One Year Old

Will is one! Our little birthday boy enjoyed celebrated his first journey around the sun with what else? Lots of cake and ice cream.

On his real birthday, May 16th, we took him to the zoo at point defiance, and while he was a little under whelmed by the animals (he’s one, a huge elephant just standing off in the distance is about as exciting as a huge rock off in the distance), he quite enjoyed an ice cream bar on the way out. After falling asleep in the car on the way home, he was pleasantly surprised with some gifts; some balls and a Big Bird toy, and he particularly liked the balls. Then he ate mass quantities of cake, followed by getting tossed fully clothed into the bathtub.

And since we like birthdays so much, we celebrated again this weekend with all of our family. Will got more presents, of course, and ate lots of cake again (of course). The highlight for everyone was Will diving into the cake while it was still on the table and shoveling it into his mouth. Hey, he knows what to do with cake.

It was a lot of fun to see our little Will so grown up, toddling around and enjoying his birthday, he’s really such a big, big kid now, it’s hard to imagine all the changes he has gone through this year.

But with everything he’s learned, I’m finally starting to remember what I love about toddlers (and that’s lucky since I hopefully won’t mind too much that he’s not a delicious little baby anymore). Don’t get me wrong, and if you’ve read this journal you know how much I have loved Will as a baby. Falling asleep in my arms, the sweet first smiles, crawling, little chubby cheeks, you get the idea… But now that he’s one, I feel like we’ve returned to some form of our former lives. Lives where we can order Will food in a restaurant, or even actually enjoy an evening without juggling a baby at the computer. (knock on wood, but the last few nights Will has actually been falling asleep at a regular time and staying asleep alone, well alone in our bed until we get there, but still)

Which leads me to Will’s other recent milestone: He ordered off a menu for himself! Well, you know, someone else did the ordering, but Will ate a kid’s entrée himself. No sharing off mom and dad’s plate, thank you very much, he’ll have the chicken strips and a side of fries. And he ate the whole thing. You might ask, do we feed the kid anything other than fried food and sugar? Well, yes we do usually, but hey, you only turn one once, right?

Also after a year, Will’s more or less weaned. It’s been sort of hard, even though it was very gradual, the last few months he’s only been nursing at night, he’s gone through some withdrawal, but overall it’s been good. It was an enjoyable experience for both of us, and I’m sad that era is over, but again, I am able to return to being a normal person with a little personal space. Well, not that I really get much personal space, he’s still quite fond of me, but it’s a little reprieve.

Not that I’m complaining, I’ll still take all the Will snuggles and Baby Kisses I can get.