all the time we could get for some family R&R.

Shortly after our arrival, Sarah was stricken with strep throat and Maggie had an infected finger, requiring multiple trips to urgent care. I was fighting a cold (we feared it might be strep, but I dodged that bullet) and my poor dad was hit with a powerful cold as well. But it was the perfect place to curl up and lick our wounds. The kids love it there and adore their grandparents. (One of my favorite moments of the trip was when Maggie refused to follow us downstairs for dinner, stating firmly, while sitting at the top of the stairs, “I want to wait for Grandpa!”)

Despite all of the illnesses, we did manage to get out with the kids a fair amount. The pictures below make it look like all we did was romp around, but really we just never took out the camera when we were convalescing.

exploring Little Falls Creek
exploring Little Falls Creek
heaving rocks
exploring Little Falls Creek
popsicle at the doctor’s office
splash pad fun
splash pad fun
bouncy thing
aftermath of a high speed collision at the splash pad
dunking
warm pavement
examining I.M. Pei’s East Wing of the National Gallery
fountains at the National Gallery
fountains at the National Gallery
about to enter Skylab
Cesna pilot
National Museum of the American Indian
feral child
family
group selfie
Griffin, Maggie

Watercolor Birthday

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Early on Maggie’s birthday, while I was blearily making my breakfast in the kitchen, Griffin quietly padded downstairs and hunkered down at the art table. In less than an hour, he produced a series of eight surprise paintings as a gift for his sister. After drying them on the radiator, he kept them in a secret pile until we opened presents in the evening. He presented each one to Maggie with a title and a short explanation.

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The Park
It’s not a play park. It’s just a park that you can run around in.

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Sunny Day on the Beach
It’s about a beach that’s blue and sunny. It’s always sunny. And it’s always fun to play at.

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A Tree Losing its Leaf
“This a tree that lost its leaf when it was spring and it was just a little maple tree that didn’t have any other trees around it. It was in the middle of nowhere and no one gave water to it and it was just in the middle of nowhere.”

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Funky World
“This unknown world that has a green sun and the houses look like hand prints. This funky world is like so funny.”

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A Tree With No Leaves
“This tree is so new that it doesn’t even have its leaves yet. It’s just like a little baby tree and it is a maple tree.”

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The Roller Coaster
“That’s a roller coaster that has only roller coasters in the fair.”

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The Cave
“It’s a cave with all these teeth and some scary eyes and the purple line if you were wondering it is a spike in the cave.”

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The Alien
“This alien lives in space and it’s always happy and it has one eye and this is a green eye and it’s always smiling unless if it’s mad.”

Griffin

Birthday’s Eve

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At dinner tonight, hours before Griffin’s 6th birthday, Sarah inaugurated the event by telling Griffin the story of his birth. (If you need a refresher, see one of our earliest posts on this blog: Birth Story.) It began with us simply reminiscing about what we were up to six years ago: watching Watchmen at the Grand Lake, wondering how the incredibly loud soundtrack would affect the as yet unnamed baby, hoping it might encourage him to come out. Sarah so uncomfortable at bedtime that she needed the bedroom to herself. Me reading A Midwife’s Tale on the couch. Both of us eager to meet Griffin.

As I listened to her retelling the story, I felt like I had slipped into the movie version of our lives. Of course it was real life, so there were plenty of un-cinematic interruptions, but fundamentally Griffin was mesmerized, and the whole experience felt exactly right. He asked questions, filled in details that he remembered from past conversations, and wanted to hear the story to the very end. He laughed in disbelief when I described seeing his crowning head, and then how he refused to proceed any further for hours.

When Sarah wrapped up, Maggie demanded, “Mama tell MY story!” Sarah told her she’d just have to wait for her birthday.

Family