Happy Birthday Monkster!!!

I just don't even know where to begin with this post! It seems like yesterday he was swallowed by his infant carrier as we strapped him into the car to bring him home. He's not yet officially 1... he won't officially be 1 until 9:33 this evening. For some reason I'm sort of clinging to these last couple of hours! This has been the hardest and the best year of our lives. Neither of us knew how much love and happiness this not-so-little guy would bring to our home! I sure do miss my tiny little snuggly boy but I'd be lying if I said that this stage wasn't 100 times better. I say that each time JD reaches a new "stage" ... whether it be smiling for the first time, laughing for the first time, reaching for toys, crawling or, now, walking. It just keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

Before I get in to JD's day, I'll go over a few of the things he now does. Let's start with words. He now says "cat" (which comes out as "at"). Not only does he say "at, at, at" when he sees Sammy, yesterday he said "at" in Target when he saw a picture of a cat that looked nothing like Sammy.... and today we were riding in the car and he started saying "at, at" when he saw a big picture of a white tiger in a beachwear store window! He also says "up" ("oopa"), "vacuum" ("a-cue"), "mmmmm" whenever he sees food and, of course, mama and dada.

The kid eats everything in sight. He ate a lemon at lunch today. I swear we're going to go broke trying to feed him when he's a teenager! He just shovels it in. I'm constantly amazed by the amount of food he puts away. After dinner he found a banana in his diaper bag and bit the end of it off, peel and all, and about mowed me over trying to get it back from me. We ended up sharing it before he went to bed!

He's getting braver and braver with the walking. He has now taken up to 8 steps without falling and he will let go of a toy and take off across the room to get to another toy. He doesn't make it all the way across the room but the fact that it doesn't even occur to him to squat down and crawl, that his first instinct is to just walk, tells me that it won't be long before he's running circles around me. Maybe I should start practicing with rollerblades now because I'm going to need them to keep up with this ball of energy!

I don't know how much he weighs or how tall he's gotten. We went to the doctor on Monday and got turned away because it was 4 days before his birthday. Apparently, the shots he needed to get couldn't be administered until after his birthday. It would have been nice if the lady scheduling the appointment would have known that! So, we go back this Monday to get weighed and measured.

OK, on to Buddy's First Birthday... in pictures:

Hi Mom! I LOVE my new toy box!!!

After play time we tried to get him to take a nap.... he finally went down about 15 minutes before Grandma and Grandpa arrived for lunch. When he woke we went to Bummz for lunch and JD was a very good boy. He sat in his high chair and ate his grapes. Dave and I even let him have a couple of french fries, which is a rare treat for JD!

After lunch we headed to Wild Wing for a dip in the pool. It was about 90 degrees here today and the pool was the perfect temperature. JD really enjoyed his new pool float that we got him for his birthday....

After the pool, Grandma and Grandpa headed home and so did we. Dave, JD and I all crashed for a nap and, when we woke up it was time for dinner. After dinner JD got the treat of all treats... A cupcake!

As you can see, it was a big hit. He went straight into the tub when he was finished with the cupcake. I think we'll save his cake for last at his party on Sunday! He was on a bit of a sugar high after his bath... Dave had him all revved up. Somehow I managed to get him calm enough to go to bed. Either that or he just crashed from all of the excitement of the day.

So there's JD's very first birthday. I did good. I only cried once when he got up for the day.... I'll probably cry again at 9:33, though! Tomorrow we go to Walker's birthday party. If you remember, Walker and JD were in the nursery at the hospital together. Walker was born exactly 1 hour and 33 minutes after JD. It's kind of fun that JD has a birthday buddy!!

Thanks to everyone who sent JD birthday wishes today.... we really had a wonderful day!