Last year as a single digit

Baby M1
This past weekend was M1's 9th birthday. I can't even believe it. Nine years ago I had no kids and now that's such a huge part of who I am. I can't even picture what life was like before. M1 is my starter baby. The first one. The one who teaches you all about good mothering (and bad mothering) She was a happy sleepy chubby baby. Everywhere we went people drooled over her beauty. Once when we were at a drive-thru window the cashier looked in the backseat of our car and spotted a toddler sized M1 snuggled in her car seat and the lady looked truly amazed as she turned to Kurt and I and announced (in a disturbingly shocked tone) "My, you two propagate well, don'tcha?" Yes ma'am.

new parents with M1So in honor of her 9th big birthday, we took M1 and a couple pals rollerskating on Saturday and then we ended the party back at our house for some pizza and cupcakes. It was so much fun. Lorenz got her a pair of these new skates so we went out skating again on Sunday too. We are skating fools! I had forgotten how fun it is. Soooo fun.action shot
pizza goodness
We finished up the weekend with our traditional dinner at Ichiban on Monday (her actual b-day). We started going there forM1's birthday when she turned five which was the last birthday she spent with her daddy. So we've kept going every year. Kurt had painted the big light (in the background) with the japanese kanji on them to look like aged metal (really they are wood). So it's fun to showM1 and M2 a little something their daddy made beautiful.chopstick pro
And for her birthday I published one of her books that she had recently written/illustrated,
Oh The Love My Boy. She's been begging me to scan it into the computer for months and she was so excited and giggly when she opened it. She's such a great little person and she's getting to be a great big person too.
Happy 9th Birthday little lady.