Duncan: 12 Months Old

"12" onesie made by: Auntie Heather

Yay!! We did it! We survived our first year as parents!

Duncan turned 1 year old on October 12th. It's been the most amazing year of our lives. I truly can't believe he's a year old already! Where did the time go? How my little peanut has grown from this tiny, precious, newborn chunk of pure joy:

He's given us a run for our money over the last 12 months and believe it or not, we wouldn't trade a single minute of it. There were many long days and nights of sitting on the yoga ball, trying to calm the angry screaming, constantly being covered in spit-up... But a year later, with all that behind us, he is still our little chunk of pure joy. :)

I have so loved doing these monthly onesie photo shoots with him. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it with my very limited photography skills, but I am so happy that we have this precious photo record of his first year. It has been so fun to remember each person who made that month's onesie and how much fun we all had making them at my baby shower. This may be my all-time favorite of Heather's endless cache of awesome ideas.

This month, since he's such a big boy now, I decided to comb his hair for his onesie shoot and I have to say that I think he is absolutely ADORABLE with a groomed head of hair. :) His daddy prefers the more natural, crazy-haired Duncan look but he wasn't home at the time so I get free reign. I think his Daddy was quite perturbed that I parted the poor kid's hair to the side and made him look like a middle-aged accountant, but I just couldn't resist. LOL

Duncan at 1 year old:
-  He officially weighs 23 lbs 5oz, is 31" long, and has a 48.2 cm head
    circumference. He's a big boy!
-  He's still crawling at light speed & is a master at cruising. He's not
    quite ready to walk just yet it seems. He'll stand for short periods
    of time, but he just doesn't want to take any steps. :)
-  He loves going to the playground & playing with all the toys there
    that have wheels. He's not a big fan of the swings.
-  He loves to play chase. He'll chase us around or will get us to chase
    him around the room while he giggles like crazy. :)
-  He knows all of his toys' names and will go get them when we ask
    but no real words coming from him yet! He'll also grab specific
    books that we ask for, too. :)
-  He says "Da Da" when we ask him to sometimes, but he doesn't
    actually call his Daddy "Da Da" ever. lol
-  He likes to repeat sounds that we make. He can make elephant
    sounds and "vroom, vroom" sounds for his cars. Today, I got him
    to say "Baaa!" when I ask him what a sheep says. :)
-  He's such a good eater. He still eats like a horse and eats everything
    we give him to try. That sure makes it easy for us at mealtime!
-  He loves peanut butter! He also loves pineapple, thanks to Uncle. :)
-  Some of his favorite books right now are Corduroy, 123 San Francisco,
    Farm Animals, and Bad Dog, Marley.
-  He is VERY silly. He loves to play silly games and laugh at himself
    for the silliest of things. He's very fun to play with. :)
-  He is such a snuggle bug. It is the BEST!

It's probably a good thing that he's not walking yet, as this photo shoot was already amazingly difficult and required a LOT of impromptu distraction gimmicks. He is so squirrelly and sitting still in one spot for Mommy to take a million photos is a lot to ask these days. A handful of decent shots out of a hundred is deemed a success in my book! Haha!

Now that we've hit the 1 year mark, I'm going to be posting about every month as opposed to weekly. There will be plenty of photos, though, so don't feel cheated. :) Of course, should there be any huge milestones to document, I'll post it immediately. Until then, thanks for checking in on us every week for the past year and I hope you do come back so see more of this cute little face:

What an incredible year. I feel so blessed to have such a happy little family. Duncan is an absolute joy and Matt has been the most loving Dad and husband. I am so fortunate to have these two guys. They are the loves of my life. I can't wait to experience and capture so many more precious moments in the coming year. There is so much more fun to be had! See you soon!

Love,
Tam

1st Birthday Party!!

Yup, before we knew it, our little baby turned 1 year old!

We had Duncan's party on Saturday, October 13th, at Angelo Rossi Park here in the city. It was such a gorgeous fall day! The weather was perfect, the park & playground was great fun for the little ones, and we had our favorite friends & family with us to celebrate.

Duncan was such a good little guest of honor and seemed to have as much fun as we did. He was in such a good mood all day! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday party for my little crazy-haired man. :)

Auntie Heather made him his awesome birthday shirt that said "one" across it in fun farm-themed fabric patterns that she picked out to go with his farm-themed party. I just LOVE that little shirt. Seriously, seriously CUTE!! :)

Heather and I had so much fun putting together all the farm-themed decorations, favors, and food for the party. There was red gingham table tops, cow pattern balloons, farm animal stickers & tattoos, Heather made a birthday banner with the same fabric patterns that she used for his shirt, farm animal cupcake toppers, and favor bags loaded with farm-themed goodies for the little ones to take home. Heather made crayons in farm animal shapes that were included in the favor bags and they were SO cute!! I may or may not have gotten a little out of control with all the farm themed party goods, but it was really a lot of fun to plan and I forgive myself. :)

Check out the food:

Watering Hole (for the thirsty little farmers)

Fresh Fruit Orchard

Tractor Tires
(ham & cheese or cream cheese & cucumber
mini-bagels)

Haystacks & Chicken Feed
(rice krispy treats & chex mix)

... and a Veggie Patch for a finishing touch!

