A Little MIA and a Happy Birthday

So, sorry I have been a little AWOL lately. I have been either sick or busy, and just not up to blogging.

The big news of today is that Number Four is ONE!!!!!

I am too tired to upload and do the pictures tonight, but I will post some tomorrow.
[OR, maybe 11 days later instead...]



I can hardly believe that my handsome little man is one already! He is up and cruising on furniture, and took a few steps today for the first time while holding on to one of the ride on toys. Number Four has a few words, loves to laugh, and just cut his seventh and eighth teeth.


Last night Dave said, just think, a year ago tonight you were pregnant...did you ever think that a year later you would STILL be pregnant?!?

You're too funny love.


For dinner we had tater tot casserole, as it is one of Number Four's favorites. We all took a turn to share what we liked about him, or to share memories we have of him.


Number Two told us about how she remembered the first time she got him out of his crib in the morning by herself. She loves to close the door to his room and play with him, just the two of them, when he first wakes up. He really loves that too.


Number One told us about how she loved to play with Number Four, and how much fun she had had playing cars with him today, as well as holding him and dancing when Dave was playing the piano.


Number Three, with a little help, said she liked that Number Four was her friend, and that she likes to wrestle with him.


I mentioned how much I love the faces Number Four makes, like his squinty-eye look. I love what he teaches us about boys. I love how happy he is to see me whenever he has first woken up. And I love how happy he is.


Dave mentioned his faces too, as well as the way he turns his head to the side to play shy. He loves that Number Four is ALWAYS happy to see him, no matter what. It's true too. When Dave comes home from work, or just enters the room Number Four is in, he is always greeted by the 1000 watt grin from his adoring son. He also mentioned Number Four's unending happiness, as well as his ability to keep his eye on the ball when they practice playing catch.


In traditional first birthday style, we took FOREVER trying to assist Number Four in opening his gifts (only 6 total)...he still doesn't really get the whole gift opening thing, though he does loves to pull off bows!


And then on to the "make a mess of your own cake" portion of the festivities. We all had a fun time watching Number Four do his thing. We had predicted that he would be the most agressive of all of the kids, but I am not sure that this turned out to be accurate. I tried to actually make his cake cute, and so I don't think that he understood it was a cake at first. I gave him a fork to help him make the connection, and from that point on, he was far more interested in digging in and flinging with the fork than his hands. Still fun to watch though.

All in all, it was a successful first birthday. We sure adore our little guy.

[A couple of additional thoughts added eleven days later...My wishful thinking after so much snowy-freezing-sludgy-overcast-gloomy-bone-chilling-depressing-endless wintery weather was the inspiration for the cake...with a beach vehicle loaded with a surfboard at the ocean. Notice Number Four is opening gifts in two different outfits...one grandparent package arrived the day after the birthday (darn USPS)...though of course Number Four didn't know the difference, so all was well.]

And finally...


"I sure love my Daddy!"


"I think he really loves me too."


"I bet he would love a taste of this awesome cake Mom made for me."


"Yes. This sure is good stuff...me, my Dad, a birthday, and some cake."