miles and madison

cousins ali & maddie came from milwaukee a couple of weeks ago to help celebrate baby f and beth at the baby shower. they invited us to come out to the hotel to swim. miles absolutely LOVES the water and so does madison. it was only fitting that they also tried out the water in the tub. it was fun to see them and we hope to make a trip to milwaukee soon to visit the rest of our WI family!

updated party pics...finally!

I know I promised these last week, but we've been busy! here are the rest of the party pics. including the highly anticipated smash cake photos.

family photo

happy birthday little monkey

why are you all looking at me...and what happened to my clothes?

ooh...cake!

yeah me!

this would be the mess miles made ON HIS OWN...

...his uncles stepped in to mess him up some more...

...he was NOT happy about it!

cake = done.

party time!

we finally celebrated miles' birthday the right way...with a party! I have to admit that I had a ton of fun planning all of the details. if only I could make a living planning kids' birthday parties...

...but I digress. we went with a mod monkey theme (shocker, I know) and only invited our immediate family members. that crowd alone is 20 people! needless to say, miles was the star of the party. he should enjoy being the only baby for now - his cousin is set to arrive any day and according to momma beth - yesterday would've been grrrreat. we grilled out and then dove into some banana cake. I tried my hand at fondant for the first time. I don't think it turned out half-bad, but it was a bit of a pain. lets just say that the cake boss is not going to be beating down my door anytime soon. miles was spoiled by everyone. the gifts were abundant and we are so thankful for everyone's generosity. in true robin fashion, the camera battery died during the party, so I'll have to update it later when I download the pictures from our other camera. in the meantime, here are some photos from the day:

chow time

miles' smash cake

grill 'em up!

this is mere seconds before he snapped the cord on his face. that was the end of the party hat.
take note of the mini-banana in his hand...he held onto it for most of the party!

in the words of miles = "eeeeeeat"
nykkole ventured out in her casts to join us.

he was very meticulous when unwrapping. he handed me each piece.

a pool/sandbox! fun!!!

tinker

just a little background: tinker had heat stroke a couple of summers ago. he was running and playing at my mom & dad's on a very hot day when he collapsed and couldn't control his body. he was panting uncontrollably and drooling all over the place. we rushed to the emergency vet and by the time we got there he seemed to be back to his old self. thankfully, the nurse took his temp, told us to monitor him, and didn't charge us a penny. a godsend given the fact that it costs $99 just to walk in the door! a few months ago he had another "spell" in the middle of the night. we thought he had overheated under the covers and I found him lying on the ground unable to stand up. we were close to panicking, but he recovered after cooling him off with some water. fast forward to last night. we went for a walk after dinner. we were about a block away when tinker pulled over to go to the bathroom. right after he was done, he took two steps and collapsed. he was writhing around and his eyes were fixed. he kept spasming. I scooped him up and we were rushing home. about two houses away he started writhing again. I laid him in our yard, ran in for some water, and he seemed to come to after a few minutes. it was scary. we really thought he wasn't going to make it. after a phone call with the vet, he seems to think it's probably seizures. we will be taking a urine sample in and having his blood drawn to try to find out what's going on. in the meantime...we will watch him carefully and pray it doesn't happen again!