One Year - We Made It!

Caleb turned one on February 21st! I cannot believe 12 months have gone by so quickly and quite frankly am a little nervous that subsequent years will pass faster. He is an amazing ball of energy... he walks, he jibber jabbers, and he tests his (and our) limits EVERY SINGLE DAY. He shakes his head "no" about ten times for every "yes" shake... can you tell he's not so agreeable all the time? Actually, I'm not sure he even knows what the whole head-shaking thing means at this point. He definitely knows the word "no!" though. We've been limiting how much we use that word. In non-urgent situations, something like "that's not for babies... let's go play with your toys" seems to work. But when he's doing something that needs immediate attention, a quick "no!" will send him right to tears. He's a good boy for the overwhelming majority of the time and that's a good thing! The kid's got quite the temper and we, along with anyone else around, know when things aren't going HIS way. He can be quite loud while communicating his displeasure with our ways, or downright bratty - like when he slams his sippy cup on the floor because he can't yet say "no, you idiots, I don't want water. I want to play right nowwwwww!!!"

Grandma C and Grandpa R traveled all the way from Denver to spend Caleb's first birthday here and he loved it. He got to go to the park almost every day and got to show them just how "boy" he could be from dirt to constant motion. We spent his actual birthday-day at the Santa Barbara zoo and had a completely wonderful, memory-rich day. It's times like these that make me so thankful that digital photography exists... lots of pictures to remember great times!

Things he loves:

• Wagon rides (gift from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday)
• Climbing out through the doggie door in hopes we'll put him in his swing attached to the deck cover
• Bath time! still a favorite...
• Coco and Starr (our dogs)

Things he doesn't love so much:

• Restraint... in the form of his high chair, especially if he's not particularly hungry; in the form of his carseat if he's not done running around; in the form of holding him if he wants down so he can keep moving; or in the form of the gate that keeps him in his room while we're trying to change him or get him dressed for the day
• Us cleaning his face after meal time
• Us taking longer than 3 seconds to get him something to eat/drink (see the blurb about "temper" above)

We had a great party at the park to celebrate the one year mark, and make no mistake: the party was for US. He'll see pictures eventually, and he'll think it was about him (that's cool), but it was a true celebration of a successful, wonderful, eye-opening, experimental, adventurous, tiring (who am I kidding? at times EXHAUSTING) first year. I thought I'd be "over it" by now... but I am sooo NOT over it. More in love every day with him and what he's doing at each stage.

Since I'm running out of time, here are some pictures of the birthday boy from the last month or so:

Mom and Dad with Caleb at the SB Zoo

Grandma and Grandpa with Caleb at the SB Zoo

A birthday cupcake. We put together all the picks (horse, pig, or cow with a barn) in the days leading up to the party and all I can say to my husband and in-laws is: I love you so much for putting up with my complete cupcake topper neuroses. No one else on the planet would have placated me by punching out eyes the size of a pin head, nor gluing the tiniest of pieces together. And a special thank you to my mom, too, for frosting the green "grass" into the pasture on each of the 60+ cupcakes. Thank you soooooo much!!

Cupcake face! He didn't 'dig in' the way I anticipated... he went about it quite gingerly. I stopped videoing around the 12 minute mark thinking 'what kind of kid takes this long to eat a cupcake?!?!'

The birthday boy leaving the party in his cool new wagon!

Starr being very patient with the birthday boy who wanted to open presents on the dog bed (whatever) and layer her in tissue paper. Bless you good dog!

And a sampling of the professional pics we had done to mark the occasion: