The Birthdays of 2005

First, there was Amanda, who was actually born. No cake, but definitely a big day for the Muffin family.

Then came Mom's birthday, when Amanda witnessed for the first time the strange ceremony of lighting birthday candles just to blow them out again. These pictures were from the day before Mom's birthday, when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. Mom's actually birthday included a particularly nice gift: a job offer for Dad in Seattle!

And so, last but not least came Dad's birthday, in Seattle.

Disclaimer: The candles pictured do not necessarily represent actual ages of the cake recipients.

Odds and ends from December 2005

One of the best things about cooler weather was a chance to dress Amanda in some adorable warm things:

But, of course, she was still plenty cute without the wraps:

One of our favorite local outings during this time was down to the manager's office, where the nice maintenance guy often had a balloon for Amanda:

We attempted to take a photo of Amanda for a Christmas card we never actually sent:

One of the nicest things for Mom during the month was a comfy new mattress, which also came with a snazzy box: 

Amanda's First Trip to Canada and other adventures with Grandmother and Grandfather

Grandmother and Grandfather came to visit for Christmas! Amanda approved of having extra grownups about.

Grandmother and Grandfather took us on a mall outing for dinner. A funny story from that outing: Dad loves the simplicity of paying with cards. The restaurant we chose at the food court was heavily biased toward cash customers, not accepting credit cards at all, and charging an extra fee to debit customers. It might have been nothing more than an minor inconvenience if the food had been spectacular, but alas, it was quite the opposite. Looking back, it seemed an illustration of Visa's marketing phrase. "Visa: it's everywhere you want to be." Well, that place didn't take Visa (or anything else), and it turned out not to be a place we wanted to be. (It really was a good outing, though!)

Amanda got another balloon while Grandmother and Grandfather were visiting.

Grandmother AND a balloon: does it get any better than this?

Our biggest adventure was a quick trip to Canada, Amanda's first time out of the country ever. Here's Grandfather in Canada by the bank where we traded currency.

We had dinner at Denny's, and it was Amanda's first time having ordered especially for her at a restaurant. It was also our first time seeing ketchup bottles designed to be stored upside down (see upper left corner, behind Amanda). Clever people, those Canadians.

Here's a view of downtown Vancouver. A TV show Mom and Dad liked was being filmed in the area then, and it was fun to recognize the city and know we'd been there.

Grandmother and Amanda, still in Canada.

Amanda was getting a bit fussy as we prepared to leave Canada, and so Grandfather got her a balloon. Turns out she liked Canadian balloons just as much as American ones.

We used a fairly busy border going in, and a quieter border leaving. This place was a sort of "out of order" border section near the official border. Don't blame us if you use this border and get into trouble.

On the way home, Grandmother and Grandfather got a present for Amanda: a high chair! It's still with us as of 2014, even though the fabric cover has vanished.

Before they went home, Grandmother and Grandfather provided another dinner adventure: Ivar's!

Christmas 2005

Christmas 2005. Amanda's first Christmas. A Christmas in Seattle. All in all, a pretty good Christmas. Grandmother and Grandfather came for for a visit, too. Christmas morning was also Sunday morning. The little tree from when Mom was a kid perched nobly on the entertainment center for the first time, bedecked with Christmas ornaments Grandma and Grandpa had sent from Russia while they were on a mission there. The little green elf guarded presents for his second year, with help from a nutcracker Mom had gotten several years before. The little angel on the tree was handmade by Mom's Grandma Joan. Howie the philodendron even got a bow for the occasion, as seen in the far left.

And yet, all this historic decorating meant nothing to a sleepy little Amanda being hauled off to church first thing in the morning before opening presents.

As of 2012, there's just one church building that serves the main area of Seattle proper, and it's this one right here. We know because it's the same building we attended when we were back nearly seven years later and living on the opposite side of town. Ah, the joys of retrospective blogging.

Another one of those joys goes with this photo. At the time, it was a picture of 1) Mom's visiting teaching companion and a general good friend and neighbor and 2) a family that Grandmother and Grandfather had potential local ties to. Now, in 2014, it's also a picture of Mercedes M. Yardley, author.

After church, Grandfather got a picture of the rest of us on the elevator. That's right folks, we lived in a building with an elevator once upon a time. *sigh* Those were the days . . .

It was time to get back to those presents . . .

Here's Amanda with Grandmother, working on something Christmasy.

Mom thinks the picture of Amanda looks an awful lot like this picture of baby Mom on Grandma Joan's lap at her first Christmas. What do you think?

Speaking of Mom, in the midst of the presents, there may or may not have been some My Little Ponies, which may or may not have been more for Mom, long time pony fan, than for Amanda. *cough*

Let's see, where were we . . . oh yes, Amanda's first Christmas. She very much enjoyed the quacking duck puppet shown by Mom, as did other Muffins in years to come. She definitely approved of Christmas. Here's the Christmas card photo we took of her that year:

(Don't feel bad if you don't remember seeing it before, considering that we did a better job taking the picture than sending it.)

November 2005

Summer in Seattle is pretty much three months of sun. The rest of the year, not so much, especially when the days get shorter. For November 2005, that just meant more time for taking pictures of Amanda being cute in the house:

When Thanksgiving came around, we stayed put, but we were not alone, thanks to kind friends from church who invited us to join their celebration. No pictures, but plenty of yummy food!

Odds and Ends from October 2005

Amanda began pulling herself up a lot in October 2005:

This made it easier to reach more things:

Dad went on a business trip during the month and brought Mom back a fancy (yummy!) candy apple from Wisconsin:

Amanda also spent some time with stuffed friends:

With help from a good friend to get the plants and equipment, Mom made herself a little garden to go on the balcony. The pansies lasted the winter, adding cheer to the non-summer version of Seattle.

For the record, we didn't do much for Halloween 2005. We made up for it later in 2009, 2010, 2011, etc.

Thanksgiving in October 2005

It all started with a near trip to Canada . . . sort of. Grandmother and Grandfather came for a visit in October 2005. Since Seattle is only a couple of hours from the border, we thought it would be fun to take a peek at the other side. There was some reason why we didn't actually cross that day, but we did get a picture:

We made up for the lack of border crossing by celebrating Thanksgiving Canadian style, in October, since we wouldn't be seeing each other when the American version came around. Here's Grandmother with the yummy dinner she made for us:

It was a quick visit, but Grandmother and Grandfather made sure to see Puget Sound before they left. Mom is pretty sure these pictures were taken in part of the Golden Gardens area. Wherever it was, we enjoyed the visit.

Odds and ends from September 2005

Once again, most of the camera time for the month went to Amanda:

Mom made this little floral arrangement at a church activity:

The real life-changer for September, although we didn't really understand it at the time, was Amanda discovering shelves:

Just checking out The Chicago Manual of Style . . .

Which is, of course, a very serious thing . . .

 And which, of course, is not part of a larger rearrangement scheme.

Seriously, would a cute little face like this ever wreak havoc on Mom's decor? (The face, no, but the hands, yes. Very much yes.)