Happy Birthday, DAD!

This was Jon's first birthday as a Dad. Ellie decided to wake up for the day around 6:45 in time to greet him before he left for work. I wish I could say that I had a nice breakfast made for Jon or that I even ate breakfast with him, but I failed! He did go to Twin Valley Coffee and Lynne gave him a free Toddy for his birthday, so that helped. Ellie and I were scheduled to go into work at 11:00 to have Ellie sit in a car seat for some engineers so we got up around 9:00, ate breakfast, prepared for the day, and cleaned up the house until it was time to leave. Ellie did fairly well for the first 15 minutes but had enough after we picked her up and put her back in about 5 times. She doesn't mind her car seat as long as it was moving so I think she was just sick of being in the car seat they were working on. After she started crying Jon came over since it was a bit distracting (we were meeting in the large room where all the engineers' cubicles are). Ellie and I headed out about 10 minutes later and ran to pick up Jon's last gift before meeting up with Jon at AJ's Pizza. Since it was his birthday we decided to let him pick where we should eat.

Father & Daughter at lunch.

After lunch Ellie and I went home to clean up a bit more. I had let the house get a bit out of hand and Jon always appreciates a picked up home, so we did our best. But then I became distracted by the laundry, wrapping his gifts, and bringing out the fall decor. We made progress, though! It may not be noticeable to an outsider, but I can definitely see more countertop.
Around 2:15 Mom and Linda Smith stopped in to spend some time with Ellie. Linda had just met her yesterday but today she was able to hold her. They stuck around for about an hour and even took a self-guided tour of the basement.
In the late afternoon Ellie and I finished wrapping the gifts and continued with our cleaning endeavors. Jon came home around 5:30 and we sat him down to open some gifts. I think I enjoy his birthday more than he does - it's just so much fun to buy gifts, wrap them up, and then see what they think. It's weird! I think I might get that from Mom. Jon opened all but two of his gifts. He got work lights (for construction work, not office work), khaki pants, shorts, a bottom-up shirt, and socks from us and Sequence from Mom and Dad. He will open his last two gifts tomorrow when we go out to dinner with Doug, Donna, Omar, and Grandma Mountz.

Waiting for Dad to come home to open gifts

Since I didn't have to make dinner and Jon would be at church at the Men's dinner, Ellie and I went to Mom's house to eat and hang out. Mom graciously offered to feed me and we had a linguini casserole, Mom-mom's bread, and ice cream. Then we went to the basement and Mimi held Ellie while we watched some DIY shows before The Office and Parks and Recreation came on. Dad and Jon came home and we continued to stick around so Pops could get some snuggle time with Ellie.
I asked Jon how he liked his first birthday as a Dad and he said it was wonderful.

Snuggle-time with Pops

People have said she looks like Pops. Do you agree?

She loves laying on her belly!

Just last night I was complaining about my hand breast pump and Jon called this afternoon and said someone at work needed a mom to try out an electric breast pump and give feedback on the product. My compensation: to keep the breast pump. It's a Mii brand that is hoping to be sold in the USA under the Nuna brand so they want to do some research first. They wanted a mom that has not used an electric pump yet - which I fit in that category. It's a $499 pump - so it should be nice! He brought it home this evening (happy birthday to me) and I opened it up and it was missing only one part - the plug to give it power. Whoops! Hopefully they have it at work somewhere...