One year, one week and one day ago, Smidgel turned one. It has been a busy two weeks but it has been a lot of fun. The birthday celebration started out the weekend before his birthday with our families. Saturday we had grandparents, aunts and uncles and Dr. P and her neice (Erika I am just going to steal your pseudonyms…if you don’t mind) join us to celebrate. After grilling out, eating and catching up with everyone we gave Smidgel his birthday cake. My sister had made him a train/race car cake (it was initially supposed to be a train cake but after decorating they looked more like race cars, either way they were a huge hit) and we gave him the top of the engine as his own personal cake.
He of course was weary of the flame and Boo-Boo ended up accidentially blowing it out. We had been practicing all week but when it came time to blow he was too distracted by all the people piled in our kitchen to even try. It took him a few minutes to get into the cake but once he got a taste of it, he was quick to dig in and make himself a mess.
After he started throwing the remaining cake on the floor, which is still his way of telling us that he is done eating, I ran him upstairs for a quick bath. Unfortunately I opted to keep his shorts on so they were a mess too. Luckily we didn’t drop too much chocolate cake on the carpet and the stuff that we did was quickly picked up by one of his aunts. After his bath, we went outside so that he could open his presents. Of course he wasn’t all that interested in opening so I did most of it for him. He got books, a ton of clothes, some money for savings and a few toys.
On his actual birthday we took him to the pool for an hour. On our way home we picked him up a shake from McDonald’s. Once we got home he took his afternoon nap. After dinner we stuck a candle in his shake and sang him happy birthday. This time around he tried to blow out the candle and was able to get the flame to waver a little. We had gotten him a real rocking horse that I found at an antique mall earlier in the week so there were no presents to open that day.
Last weekend we had friends over to celebrate his birthday. It was a small gathering but it was a lot of fun to celebrate his first year with all of our close friends. Erika and her two boys came out and Sherman helped Smidgel open presents.
He got more clothes, lots of books and a train from Sherman and Juice. I cannot believe that it has been (over) a year. Looking at Juice made it reality that Smidgel used to be that small and now look at him. He is a ball of energy that is constantly learning new things. He is still workign on consistently walking and the more you want him to do it, the less he does. He is really starting to take steps and not worry about having to hang onto things. This month also came with lots of chatter. Half the time it really does sound like he is saying something, like just recently he has starting saying uh oh when he drops something. He has a few “words” (sounds that we know have meaning) that he uses consistently. He is very head strong and I know that I am going to have a fight on my hands the older he gets. When he wants something he tries desperatly to either hold onto whatever we are trying to pry out of his hands or get onto or into what he wants. When it is taken away or he can’t get what he wants he screams and cries and if you don’t do it for him it just continues. We are trying to be good about not giving him everything he wants so that it doesn’t show him that that behavior is acceptable. This month has also brought us the following: our eighth tooth, finally; a small monkey in human form that climbs on and up on anything he can; a copy cat who will try to mimic anything you say, laughs when you laugh, sneezes or coughs when you do and has even attempted to snap because he saw me doing it; and a small tornado that will destroy a room or remove everything from a drawer in an instant. Smidgel also got a new carseat this month and is now sitting facing forward, which he loves. He seems much more content now that he can look out the windows and can see and talk to us during our many outings. It was a great first year, that I still can’t believe has come and gone, and I can’t wait to see what the next year has to offer us. I love you little man!!!
Towering Expectations 
