My Sunshine is ONE!

As Chase, and everyone else in our house calls him - "Blakers" is now one! He is such a little ball of energy.  He is always on the go, and tries so hard to keep up with his older brothers.  I didn't realize how active he was until I had a play date with my old high school friend. She has a baby boy 2 months younger than Blake, and Blake was crawling laps around her sweet, mellow little guy.  I guess having two older brothers really does make a big difference.  He is not walking on his own, but he loves to push things to help him walk.  He is a speed crawler.  We have a gate on our stairs, and if anyone leaves it open he crawls as fast as those little legs can carry him as he darts up the stairs, squealing all the way.  He is very stubborn, and recently he wants to feed himself.  He doesn't want Mommy to help, but lets face it - a one year old's utensil skills are not the greatest, and he gets frustrated when he can't pick up the tiny particle of food with his fork.  He also has an extremely high pitched scream that he often uses as a way to get what he wants.  He LOVES the bath, and he loves playing with his brothers (as long as they don't take his toys away).  He loves pushing cars and vehicles all over the floor.  He is a handful, and is always getting into things.  He loves to pull out all the plastic containers and pot holders from the kitchen drawers.  I have to keep the bathroom door closed or he will play in the toilet and unroll all the toilet paper.  He likes to empty the office desk of all its paperwork.  If the pantry door is open, he will pull all the food out and dump it on the ground - pasta, Bisquick, you name it...  He will eat the nasty piece of dried, old food on the ground but often spits out the nice food I make for him.  He is always happy and smiling though, and brings me so much joy.  He is so silly (he gets that from Wesley), and likes to shake his head while making funny noises.  He LOVES to dance, and likes to shake his cute little tushy to any music he hears. He still is a pretty awful sleeper, but he is slowly getting a little better.    I've pretty much weaned him from nursing, but he still wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to nurse.  I usually get up, and swaddle him (yes, I have to swaddle my one year old), and he will sleep another two hours.  He then wakes at like 4 or 5, and I bring him into bed, and nurse him (the only time of the day I nurse him anymore, the rest of the time he just drinks formula, or water from a bottle or sippy).  He will sleep with me on and off until we get up around 7 or if I'm lucky 8.  He then is on the go until nap time (around 11), and then takes another nap around 4.  As rambunctious as he can be, he also enjoys cuddling up to Mommy. Well, I guess he likes to be held more than cuddled.  He loves to be held so he can see what is going on, and what his brother's are doing.  He hates being left alone.  Wesley just adores him, and is such a good brother to him.  I love having three sweet little boys close in age, even though it is exhausting.  :-) My heart melts every time Blake flashes me his sweet smile.  He has the sweetest little personality, and I am so extremely grateful he is all mine.  :-) I love watching my boys grow and develop personalities as they figure out their new world.  It is a very overwhelming task knowing I am responsible to help my boys become good, honest, joyful people who's lives are full of service and happiness.  It is also so rewarding to see them grow and find joy in life.  Even though Blake is only one, I love watching him explore and learn.  He has this huge, sweet, happy personality.  Its amazing how much he has learned and grown in just a year.  I love every time he smiles and laughs.  Isn't that what life is about - finding joy in the journey?  :-)  Happy Birthday sweet Blake! I'm so glad you were born! 


Jason's family came up to see us a few weeks ago and we had some cupcakes to celebrate his birthday with that side of the family.  Blake finished his cupcake faster than any of the other kids!  We then had his real party this last weekend.  I don't know tons of people up here yet, but I do have some family up here, so I wanted to throw a nice little party for him.  It is always fun to get together, and first birthdays are always so sweet and special.  My parents came up, and I am so grateful they did.  We  had an amazing time together, and it was such a fun, fun weekend.  I did a "You are My Sunshine" theme, because Blake is my sunshine of happiness.  Even my family always comments on how he is a ray of sunshine and makes everyone happy with his sweet spirit.  I started singing that song to him from the time he was born, so it was the perfect theme! :-)

On his actual birthday, we didn't do much, but I did let the boys pick out some gifts from my gift closet.  If I see toys, or baby items on clearance or on sale for a good deal, I buy them and add them to my gift closet for when I need a last minute gift.  I had some toys that I already bought for Blake so I let each boy pick one out for his birthday.  I was saving his main gifts for his party.  Chase gave him a train, and Wesley picked out a book.  

Party time! Chase was SOOO excited for Blake's party.  He was excited for all his gifts (he knew he was going to get to play with them all!).  Chase also really wanted to help Blake open them.  As all our family gathered in the living room to watch Blake open his gifts, Wesley and Chase start fighting over who gets to help him open what gift. Like, crazy yelling while doing tug of war over his presents.  It was a pretty emberissing, and I had to whisk Wesley away and pause the gift opening to have a talk with him.  He calmed down, but the boys were still really eager to get these things opened for Blake.  I feel like the gifts were being opened so fast, and Blake didn't have time to even try to open his gifts himself, but his big brothers had fun and felt like they were being big helpers.   

Wesley and Chase have been having way more fun with this than Blake  :-)

Blake's favorite gift, but he has more fun pushing it than riding it (unless someone is pushing him in it)

My sunshine

What a little man

All his gifts :-)

My attempt at making him a huge cupcake

He demolished that thing.  I think he had more fun playing in it than eating it.  There were pieces of cake all in the blinds behind him, covering the floor, and there were enough crumbs in his highchair to feed our entire party :-)