RENT RENT RENT RENT RENT!!

My favorite broadway musical is coming to town in June, and when we heard this the hubby and I decided to save some of our tax return money to get tickets as part of our anniversary presents to each other. Well we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for them to go on sale with ticketmaster, and today a co-worker of my husband's told us about this fundraiser for the local AIDS charity, you can buy tickets to the opening night of the show plus you get a ticket for an after show cast party, and a portion is donated to the charity. I'm super excited to see the show again (this will be the 3rd time hehe) but I am even more excited for the cast party because the original Mark and Roger, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are going to be in the cast!! I just bought our tickets a little bit ago! Now I have to wait nearly 3 months!!

Fun Bites

Ammy and I had a playdate today with a few Moms and kids from the playgroup. There were two other April babies there, and a 9 month old. Amryn was having so much fun! She kept trying to kiss and hug the other little girl who was just 1 day older than her. She loved playing in this tent that they had.

It was nice for her to get some play time with kids her own age. So many of the playdates have had older kids.

And then it happened. The little boy came over to see what Amryn was doing, and Amryn being the trusting and curious little thing she is, stuck her finger in his mouth. The photo at the right was taken just seconds before the little bugger chomped down on my baby's finger like a dog with a bone! Amryn didn't know what was happening, and all the other Mom kept saying was "Oh, I forgot to tell you he bites." She pulls her kid off of Amryn and says to him "Oh it's okay, you didn't mean to." HUH?!? Seeing as he very nearly broke the skin I think he did damn well mean it! If it would have been Amryn biting I would have told her sternly "No biting!!" and this lady is comforting her little piranha?

Yes I know kids bite, and I'm sure this isn't going to be the last time in her life that she gets biten. But seriously, how is a kid supposed to learn NOT to bite unless they are taught that biting is not okay?

All in all we had a good time, Amryn cried for like a minute and then wanted to be put down so she could go play again, so I'm sure there's been no permanent damage. I guess she learned that sometimes, fun bites.

Birthday party planning....

Invitations for Amryn's first birthday party went out this week. She'll definately have an interesting mix of people at her first party, we invited family (2 sets of grandparents, uncles, girlfriends and cousins) and "family" (a couple dozen gay uncles) and a few friends with their kids. This could either be a lot of fun or one giant strange mess. Sure, a part of me is kind of giddy with the idea of making my church going Mother in law sit next to one of my openly gay and slightly flaming best friends, but I also don't want the entire 2 hours to be totally awkward.

But if there is one thing I have learned about "my bois" it is that they tend to surprise even the most closed minded individual. Many of my friends are professionals with good stable jobs, and they are all very well mannered and articulate. Amryn is loved by a lot of people, and I don't ever want her to feel like she has to choose who to invite based on who they choose to love.

Unfortunately my husband's work has decided to make everyone work on the day of Amryn's party. They have to work 2 Saturdays a month, and it had been the second and fourth Saturdays, but because they are closing on Easter they decided to give everyone the second Saturday off and work the third Saturday instead. So now he has to take a vacation day for a day he SHOULD have had off any way! And the handful of friends we invited that work with him aren't going to be able to come to the party!! So we will be taking the leftover cake to work after the party so everyone can still see her.

We are doing a Winnie the Pooh 1st birthday theme, I have plates for the cake, cups, and napkins all with the Pooh theme (got those before we had to move to a restaurant) and a Pooh 1 candle, and a Happy Birthday banner. We still need to order the cake, and maybe a little "smash" cake for Ammy. We are having it at a pizza place so all we have to do is order food, I think I might call ahead and order the pizza so it will be ready when we get there. Once I know how many kids are coming, I will go to Dollar Tree and buy some Pooh puzzles/books/stickers for party favors.

Now I just hope people will actually RSVP!!

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice OH HELL NO!

Amryn is officially a walker now so I figured she needed some good sturdy shoes to get around in, so today we went to the mall to go to Stride Rite. Wow that was a crazy experience. It is Springbreak here in Oregon, so the store was packed and they only had 2 people working. But I was already there and Ammy really needed shoes so I waited patiently. Finally one of the sales people looks at me and says "Did you sign up on the list up front?" Umm...list?! How the heck was I supposed to know there was a list?! But it worked out okay and Ammy got her foot measured (Bad Mommy moment #1 I've been shoving her size 4 foot into a size 3 shoes oops) and I picked out 2 shoes to try on which they only had 1 of in a 4 1/2. Well I had a 15% off coupon to use, but the sales lady tried to convince to take advantage of their buy 1 get one 50% off sale. Yea, these things are already going to cost me a fourtune, I don't think I want to spend another $30 thanks. So she got her "big girl shoes" and then we walked around the mall for a bit.

While walking around I notice that they have the Easter Bunny there, and much like with Santa Clause kids can meet and get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Amryn did okay with Santa, I sort of just backed her in and sat her down and she sat there a good minute before she realized what was going on, then it sort of happened in slow motion, her face started to crinkle up and then she started to cry, but not before we got a pretty good looking picture (minus the tongue sticking out like a puppy dog).

So when I saw the Easter Bunny, and the no Easter Bunny line, I thought PERFECT! I take Ammy over and figure out what picture package to get. Normally this would be where I'd post the lovely picture of my daughter and the Easter Bunny, sadly things didn't work out so well. As I'm walking over to where the Easter Bunny is sitting on a bench, Amryn starts FREAKING OUT! She refused to sit on or near the Easter Bunny. I even tried sitting down on the bench and holding her, but she wouldn't even sit on my knee next to the Easter Bunny. So after reviewing the horrible pictures, I decided not to purchase any and to not traumatize my poor baby any further by trying to take "a good picture". Guess I wasn't going to fool her again!

My only guess is that Santa was okay because he looked like a person. This was her first encounter with a "character". I guess if I were her I would have lost my shit too, this giant 7 foot fuzzy things with glasses and HUGE eyes is trying to take me away from my MOMMY?!?! YEA NO!! Oh well, there's always next year.