Happy Birthday Mr. B!!!

I just got back from five days visiting Mr. B (and his parents, of course). =)

Mom and I did some get-ready shopping for his birthday bash on Saturday that was attended by more than 50 adults and children.

But first, a few reminiscenses of February 17, 2005. Benjamin was born at 12:02 am Thursday 02/17/05 after 72 hours of labor on the part of his mother and her attendants (Dad, Nana and Auntie Sarah), but hot-dam was he worth the wait!

The newborn nursery RN who worked him over at birth commented that his head was larger than his chest and suggested that he might end up as a lawyer.......lawyer or not, we like good sized craniums in this clan.

This picture was taken after he got home from the hospital--isn't he adorable?

Here he was on his birthday enjoying his delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs.
Some other changes and milestones:
No more backward facing car seat--yippee!!
The transition from formula to milk.
Is an official "toddler."
Has been walking for about a month (walks like a T. Rex)
Has four words: Mama, Dada, "D" or "Ditty" for their cat D aka Dinah. I tried my best to get him to say "Nana" while I was there, but he waited until after I left.

Here he is with his Mama Kate, who, I can assure you is a whole lot more comfortable than she was a year ago!

We celebrated the official birthday by going out for pizza with Dad and Pop at Me-N-Eds and everyone got to have a beer but Mr. B.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and we begn the setup for the party.

To the left is a picture of Mr. B enjoying a delicious saltine while posing in front of the "Birthday Card Quilts" I made for him. Using an idea from Sharon F. in the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild, I decided to make mini-quilts for each birthday that could be attached to each other and added-to each year. Thanks for the great idea Sharon!

His "birth" quilt was machine embroidered on my Bernina 440 Aurora using some designs and a font I bought on the internet. It includes some of Benjamin's favorite items (rubber ducky, pacifier) and not-so-favorite (bibs). I hand quilted it on the train ride from Santa Rosa to Fresno during the 3 hour delay. =)

I designed the first birthday card quilt using an alphabet I traced in Electric Quilt 5 and bonded to the background. All the motifs and letters were machine appliqued and then hand quilted.

My idea for the official two year quilt is percolating already, but hey, I have 360 days to procrastinate, so why not?

Happy Birthday my darling Mr. B. I'm so glad you are here!!

I love you,
xoxoxo
nana