My Baby Turned One!

We went to Michigan the day after Christmas to spend a week visiting with Ben's side of the family. While there we had a little party for Grant's first birthday. Aunt Karie generously offered to make cupcakes, and the whole family surprised us with a lovely dinner and decorated tables too! I brought a birthday banner from home and we ended up having a sweet little celebration.

The birthday boy, chasing a basketball on the church gym floor

Aunt Karie's yummy cupcakes

mmmm, delicious!

Opening presents. Big sister Paige is a great helper.

I wish I had gotten some more/better pictures. Oh well. 

Grant has been such a fantastic baby. He's made the first year of having 3 kids as easy as possible: he consistently naps, sleeps well at night, can play on his own pretty well, and has been generally content to sit and observe what's going on around him. He's a happy guy who loves pretty much everyone!

Quite a few people have asked me if it's any different having a boy after having 2 girls and I've always said, "not really", but in the last couple of months I've started to notice some differences as he gets more mobile and more "boyish" than "babyish". This is when having 3 kids gets hard I think, at least for me.  It's really hard for me to believe that a whole year has gone by since he was born. I feel like I tried to enjoy every moment of him being a baby and I never wished for time to go quickly but it flew by anyway. Where did this wild little boy who loves to unravel toilet paper, get under the computer desk and pull at all the wires, make a made dash for the laundry room and bathrooms when the doors get left open, push whatever he can around the room as a walker, rip apart magazines with his teeth, smack my cheeks to hear the sound it makes, laugh hysterically at his sisters' antics, and screech loudly while playing "chase" come from? I'd swear he was just born yesterday. I think this second year of his life is going to be an interesting one.

Grant, I'm so lucky to be your momma!