Happy Birthday to me! And other happenings!

Nathan forgot to turn off the timer function so I was laughing while waiting for the picture to be taken!

My birthday is tomorrow but we celebrated tonight since we will be so busy tomorrow. Nathan found a babysitter at the last minute (Amos' other favorite family--the Berends!) and we had an awesome dinner at our favorite no-kids pub, The Claddaugh. We ate yummy brie with berry compote, the most amazing fish 'n' chips, awesome Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake and my new favorite pint (found on my birthday last year), the Black Velveteen--Cider and Guinness.
We had a wonderful time, eating and talking, hanging out and taking a break. I had absolutely no anxiety about leaving Amos--tonight, as we were walking out the door, we said goodbye and he barely noticed we were leaving, he was having so much fun. Julie reported that he barely missed us and had a blast playing with the boys. What a relief, to have a place and people that Amos loves and who love us enough to help us out in such a huge way!
On our way back to the Berends' house, we dropped by Nathan's office where he showed me my present. He blew up a picture (think 2 feet by 3 feet) from our wedding--a picture of us being showered with flower petals as we were "leaving" (as usual--we were some of the last to leave our wedding so they acted like we were leaving to get the picture!). We're going to get it framed to put up over our bed. What an awesome gift it is!
Tonight, I wore my birthday scarf--I got it from Target today with birthday money from Grandma. Thank you! Even though it's far from being scarf weather right now (stupid global warming!), I decided to wear my scarf to celebrate my birthday and celebrate fall. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I'll be shivering in my Chacco flip flops! :)
In other news...
It's been a busy time around here in the Partain house!
Last week, Amos didn't feel so well. He had his little fever virus for a few days and we finally got through it! We gave him lots of fluids, as oddly enough, his fever would spike when he ate something. But we worked on sitting on the potty, and tons of talking practice! Amos is learning to count to ten and can get to at least 5 on his own. He's learning the alphabet and more and more words each day. He's becoming a regular little parrot! He's saying bulldozer, up and down, schminnee, (smoothie!), lots of names of friends he plays with, and he's continuing to perfect his language of signs and sounds he's made up!
His air guitar playing skills are really getting good--he loves playing guitar! And last week, while we had Lucy and Ellis babysitting during community group, they "cooked" in his little kitchen, and now, that's all he wants to do--COOK! When I asked him what he's cooking, he said, "Wah" (water), "Apple juice" and "O's!" Very impressive! He also got really good at saying his K's-- cook, book and milk. We're very encouraged and hopeful that he won't be one of those kids who says their t's for g's and k's.
And last week, while we were at Joann's (notice my ultra cute flannel for Amos' new blankie, below), he saw a foot ball on some flannel and sounded it out until he could say, "foot ball!" I was rejoicing, loudly, in the middle of the store!
As always, he's becoming so great to spend the days with. He's becoming such a little person and yet, is the person he's always been, but he can communicate better now!

Amos finally fits into the outfit he got for his 1st birthday! Thanks Hitch Moores!! :)

Today, Amos got to push the kiddie cart around Trader Joe's. He had a blast!