Let's not forget the star attraction -- the cupcakes! Complete with your favorite farm animal topper. I almost passed out from the cuteness... :)

Cupcakes from Blissful Bites Bakery
Toppers from MiaSophias on Etsy

As adorable as those cupcakes were, Duncan was not a huge fan of the frosting & sprinkles. He had a melt-down because he didn't like having them all over his hands.

But he was a trooper and downed his birthday cupcake like a champ once we cleaned the frosting off his hands and Daddy hand fed him his bites of cake. LOL Did I mention my son is very tidy?

Logan, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy his cupcake just fine -- frosting and all! :)

After Duncan recovered from his cupcake-eating drama, we tattooed him up! Pork belly, anyone? :)

We had farm animal stickers for the kids to stick to themselves, each other, & to unsuspecting adults. The farm animal tattoos were a big hit and Heather was very busy as tattoo applier as well as party photographer. All these fun goodies were also included in the favor bags for the kiddos to take home. :)

Tags from MiaSophias on Etsy
Tiny cowbells from The Ribbonerie

Yeah, we seriously had too much fun! We had neighbors, local friends, and far away friends & family show up to celebrate Duncan's big day. Grandmom Debbie even flew out for the weekend just to party with him! How spoiled is he? We were so happy that so many were able to make it. It was great to see everyone, hang out, and do some good ol' catching up. It seems like forever since we've seen some of these people. The little ones grow up so fast!

Many thanks to everyone for joining us for a fun day! Many thanks to Trung, Logan, and Debbie for all their help in party set-up, babysitting, shopping, & clean-up. We love you guys. :) SO many thanks to Heather for all her crafting & planning help, photographing, and all the million other things she does. This party would not have come together so perfectly without her, and this post would have no photos without her! Again, I must say that she is the bomb and we just LOVE her!!

Hope you had a Happy Birthday, my Duncan punkin! We sure had a blast celebrating with you. Secretly, I am already looking forward to planning the next one!! :)

Love,
Mommy

Duncan: 52 Weeks Old

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We were on vacation when Duncan turned 52 weeks old on October 10th, and then we had a big old 1st birthday celebration to throw, AND we've been sick for what seems like forever, so this post is WAY late! But we are getting back on track, I promise! :)

Duncan hit 52 weeks while we were on vacation in Monterey with his Uncle Trung, Auntie Heather, and cousin Logan. We had the best time!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

On our way down to Monterey, we stopped at Phil's Fish Market & Eatery for their legendary cioppino and it was delicious! The midday heat about melted us while we devoured our steaming bowls of cioppino, but it was so worth it. :)

Phil's Fish Market & Eatery, Moss Landing

Phil's Fish Market & Eatery, Moss Landing

Phil's Fish Market & Eatery, Moss Landing

The house we rented was beautiful and just two blocks from the ocean. We took walks along the oceanside trail...

Recreational Trail, Pacific Grove

Recreational Trail, Pacific Grove

Recreational Trail, Pacific Grove

Recreational Trail, Pacific Grove

We went to the beach (where MUCH fun was had!)...

Asilomar Beach

Asilomar Beach

Asilomar Beach

Asilomar Beach

Carmel Beach

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium...

We also went to an amazing Farmer's Market in town one evening & were in foodie heaven! We were too busy stuffing our faces to take photos, obviously, since there are none from that outing. :) All in all, we had a blast for three days in Monterey. Awesome vacation!

Balboa Beach House, Pacific Grove

Duncan just loved having Uncle, Auntie, & cousin in town. We went to the zoo, the playground, played lots of MarioKart, and ate some yummy SF food. Uncle let Duncan try all sorts of new foods (brownie cake, crab, doughnuts, lemonade, among other things. lol!) so he was always climbing up on Uncle whenever he saw him eating something. It was pretty cute!

His 1st Krispy Kreme Doughnut

Uncle giving him his 1st taste of brownie cake, SF Zoo

Auntie was the BEST to have around because she took nearly all of his mealtime feeding shifts, changed a boatload of diapers, played with him nonstop, took a million pictures, was an amazing party planner & helper & crafter, and just loved the little guy to pieces. I really enjoyed having the baby-free time that her help provided! He even got all cuddly and snuggled with her one morning in Monterey and it was SO cute. That's something he doesn't even do with his Daddy! :)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

SF Zoo

Having Logan around for an entire week is the MOST fun we've had in ages. He is a riot & I just LOVE him! So smart, so silly, such a good big cousin. He read books to Duncan, retrieved toys for Duncan when he demanded it, and they made that crazy pterodactyl scream back and forth with each other during mealtimes that was crazy entertaining to the both of them... LOL. I just loved watching the two of them play and hang out.

Duncan sure is going to have lots of fun with Logan as he gets older. I can't wait to see them again and go on another vacation. We're going to try to make it an annual tradition. Too much fun! :)

We wrapped up the Vo family week with Duncan's birthday party, which will be in the next post. We finally took 12 month onesie photos today (thank goodness, since the onesie wasn't going to fit him much longer!) so that post is coming up, too. So many photos, so little time...

Many thanks to Heather for letting me use some of her great photos in this post. Is there anything my super sis-n-law can't do?! She's the bomb, I tell ya!

Love,
Tam