Baby Bear's First Birthday!!

As some of you know and care, Ruben turned 1 earlier in the month. I can't even tell you what that meant to me. It meant that I was able to keep that boy alive and well without doing him or myself any permanent injuries. And for that-- we needed to celebrate.

You know, I never really got the whole party for a baby thing. They are too young to understand what's going on, much less remember such an occasion. But I know now that it's really for the parents. It's a public proclamation of survival and success. "We didn't kill my child!!! Yeah for us!!"

The festivities went on the Cinco de Mayo theme, so Mexican food and drinks! The snacks were there: salsa, sour cream, and tortilla chips. We also made signifiacnt culinary effort: Non-alcoholic white sangria for the kiddies; watermelon margaritas and cold, lager beer for the older kids; 7-layered Mexi dip (apparently, many Brits have yet to enjoy this dish over here) and bbq ribs/chicken were a big hit; so were the spicy shrimp wraps and veggie wraps.

Birthday cake: lemon (sponge) with lemon buttercream frosting. The birthday cake was made by the Mitchells from Kenmore, a lovely little village beyond Aberfeldy. They made our wedding cake last year that people are still raving about!








Ruben got lovely gifts from his friends and family. His older friends helped him open the presents which as much fun for them as it was for Ruben:





The suckiest part was all the cleaning we had to do afterwards. We were all exhausted hours later. But so what? My BabyBear had a great time with his biggest fans.

A New Toy!

Hi all! Yeah, yeah...I know it's been a while. But give me a break! I'm trying to raise a family, do my wifely duties, and finish my dissertation at the same time.

There's another post to come in the next few days. But I wanted to do this one and give you a peek of me and my new toy: the video option on Blogger!

I think I may be using this quite often. Of course, I don't believe in flooding the net with video after video of my son doing the most monotonous things (although to his parents--it's just genius!).

I'll be reporting on surviving the first year of Ruben's life soon. In the meantime, check out my boy: