A garden full of flowers: Look Whoo's One!

Chase is now One!! Most people say they can't believe how fast time flies by in the first year, but I honestly think it went a little slow. I feel like he has always been older than he is because he has always been a big guy. It has been a fun year none-the-less. It has been a year of growing and learning, patience and love, and a lot of cuddles and giggles. I feel like he transitioned into our family soo easily. Everything came so natural and "easy" with him. I mean, yes, he can be very fussy and is a challenging sleeper, but overall I feel like I was made to be his mom and everything went so smoothly from the time he came home from the hospital. Hopefully all our future babies will transition into our family as easily. I am grateful for the wonderful birth experience I was blessed with as well. He is a good little guy, and he makes me smile everyday. He still only has two little bottom teeth, and his gummy grin makes me so happy. His fluffy hair is still a crazy mess, and I am still not sure how to tame it, but it is what makes him Chase! He also gets into everything. For example.... he has dumped Wesley's toilet full of urine all over his head, and has splashed in the toilet on a few occasions. He is good at quietly crawling into places he shouldn't be, and I have to keep a good eye on that little guy! He is one big strong muscle, and has perfected the 'wiggle worm' to try to escape from my arms when he doesn't want to be taken out of a situation. He loves playing outside, and he loves seeing new things. He does really well at the store, and he enjoys going for walks as long as they are not too long. He hates laying down to get changed, and throws a big tantrum every time I have to change his diaper, or his clothes. He loves me more than I ever thought possible. He loves to crawl right up to me, reach his chubby baby hands out for me, and when I pick him up, he lays his little head on my chest and seems to just breath me in. Each night when I put him to bed, I go in my dark room and hold him close while I give him his bottle. His head is always in my left arm, and he is always facing toward my body. He takes his left hand and grabs my shirt and rolls it in his fingers while he gazes lovingly at me. When he finishes, I give him his pacifier, and he burrows his head deep into my arm, and squeezes my shirt as he drifts off to sleep. This is how he has been going to bed since he was tiny, except I nursed him until about 9.5 months. It has been our special time together each night, and it will forever be a treasured memory to me. I am glad I didn't listen to the people who told me to put him to bed while awake, and to not cuddle him before bed because it will spoil him. Yes, it might be a big reason why he is just now sleeping through the night (more on that later), but I wouldn't change a thing. I love my sweet little guy, and I am excited to watch him grow into a darling little boy over the next few years. It is fun to imagine what his little personality will develop into. I am thankful each day that this sweet little boy is mine forever!

We had a cute Owl themed party for him. I spent way too much time planning for it, researching decorating ideas on line, and overall I think we spent a little too much money on it. I wanted it to be perfect for my sweet Chase. I spent hours getting the house ready, and trying to make everything look nice. I always get nervous when we have people over, and I feel like I need to make sure everything looks good, tastes good, and so on. Honestly, first birthday parties are really more for the adults and older kids anyways, so I tried to make it fun for the six kids that were going to be there with a few little games and a pull pinata. Since his Birthday is on Cinco De Mayo, we had tacos and nachos for dinner. We wont do that every year, but it was fun to do it the first year. I always have such high expectations of how much fun my kids will have on their Birthday, but I think they usually just get overwhelmed with all the excitement. Even though we usually just invite my family and Jason's family...it is still a good size group of people to entertain, and can be intimidating to a little guy. This year we had one of my good friends Sandra and her family over too. Chase did pretty well, and even though he wasn't really too excited to open gifts, all the bigger kids sure had fun helping him! The best part of the night was the cake. I thought he would have inhaled his cake, but he was a little more cautious than I would have thought. He didn't want to touch it, so he just stuck his lips in it, and tried to eat it without hands. It looked like he was kissing the cake. I gave him a spoon and he finally dug in. Overall, it was a nice party honoring my sweet little boy! :-)