How do you measure a year?

In feedings, in diapers, in teardrops, in sleepless nights, 

In first steps, in first words, in laughter, in hugs and kisses...


Now that the final birthday festivities have come to a close, I am ready to post some of my thoughts about my baby boy's first birthday.  The first of his birthday parties was at my parents' house over Thanksgiving weekend.  My brother and sister-in-law and Emmett's cousins Philip (3) and Gabriel (18 mos) were there to celebrate with him.  Poor Gabriel was sick and ended up going to bed early before we had cake.  I made E a yellow double layer cake with white frosting.  I wrote "Happy 1st Birthday Emmett" on the top with red sparkly icing.  He had a candle on top shaped like a number one.  We sang Happy Birthday and tried to get him to blow out the candle, but he didn't understand what to do.  He just looked at us like, "what do you want me to do?"  We gave him a piece of cake to destroy, and he made plenty of mess out of that, smearing it all over his face and in his hair.  He tried ice cream for the first time and made an awful face because it was cold.  But he kept opening up for more and more bites so he must have liked it anyway.  He did a pretty good job of ripping into his presents.  He got a wood train made of blocks that can be rearranged, a nice set of wood building blocks, and some clothes and pajamas and some board books.  I love wood toys.  They inspire imagination.  He loves his train.  He's really good at taking the blocks apart, but not as good at putting them back together.  We're working on that.  Overall his first party went very well.  Here are some pictures from the first party:

Here is the cake I made for him.

And here he is smearing it in his face and hair.

Cousin Philip helped him open his presents.

On his actual birthday on the 30th Chris took the day off work.  I made blueberry muffins for breakfast and Emmett seemed to really like them.  Here is a picture of him eating his:

We got him a hand carved wooden train and the Fisher Price Spinnin' Sounds Speedway.  The Speedway was definitely a hit.  When you run a car down the ramp and onto the racetrack it spins the cars around and spits them out the other side.  Here is a picture of him playing with it:

As the day went on he tried throwing just about every toy he has in there just to watch them spin around.  And eventually he tried this:

However, it was not strong enough to spin him around. 

We took him to the mall to play in the indoor playground in the afternoon.  That is truly his favorite thing to do and we knew that was how he would choose to spend his birthday if he could tell us what he wanted.  Really just having Daddy home on a random Tuesday was special enough for him.  On Wednesday morning when I went in to get him he kept looking around me to see if Daddy was there too.  It made me sad.  I wish there was some way Chris and I could share his job so that some days he goes into work and other days I do so that he could spend just as much time with Emmett.  The corporate world does not do enough to give fathers more time with their children, and they also need to make it easier for mothers to work and take care of their children.  This is something I get on my soap box about all the time.  But I will rant about that another day. 

We finished off Emmett's birthday by going out to eat at a new Italian restaurant near our house that we had been itching to try.  Even though Emmett couldn't really appreciate the food, he just loves being out in public so he can people watch.  He was fascinated by an older boy at the table next to us.  He LOVES big kids.  I gave him some of my pasta to try, but he wasn't impressed.  He tried one and threw the rest on the floor.  I wish I knew how to get him to stop throwing food on the floor.  But how do you discipline a one year old?

When I rocked him to sleep that night I sang him all the songs that I've been singing to him since he was a newborn in the hospital.  I held him for a really long time, not wanting to put him down as if he was going to turn into a big boy overnight.  I finally forced myself to lay him down and leave the room.  I went to my bed and just collapsed in tears.  I cried out all the feelings I had been holding in for so long.  And when I was done, I was ok with it all.  And I have been ok ever since.  I am glad for the past year that I spent with my baby boy, and I can't wait for all the excitement of the year to come. 

So birthday party number two was this past Saturday at Chris's parents' house.  He did a pretty good job of ripping into his presents again this time, maybe even better now that he's had some practice.  He got some cute clothes and some neat toys.  He got a caterpillar pull toy that talks and teaches letters and counting, a mail cart push toy, some clear balls with cool moving designs inside them, and some new Chuck trucks to add to his collection.  Here he is playing with his mail cart:

His Nana and Paw Paw got him his very own cake to destroy:

He made a royal mess out of it, smearing it all over his face and hair and all over Nana's table:

Even his poop was blue the next day.  We had to stick him directly in the tub after that.  But he obviously had a great time, and so did we.

So that concludes the birthday recap.  There are other topics of business to discuss regarding one year olds, but this post is long enough so I will save those for later.  Oh and Emmett had a great First Thanksgiving as well, I forgot to mention.  Unfortunately for him, the Thanksgiving holiday will be more about his birthday since it falls so close.  He ate some turkey and some mashed potatoes and seemed to enjoy it.  Yum!