Mat's First Faux-hawk.

5.5 Years

I forgot to post about our anniversary dinner. Rafi took me to Louie's 106 on 6th Street (it's a favorite of ours), and surprised me with gorgeous princess cut diamond earrings!! They took my breath away, and I wear them every day. I keep joking that it's not fair that others get to enjoy them more than me because I can't see my ears! He had reserved a horse drawn carriage to take us around the downtown area, but they had called to cancel due to the major thunderstorms we had all day. I doubt I could've held in all my excitement if we had done that, too! Thank you, husband!!

Easter Weekend

Once again we can't seem to celebrate holidays only once! This Easter we had an Easter egg hunt in Stephenville (my hometown - yes the UFO town) and in Georgetown. In Stephenville we celebrated Easter on Saturday given that the Sunday forecast was sketchy. My mom made roast and potatoes and countless deviled eggs (which we forgot to eat!), and Mat had an Easter egg hunt that afternoon that my dad prepared. He fairly quickly figured out that he was to pick up the eggs, but he didn't quite get to put them in his basket. He did enjoy the goldfish crackers inside while Rafi and I enjoyed the ones with peanut butter cup eggs! And of course my parents had lots of toys for him including a bag of 100 balls! That evening my mom relieved us of bedtime duties so we could have dinner with our friends JoBob and Caris. We closed the restaurant down just sitting and talking, which was really nice to do without a kiddo! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Sunday morning we got up and headed home to Austin. That evening Dick and Mary (Greg's parents) had us over for Easter dinner. This has become a tradition for us. And continuing in that tradition they prepared and adult Easter egg hunt for Tina, Greg, Rafi, and me. I lost miserably this year, though it's hard to lose when candy is involved. Mary also arranged a small egg hunt for Mat. He hit the jackpot, as his eggs were filled with coins AND a Charlie Brown Easter DVD. The dinner was fabulous, and I ate too much. Afterward we settled in to watch a little tv, and Mat made himself right at home on top of Greg. Thanks, Mary and Dick!!

Rafi's Big News

After 10 years of being with the same company (through company purchases and spinoffs), Rafi has excitedly taken the position of Technical Program Manager with NVIDIA. Based in California, NVIDIA specializes in graphics processor technologies. No, no, we are not moving to California. Thankfully there is an Austin location. :) We are really excited about this change because it will give Rafi an opportunity to branch out a bit in his career, and this company is a great place to do it. Forbes Magazine named NVIDIA the Company of the Year for 2007. The transition is a bit hectic, but the bonus part is that most of his old team now works for NVIDIA, too, so there are plenty of friendly faces there. Mat and I are very proud of him!

Birthday Mania!

Well, as is tradition in this house, we don't just celebrate something once. So we followed in this tradition with Mat's first birthday and had two celebrations. I can't believe he is one year old!

Mat's Greek birthday party was held on his actual birthday (February 21) at Zorba's Greek Restaurant. It's THE best Greek food in all of the Austin/Round Rock/Pflugerville areas. There were around 21 of us. Would you believe that this kid didn't want to dive into his cake? In fact he touched it, decided it was slimy and gross, and then complained for us to clean his hands. So much for a grand showdown! Hey, at least he wore the hat I made for him. Oddly enough he did enjoy sucking on lemon slices. Go figure. I do think he liked us singing to him, though. He received some fabulous gifts, and we thank all of our friends for celebrating with us.

Mat's "Hopping Frogs" party took place at Ready, set, Play!. It's a gigantic room filled with inflatable slides, obstacle courses and bouncers. For kids it's so much fun. And for adults, well... it's so much fun! We first took Mat we went during a slow weekday evening and ended up taking turns holding him so the other could go jump on something or go down a slide. Yup, the parents can get on there, too! Anyhow, we had a spectacular turnout for this "kiddie" birthday party. I'm proud to say I baked all the cupcakes and birthday cakes for both parties (6 dozen cupcakes with cookie tops in all).
I was very pleased with my birthday cake creation. It really inspired me to continue baking special birthday cakes for his future birthdays. Although I seem to remember my mom doing this for us until we practically begged her for a store bought (probably Wal-Mart) cake like our friends had! Little did we appreciate the work that goes into throwing a party! Yet, I digress...
So along with froggy invitations, his birthday cake was a frog on a lily pad, the cupcakes had lily pads floating on blue icing water with gummy froggies sitting on top, and the centerpieces and table decorations were frog plush baskets with frog suckers in them and balloons. Mat even wore a cute little birthday frog t-shirt. Hey, when I decide on a theme, I go for it! We also had Costco sandwich rolls, organic cheddar bunnies, flaxseed chips, organic chocolote and vanilla milks, organic juices, and waters. Yes, it all sounds a bit "granola" and healthy, but it was all really good! And nobody realized (until I told them) that the cupcakes I made were very low in fat and lower calorie due to omitting eggs and oil. I used diet 7Up instead. Hey, when you use buttercream frosting, everything tastes delicious!
The kids all had fun, and the parents got to take them home all worn out and ready for bed. However I am sad to report that once again Mat had ZERO interest in trying his cake, but all of his friends helped him with eating it! That part was really cute. Most definitely Mat made out like a bandit with the gifts. We have very generous friends! I ended up putting some of the toys away for a later date.

Briefly I will mention that Mat also had his one year doctor appointment on his birthday. With his tongue depressor in hand he braved four painful shots. Dr. Rawal told us to never again bring him on his birthday, for he wouldn't look forward to seeing her. :) It seems he did have a growth spurt of sorts. He now weighs 20lbs, 3.7oz. (20th percentile) and is 29.25" tall (35th percentile). So he's still a little pipsqueak, but he's growing just fine and hitting all his milestones. Did I mention that he now walks like a pro? :-)