Celebrating One Year

first encounter with sugar

sporting a chocolate mustache from a cake icing sample, eating lunch, and holding a party blower (John Harrison's favorite party "accessory"--he kept sticking the end in his mouth, but he couldn't figure out that you blow to make the end unroll).

L-R Great Grandmama, Grandpa, John Harrison, Grandmama, and Grandad

It's both simple and difficult for me to believe that one year ago, I was holding our tiny new baby in my arms. Our then helpless little baby is now feeding himself, walking everywhere, interacting with us, weaned (as of tonight!), and sleeping for 10+ hours per night.

Today was a near-perfect day. It would have been perfect if David's mom, sister, and brother, and my sister, brother-in-law, brother, and sister-in-law could have joined us for John Harrison's party. We took plenty of pictures and recordings of John Harrison to capture the day for the family members who couldn't be here due to illness or distance.

John Harrison woke up this morning around 6:30 after sleeping through the night (first night in nearly 2 weeks that he has done so since he had been sick with a cold). He ate and we played this morning and then we went to the store to buy party decorations and a few food items. John Harrison fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for 2 1/2 hours---John Harrison NEVER takes naps that long for us! Not wanting to wake the birthday boy up from his good nap, we went ahead and ate lunch. John Harrison was upset when he woke up because he was hungry. I let him eat lunch before giving him cake. John Harrison wore an adorable blue gingham dress shirt, jeans, a sweater vest with an airplane applique, and some navy sandals. Well, he didn't wear that while he ate cake---he actually just wore his diaper when he dug into his homemade giraffe cake. John Harrison's hands and face were messy but he didn't smear icing all over himself like we expected him to do. He really enjoyed squishing the icing in his hands....as well as eating it. It was awesome when he took huge chunks of cake and went for his mouth---then threw the huge chunks down on the floor beside his chair. Thankfully, we put a sheet under his chair so that made clean-up a lot easier. After the cake-eating and extensive photographing time, John Harrison opened his gifts. He got a variety of awesome gifts---his favorite seemed to be a fun steering wheel interactive driving toy from Uncle Jon. After everyone left, David and I took John Harrison for a walk to try out the new Ergo carrier from my parents. I am impressed that I didn't have a sore back after carrying around my 23 (or so) pound baby on my back for 30 minutes!! After we came back home from taking the walk, John Harrison had some milk and then we played outside for a while. The weather was awesome here today and the day couldn't have been a prettier day for early March. John Harrison received calls today from his aunts and uncles, Great Grammy, and Grammy. He loved hearing each of their voices :). Well, to close out this day, I had best get some sleep myself.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!