Its Your Party and I'll Cry if I want

Ok, so maybe not your party just yet, but it is your birthday and a part of me could cry.

Bennett,
I have so much to say to you.  You are a promise.  You are the final answer of God's faithful plan to make me a mom. You have been prayed for and dreamed about since I was a little girl.

I am happy to say that you turning one is bringing me so much joy.  You have had a beautiful first year and a part of me is sad to see it ending so quickly.  Many moments of your first year feel like a blur- a blink of an eye.  People warn that time goes by more quickly when you have kids- magnify that by 4 and my life is spiraling... in a good way.

A little bit about you at one.
- You love music and to dance
- You love to be held
- You put everything in your mouth and wait for a reaction from someone (normally daddy). Your current favorite thing is Connect 4 pieces.
- You love your blankets but have especially started to love white blanket the most.
- You are enjoying your naps again and dont fuss when I lay you down.
   In fact, some nights, if my prayers get too long you start pointing towards your bed like, "finish up and put me down."
- Your brothers adore you and spoil you rotten.
- You eat like a champ though your size tries to tell a different story.
-  You are fascinated by Elmo
- You have begun to look at books
- You are a momma's boy... the perfect kind of momma's boy in that you dont suffer from separation anxiety, you just favor me above anyone else in the world.
- Your eyes squint when you smile really big

- You love to be outside
- You are walking like a pro and are getting quite fast
- Because of that your forehead has had some kind of bruise on it for the last month.
- You still love bath time... a lot!
- You eat almost everything with your hands- it is gross
- You love to play chase/ hide n go seek around the house. You are quite good at "finding" me when I am trying to have a moment to myself.
- You love the Power Wheels and are quite persistent with your brothers to give you a ride.... and they normally cave to your requests.
- You recognize a bunch of words (dog, shoes, juice, eat, hungry, mommy, daddy, brothers. etc)
- You babble all the time and say dada, ah ma (ma ma).
- You love to play catch and just learned how to kick a soccer ball (makes me proud)
- You like to slide but only enjoy swinging for about 5 minutes.
- You still ride perfectly in the car and will rear face for another year.

Bennett, I love it when you are waking up from a nap and you nestle up against my neck and just mumble.  I love your open mouth drooly kisses, I love giving you your bottle at night and kissing your forehead as I lay you down, I love the way you toddle to me with a big grin on your face so excited to see me.  I love watching the way you interact with your brothers... you guys love eachother so much.  You are now included in a lot of the active play and it is beyond exciting to you.

I pray for you.  I pray that God has His ever faithful, sovereign hand clasped around you.  You are His and I find peace and comfort in knowing that His plan for you is perfect.

And here is a walk down memory lane.

1 day old

 1 month

 

2 months

3 months

 4 months

5 months

 6 months

 7 months

 8 months

9 months

 10 months

11 months

 12 months- The birthday boy.

Happy 1st Birthday!
I hope you have an incredible year full of laughter, learning and love.

End of the day on his birthday--- I look exhausted.

Just remember, you will always be my baby... always.
Mommy

-------------------------------- --------------------------------  --------------------------------

Today was supposed to be super low key by just hanging out at home.  However, I noticed Bennett's eye was really red yesterday.  See picture.

Didnt quite look like pink eye so I thought I would wait to take him in.  It looked worse this morning in that it spread so we had to drive to the doctor which is an hour and twenty minutes away because I never switched since we moved and apparently you have to be 18 months for CVS minute clinic.
Anyway, the eye was not normal "pink eye" but was an eye infection due to an ear infection (the same thing used to happen to Hunter... I always knew when he had an ear infection because his eyes would look awful and red).

We turned lemons to lemonade though and mom and dad met up with us and we had lunch and shopped for a bit at the mall.

When we got home, we had delicious steak... Bennett was too impatient and had leftover spaghetti.  We then did the cake (dont laugh at my attempt at cookie monster - I ate all the cookies out of his mouth).  Then his presents--- kept it super low key.

A happy baby with a lighter and two cakes in front of him

He did the smash cake the right way... two fists.

With assistance, opening his presents. 

Just an FYI- I have every intention of doing a little party for him we just ran out of weekends in January.  Looks like beginning of March we may do a little get together to celebrate.