First Birthday

It is Sunday afternoon. I wish I were sleeping. That is what Mike and E are doing. But I can't. I have a visiting teaching appointment and if I fall asleep, I will sleep right through it.

So, I have some time to spend. I should do a load of dishes and straighten up my house that got a little destroyed with 3 extra boys last night. That is what I should do, nut I'm not going to.

I am going to finally blog about E's first birthday. At 8:10 PM on September 14th, my little guy turned 1. I don't ever think I blogged about his birth story, but I was in labor for 23 hours. It didn't get intense until they started me on pitocin (sp?) at 7:30 in the AM, but it was a long 23 hours. I begged for the epidural at 10:00 AM. It didn't take. I finally got one that took around 12:40. Blessed epidural, why did I want to try labor without you? At 6 PM, they told me not to expect my little guy until after 10 PM (yes, it was discouraging) but then things kicked into high gear and at 7 PM I was suddenly ready to push. Well, they tried to get me to wait an hour, but I couldn't. So, I pushed for an hour. It was exhausting. But, when they put E on my stomach, those 23 hours (and the 41 weeks prior) were like they went by in the blink of an eye. I remember seeing my little guy, running my fingers over his hands, his face, his arms, his hair. I was so overwhelmed by the feelings of joy and gratitude and love (did I ever realize love could be that overpowering?) that I forgot to count his fingers and toes. When I looked at my little E all I saw was perfection. Preciousness. Mike and I relished in the 30-40 minutes we had with just us and our new little bundle before they had to rush him to the nursery. (I had a fever when E was born and as a result, he was born hot, and his body temperature wasn't going down so they had to rush him to get him a bath to get his temperature back to normal.)

All of this seems like it was yesterday. In the blink of an eye, all of a sudden my little guy has turned 1. He is walking. He is trying to run. He has learned that when you crouch down and say, "I'm gonna get you," he is supposed to run away, not toward you, and that it is much more fun. He loves grapes and yogurt, and eating mommy and daddy's cereal. No more baby food for him. He won't touch it. He loves eating spaghetti. Actually, he picks the noodles up and sucks the sauce off of them and puts the noodles either in his lap or back on the plate. He says mamma and dadda. He screams DaDa until Mike pays attention to him. He LOVES his dad. He says "bye-bye" but not if you want him too. He loves cars, trucks and balls. If it is a ball, it is his preferred toy of choice. He loves books and pointing at everything. He loves watching bigger kids to see what they are doing. He loves his puppies, Jake and Abby. He plays ball with Abby. She will plop on the ground with a ball in her mouth and he will grab it and try to pull it out. It is a game both of them love. He also loves the road, which has created a whole new level of angst.

My favorite thing about my little boy (and sad that he is no longer my baby, but my little boy?) His laugh. I LOVE his laugh. I will do about anything to get it. You don't even have to do anything to him to get him to laugh. All you have to do is laugh yourself and he laughs with you. I love his smile. The sparkle in his eyes. I love his hugs and kisses. Yes, his wide open mouthed kisses. Even the really slobbery ones. I can't even narrow down one favorite thing from my little E.

I started this post because I was going to blog about E's birthday party. Wow, I got sidetracked. Welcome to the story of my life.

E got spiffied up with a faux-hawk for his birthday. I don't generally do his hair, so it was fun to make it different for his party. We had our families there and some close friends who are like family to us. We got together and had a bbq. Ummm...hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad (although Mike reminded me it wasn't Grandma Proctor's potato salad, which is good, and I guess by comparison, mine doesn't measure up,) baked beans and some other sides.
We had a chili pepper pinata for all of the kiddos at the party and I almost got hit numerous times by the stick. Good thing I can move quickly. E had no interest in the pinata, but I figured it would be for his older cousins anyway.

We also had a cake. I like decorating cakes, but haven't done it too often and am by no means professional. Very amateurish actually. I was trying to decide what to do for E's cake when I saw a friend of mine (she really does have talent in the cake decorating area) who did a duck cake for her little girl's birthday. I stole the idea. Made few changes and this is what I ended up with.
I forgot to practice blowing with my little guy before his party. As a result, he made no effort to blow out his candle. Who wants to blow out a candle when you have all these duckies you can steal off the cake? The ducks were a definite hit. I also discovered that I do not have enough hot air (or air period) in me to blow out a candle less than 3 feet away from me. Yep, pretty sad, but in my defense, it has been YEARS since I have blown out the candle of a birthday cake. In fact, the last time I did was probably my 16th or 17th birthday when my friends made me a cake.
If you notice the picture at the beginning of the post, that is E enjoying his cake. While he did use his hands, he generally has to have some type of utensil to help him eat. I LOVE watching him pick his food up, put it on the fork or spoon, and then try to put it in his mouth. A.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.

After cake and ice cream, E got to open some presents. His cousins were much more excited about opening his presents than E was himself and he had LOTS of little helpers ready to lend a hand. E was spoiled and got some awesome gifts. He got some books, an outfit, some blocks, some balls, some cars, and a little pop up toy. He got a really cool plush tool set. He carries the hammer around and tries to hammer everything in our house. He also got a little cart that he can sit on and push. He hasn't quite figured that out but if you push buttons on it you will hear one of two songs. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," or "Do You Know the Muffin Man." I have heard these songs constantly since his birthday. E loves standing next to the cart, sometimes actually sitting on it and pushing those buttons. I may or may not be secretly hoping the batteries run out soon. Even when they do finally wind their way down to empty, I will probably replace the batteries just because it makes my little guy happy.

It was a good day surrounded by loved ones, celebrating the fact that my little guy has been with us for 1 year. While there are some things that I miss in my little baby (the constant cuddling) I am excited when E moves into a new stage. I love seeing him learn things and figure out how to do lots of stuff.