My mom bought me a membership to Mystic Aquarium for my birthday. I suggested she buy me an individual membership with the bring-a-guest option ($100) instead of a family membership ($160) so when Baby Evan (who is free anyways) and I go during the workweek I can bring along another mama and baby. It worked out great! I met two other mamas at the gate at 9:30 and we spent an hour and a half enjoying a very quite aquarium. The indoor exhibit is carpeted so it was a great spot for Baby Evan’s friends who can’t quite walk yet and my Ergo was perfect for carrying him outside.

Unfortunately, since I was the one behind the camera I don’t have any pictures of the both of us, but here are the obligatory photos of fish and whales and sea lions and stuff.

I don’t even know how many people came for the party but it was AMAZING. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family! I’ve never had such a successful party before, including all my own childhood birthdays. I wasn’t the most popular child. Maybe this is a good sign for his elementary school status, although if I have to throw a party this elaborate every year for the next decade I’m going to need access to a much larger budget. And also some high quality pharmaceuticals.

p.s. If you want a copy of your picture let me know!

I’m having a really ridiculous but majorly stressful problem re: inviting people to Baby Evan’s birthday party. On the one hand I don’t want to exclude anyone and end up causing hurt feelings because OMG A, B & C got invited but D totally didn’t. But on the other hand, really, who wants to waste a whole Saturday afternoon squished into my living room watching my child not eat cake and playing pin the nose on the clown? It’s my own kid’s birthday and even I think that sounds like the third circle of hell. I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to come if they don’t want to.

My problem lies in the fact that in the past six months my circle of local mama friends has exploded from exactly one (Hi Amanda!) to 15 or 20. More if you include all the kids whose name and age I can list (the true sign of mama friendship). Do I invited everyone I see on a weekly basis? Do I invite just the half-dozen people whose husbands I’ve met once or twice? Do I even invite the husbands? God, they’re going to be SO BORED. There’s not enough beer in Connecticut to make a first birthday party fun for most grown ups. What’s the level of friendship required to put someone through that? I don’t think anyone likes me that much.

And, oh nooooo, what if everyone I invite brings gifts? The last thing my spoiled kid needs is 40 toys. I really should have put one of those cute little no gifts rhymes on my invitations – like “the gift of your presence is present enough” – although considering I didn’t even remember to put Baby Evan’s NAME on the invitations maybe it won’t even matter. Maybe no one will show up. It will just be my parents and my in-laws staring at two hundred dollars worth of plastic plates and cups and candy. Of course, then I’ll be the one who feels snubbed and left out and I’ll never be able to show my face at Stroller Strides or knitting group again. I will have ruined my life over a stupid birthday party.

So listen, people of the internet and also real life friends who might stalk read my blog: I’d like to invite you. I will invite you. I did invite you. There’s probably a card in my diaper bag right now with your name on it. If you have any desire at all to be here to help celebrate Baby Evan’s first trip around the sun, let me know. I promise it will be as much fun as a first birthday party can possibly be.

And now back to your regularly scheduled update.

10 Month Milestone Chart from BabyCenter

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Waves goodbye – he waves all the time, but I’m not sure he means “byebye”
• Picks things up with pincer grasp – Yes
• Crawls well, with belly off the ground – Yes, at a speed that can only be described as wicked fast.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent – He’s definitely called me mama, but he’s also called the dog and a water bottle mama. And sometimes he calls me “baba”. I haven’t heard him get dada right yet, although if I tell him “Dada’s home!” he crawls to the door.
• Indicates wants with gestures – He knows the sign for “milk” and reaches for things, but no pointing.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Stands alone for a couple of seconds – Stands all the time. Cruises constantly. Walks 10-12 independent steps several times an hour, although he only really started that in the past two days.
• Puts objects into a container – He put his new Sophie in a pot yesterday. I think he wanted some giraffe soup. Which I would totally give him if I knew where to get some giraffe.

So to sum up, motor skills and physical development are great and a little ahead of the curve. Mental and verbal development are decidedly average. Personality is still very happy and easy going 90% of the time and angry hell-demon the other 10%, but I still think he’s the best baby in the world.

My BFF Erin and her 7 month old baby Reid came to visit us this weekend. Since I am a terrible friend, I made her go to my workout class on Saturday, let Baby Evan steal all her kid’s toys and then gave Reid the flu. Seriously, I’m surprised she’s still speaking to me. Although if she ever threatened to stop being my friend I could always blackmail her with those photos I have from college. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

After Stroller Strides but before the puking the babies did have a pretty good time in our mall’s play area. It’s surprisingly nice (considering how crappy the mall is as a whole) with a cushioned floor, not too many people and stuff to entertain kids from crawling to kamikaze face diving running. We’ll be making it a regular part of our routine.

Space, the final frontier. Imma go there in this awesome plane!

I'm so stylish my binkie matches my outfit. My mom pretends it's just coincidence but it's totally not.

All weekend people kept telling us the babies looked like brothers. I think it's just the chubbiness.

This is my pensive face. I'm considering pooping in this car. Oh wait, just did.

This IS playing together. I stomp on the little kid, he licks this giant pig. Hey it works for us.