Howdy from the Birthday Girl!

For a party that wasn't officially a "party", Amelia's first birthday celebration was a real treat! I'm not sure who was more excited about the big day, Amelia (who was clueless to it being different than any other day) or me (who could hardly believe we had arrived at one year). Just the other day I was telling Lee that on the one hand I feel like I've known Amelia my whole life... but, on other hand, the past year has been a blink of the eye. It's been one of the most incredible years of my life, filled with so many new experiences. When folks say parenting is a "labor of love" they aren't kidding... it's the best "job" you could ever have, but, boy will you put in long hours!

For the big celebration, we talked about doing several things… the zoo (too cold in March!), the Raleigh children's museum (too far!), attending the ACC Tournament (are you kidding?!), and finally settled on the unknown – Kidzu, the new children's museum that just opened uptown.

Grandma Carolyn flew in from California especially to mark the grand occasion; Grandbuddy and GG arrived with their arms overflowing with gifts; and although we don't have official confirmation, we suspect Uncle Scott timed his arrival home from Afghanistan to coincide perfectly with Amelia’s “party”. What a great crowd! The only way the day could have been better was if Uncle Jon, Aunt Gina, Cousin Maddie, and Uncle Matt had been able to join us.

Kidzu proved to be the perfect place – not too big, not too small. We expected it to be crowded, since it was opening weekend, but thankfully, it wasn’t. After working our way through the great traveling exhibit “Where the Wild Things Are”, we found out way to the “infant area”.

Jackpot! It was an enclosed play area where Amelia could roam free, crawl over big soft blocks (and kids who got in her way), test out new toys, and delight her “audience” (grandparents, an uncle, and the proudest parents in Chapel Hill).

We had to pull our little one away kicking and screaming when it was time to go. Even dangling the “carrot” of lunch, cake, and presents wasn't tempting enough to distract her from all the fun. For days afterwards all we heard about was "Kidzu this" and "Kidzu that", "Kidzu is the coolest place ever, Mom!". OK, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Needless to say, Kidzu will become a regular stop on the weekly-Amelia-entertainment-train.

After a delicious lunch at Spanky’s, that seemed to take forever even though the restaurant was empty, we headed back to the homestead for the final festivities… cake and presents!

Amelia had her first cupcake, and boy, was she in love! Thanks to Uncle Scott, who acted as the human spoon, there wasn’t a happier birthday girl around. You would have thought it was Christmas if you had seen the pile of gifts waiting to be unwrapped. Our girl is dearly loved and that means so much to her parents.

Amelia spent her actual birthday (3/14) at our local Gymboree, trying out a new class. She had a ball climbing on all the equipment and playing with the other kids.

Shy she is not! We were the first ones to arrive and Amelia proceeded to greet each new classmate with an exuberant squeal. Mostly she got a “who is this girl?!?” look from the other kids and a few laughs from the other moms.
That didn’t stop her from marching over to many of the kids to give her famous poking-you-in-the-face hello. A greeting only a mother could love.

The class ended with a real treat… everyone singing “Happy Birthday Amelia” followed by a shower of bubbles. What could have been better?

All in all, it was the perfect first birthday. Year 1 will be pretty tough to beat, but we look forward to all the new adventures year 2 will bring!

For more birthday photos, click here. Be sure to check them out!

PS... Our girl is on the verge of walking; small steps have been taken! Stay tuned for video of this new talent.

Officially a one-year-old...

...and loving every minute of it! Although her "party" was on Saturday (photos to be posted soon!), today at 530p marked Amelia's grand entrance into the world. What a wonderful day we got to celebrate... and celebrate we did!

Check out Mom and Scott losing it while trying to get Amelia to giggle... just a small sample of our celebratory "games".

One of Amelia's "best friends", Lucy, was part of our celebration today, much to Amelia's delight!

If Amelia could, she'd sing "Happy Birthday" to herself... here's her attempt at making "music."


The photos from her party are still in the "editing room" and will hopefully be posted in the next day or so. Check back soon for pictures from our visit to the children's museum, blowing out the candles, eating cake, and opening presents. So much fun!

PS... Just when we thought March 14th couldn't get any more special... Sophia Rose Recupero was born today at 1207p, officially making my dear friend Stephanie a mom! Both Steph and her sweet bambina are doing well and we send them all our love.

Maddie has a blog!

Why you ask? It's an easy answer... "From time to time there are a few things we would like to remember." My brother Jon has started a blog to track his family's journeys and we are all in for a treat!

Click over to their site and enjoy some wonderful photos. Don't miss viewing the great video of Maddie at the beach, learning gymnastics, and singing the sweetest songs you've ever heard.

Bookmark Klogger today!

(PHOTO: Maddie and her friend Ian having fun. Santa Monica, CA - 3/06 - JTK)

While the mice were at play...

...the cat was at work! During Julianna and Amelia's two week vacation to California, I spent those two weeks in Colorado, Winter X 11. At this point - post Olympics - everybody knows Shaun White, aka "The Flyin' Tomato", and Seth Wescott , USA's gold medal winning athletes in Torino. Well, two weeks prior to the Olympics, ESPN held their annual Winter X Games in Aspen, CO. Fourteen Olympic athletes were at this year's Winter X, including notables Shaun White, Seth Wescott, and Kelly Clark. Lindsay Jacobellis was also to compete at X, but dropped from the competition minutes before the start of Boarder X... much to the chagrin of ESPN.

My job at X is to make sure everything pertaining to scoring the event is in place and accurately executed. This includes setting up the judge equipment for the half-pipe and slope style events (Shaun White took Winter X gold in both events), to building the course for Snowboarder Cross (Torino gold medal winner Seth Wescott finished 7th, not even making it to the final bracket of X). I make sure that the folks watching TV, and the fans in attendance, understand what's going on in each competition by providing athlete data, stats, and scores. All in all there were fourteen medal categories at this year's games - my company was responsible for scoring the competition of each and every one.

My crew consisted of twenty hardworking guys (and 1 girl!) who worked from 5:30am to 10:00pm each day - twelve days in a row. We put in all the timing lines for the X Course (Snowboarder Cross and Skier Cross). This means digging seven, yes, SEVEN, 2-foot wide, 60-feet long trenches. Inside each trench we place detectors that tell us the order in which athletes pass as well as their race time. Think Olympic downhill courses with six skiers on it at the SAME time.

The kicker is that only FOUR timing lines were needed - ESPN couldn't decide where they wanted them to be located. Each time we'd finish one, they'd change their mind. AGH!

Winter X 11 went really well for me and I'm proud of the job my team did. It was a lot of hard work and I missed my girls a whole lot. Despite the long hours, cold days, and distance from loved ones, we were able to have some fun out in Aspen, while hitting a home run.

I'm now in the process of getting ready for the NCAA Basketball Tournament - my next big event. My company scores every game, in the tournament of 64 teams, for CBS - providing all the statistically info for the TV graphics. I personally will be scoring games during the 1st/2nd rounds (Greensboro, NC), the Regionals (Washington, DC) and the Final Four (Indianapolis, IN).
Look for my blog posts after each weekend - keeping you up-to-date on how the Tar Heels, no, I mean how I'm doing, working the tournament and traveling the country.

For more X Games pictures, click here.