The life and times of the Davis family, and especially the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of Tanika Davis, the proud wife of Lester and sleep-deprived (but deliriously happy) Mom of Cary, Dean and Clair.
Clair turned 1 on the 16th and to mark the occasion, we had a fabulous not-a-party at my Mom's house!
I could go into details about Clair preferring pizza crust over chocolate frosting and Dean being a bear the entire day and how we ordered colossal Costco pizza pies for TEN BUCKS! each and how the cousins could not stop harassing the birthday girl.
But you've been to not-a-parties before. You've probably had 'em yourself -- or something similar.
So instead, I'll just post here -- for Clair's benefit -- photographic evidence that her family celebrated the anniversary of the day she came into this world, and changed all our lives forever.
The scenery.
The birthday girl!
She kept trying to put this flower in her hair.
Look at Matty's ridiculous cuteness.
Clair and Matty, conspiring cousins.
Alahna would not leave her alone.
And sometimes Aminah joined in the harrassment.
Not so sure about this center of attention business.
Alahna loves her baby cousin.
I told you I was making a Duncan Hines cake. You didn't believe me.
"Happy birthday to youuuuu! Yayyyy!"
They kissed her so much, her face got smushed. Poor Clair. So loved.
Here we are with our little girl. Awwww. Happiness.
Yay! It's my birthday! Now where's my pizza crust?
Nana and Auntie Tahira gave Clair books for her birthday. Cary was in heaven. Books!
This was pretty much Dean's mood most of the day.
What? You mean I'm not supposed to act the fool on my sister's 1st birthday? I didn't get that memo.
Reading one of her new books with Daddy.
Opening presents (and preparing to consume the paper.)
Thanks everyone for coming to my not-a-party! Drive safe now!
I wanted to write a whole big thing about my baby girl turning 1, but I got slammed this weekend with all sorts of things, including her not-a-party at my parents' house (more on that later, with photos!) And then today, which was supposed to be a day off, I got slammed at work.
So I'll just repost my Facebook status about Clair from her big day (Feb. 16) and most importantly, post a few of the BEAUTIFUL photos Angel took of her. I'll gush more appropriately about the 1-year-old child (Ack!) and the photo-perfection in a later post.
One year ago, God threw the Davis family
the best Curveball ever: Clair! In the year that's passed since she
surprised us with her existence, we've never laughed, smiled or loved so
hard. Clair truly lives up to the meaning of her name (without the "e,"
it's French for "light") and we are overwhelmingly blessed just to get
to live near her shine. Happy 1st Birthday to the best surprise ever!
So much great stuff happened this weekend, I would be here all day writing if I didn't break it into manageable chunks.
First ... Clair perfected her get-down-get-funky dance, and it is the best part of my day.
The girl's got rhythm, no? Takes after her Mommy. Sorry, Lester. You know it's true.
Also, we went to Storyville again, and Clair really got into it, as opposed to the last time we came, when she was a teenier baby and conked out the entire time.
Fun with magnets.
The Davis family took over a whole section of Storyville. We roll deep, yo!
The boys' second time at the library was a huge success. While I picked out books that were all on a waitlist, dangit, they picked out books to take home, put 'em in a basket, and then sat down -- uninstructed by me -- and started "reading." Yes. My boys are awesome.
Seriously, I turned around from the library counter and this was happening. I almost fell over.
Also, drumroll please ...... Dean Ezra Davis earned himself a pair of Elmo-covered Big Boy Underpants for successfully declaring his need for the potty -- and then successfully using said potty -- three times in a row!
"I'm getting bigger!" he said, after putting on his underwear.
He was sooo excited! And when he also woke up this morning with a dry diaper, and went to the potty first thing in the morning, we also decided to send him TO SCHOOL WITH HIS BIG BOY UNDERPANTS ON! I have no idea how this turned out. I will have to call Michelle at some point and see if there were accidents, but I'm too scared.
For his part, Cary tries, but he is not having as much success as his brother. But he melts down when Dean gets a Raisinet for his potty-success, and he doesn't, and he wants to wear Big Boy Underpants, too. So, being the sucker that I am, I just give him a chocolate raisin for "trying," and I put underpants on over his diaper. This seems to satisfy him for now. But it's making a mockery of the incentives. Oh well.No one said parenting was easy.
But the total cherry on top of this sweet-sundae of a weekend, was piling my entire family into the minivan and driving 100 hours to Angel's house in Virginia, where we got Clair's 1st Birthday photos taken, hugged and squealed over one another, ate, drank, laughed and had the. best. time.
Of course, I have NO photos of us together because I was so focused on Clair and her photo shoot, I lost my phone for several crucial hours in Angel's bedroom. But Angel has documented the fun, fun day here on her excellent blog (which you should be reading, anyway, if you're not already because she is absolutely hysterical and her children are gorgeous).
Angel and I have become such good friends over the course of the last 3+ years, seeing us together on Saturday, you would never have known that we've only actually met in person twice -- yesterday's visit counting as one of the two times. Being with her was so easy and warm and familiar, it was like we were lifelong friends. I was so happy to be in her house, cooing at her babies, laughing with her two Roars, eating fine cuisine (LOL!) and drinking supremely tasty cocktails. (I was a little tipsy when the night was over, but don't tell my children.)
Anyway, I am always amazed at what a great job I do picking friends. Just about all the women in my life are fabulous in so many ways, I marvel at how much awesomeness would be in one room if I was lucky enough to get them all together. Angel is no exception. She is beautiful, talented, smart, skilled in a wide range of things, a loving, kind and inspirational Mom, creative, generous and has great hair.
I kind of hate her.
But when I start to get jealous, I think about how those talents often benefit ME (of course). For example, her skills with a camera give me sweet shots like these:
Tahira, don't ask me what I'm doing with her hair. OK? I don't. frikkin.' know.
Isn't that so cute? I can't wait to see the rest of her photos! Most importantly, I hope we can find time to get together more often, now that we know that we fit together like orange juice and coconut rum. And oh, how sweet it is.
The set-up, before the onslaught of cousins, pizza and cake and ice cream.
I'm proud of myself for actually making this cake. I always thought I would be the kind of Mom who made their kids' birthday cakes, but then when I'd see the fancy bakery cakes other kids had, I thought maybe I should do that. But no...Duncan Hines it was. Made with love by Mommy.
The babies in their 1st Birthday hats! Cary kept taking his off, so I had to be quick to get this shot!
The babies and Mommy!
Cary was in his GLORY, crawling around playing with all his big cousins. He was all up in everybody's business, shrieking and giggling, acting like he was one of them. He loved the noise, the people, the chaos.
Dean, on the other hand, only wanted to be held in someone's -- anyone's -- arms, or on someone's -- anyone's -- lap. He could have done without all the noise, the people and the chaos. . Mom, birthday not-a-parties are FUN!!
Mom and Dad, I'm not really sure what to make of birthday not-a-parties. Help!
Opening their gifts was super fun -- for awhile.
Especially for Cary ("Hey, I get to rip this paper? And it's OK?! Cool!")
But eventually, Dean made his way into Daddy's lap, where he was much more comfortable looking at all the wonderful books friends and family gave them.
They loved seeing their twin cousins, Kingston and Kenton, who are just five months younger than they are! Two sets of all-boy twin cousins? Oh, they are SO plotting total family domination!
Not-a-party over. We need a drink!
Thanks for the awesome time and all the lovely gifts, folks! Let's do it again next year!
Awww, I'm all ga-ga today about my boys. Is it normal to be this much in love??
Happy Birthday boys! Momma has to go to a stinkin' work event, and you'll be asleep by the time I get home, but didn't we have a grand time today? So glad Daddy and I got to take the morning off to enjoy your big day with you!
Can't wait to spend the next year watching you grow! 'Cause this year sure has been a blast!
The boys woke up at 7 a.m. (instead of 6:15 -- Cary!!!) so we got to sleep in a little.
We had a lovely breakfast together as a family instead of rushing around trying not to step on crawling or crying babies. Lester made a fruit salad. Deeeelish!
We put the boys down for a nap and then got ourselves ready for the day. Michelle arrived and immediately helped me start making my house not look a total wreck (thanks, Michelle!)
Then, my friend Jen McMenamin came over and took tons of gorgeous pictures of the boys and a few of all four of us. Dean refused to smile and Cary was desperate to get down on the floor and crawl, but I think she managed to get some good ones. She is a professional, after all.
We went to a field near us at Herring Run Park and Jen took photos of them in their new little red wagon! (iPhone photos...blah) The weather was PERFECT.
And then we let them play in the field some, but all they wanted to do was eat grass and buttercups. So we let 'em. Hey - it's their birthday!
For some reason, they thought grass was the most delicious thing. Who knew?
And then we came back to the house, stuck a candle in an apple muffin for each of them, sang the Happy Birthday song and then let them tear into the muffin. It was hysterical!
Michelle made them these adorable bibs! Aren't they sooo cute? And she brought over balloons too with each boy's name on them. Green for Cary; blue for Dean.
All in all, it was seriously like the best day ever! Can't wait to see these pics.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful, adorable, brilliant, hysterical, loveable, wonderful babies! You have made this past year the best of my life. And I thank God for the both of you!
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