365 Days

It's official: our son is 1! We celebrated RL's first birthday for the first time a week early while our families were here on LL's birthday. Since Nana's birthday is the 17th and RL's the 23rd, after LL's Narnia party we broke out another cake and partied all over again!

Nana and RL, the guests of honor


His first real cake...a yummy carrot cake Gran made


He gobbled it all up, probably in record time!


The almost-birthday boy with his admiring sisters


Gran, PopPop, and Uncle David with the kids on the 16th


Last Saturday, the 23rd, was RL'a actual birthday. We went to Boo at the Zoo that morning...a fun outing to mark his big day! He rode along and watched all the action of the dressed up kids around him (and maybe noticed a few of the animals, too!) with great interest.




That afternoon, he got a fun new toy and had a great time figuring it out with a little help from AG.



He got so excited with the hammer that he banged himself in the head a few times and didn't even mind.


Birthday dessert: pumpkin cheesecake. Not the least messy option, but he enjoyed it!






Our time with him so far has flown! He is so full of energy and ready to take on the world now, it seems. "Ligh" is still his only consistent word and "more" his standard mealtime sign, but his range of sounds is very impressive! He's starting to cruise and balance for a few seconds, but he seems in no hurry to walk as he can cover some territory quickly as a crawler. Favorite foods: bananas, peas, cheese toast, oatmeal, and anything with a touch of marinara. He loves the attention of his sisters (thankfully!) and still requires one of the two raggedy-eared "Ralphs" at nap and bedtimes. And, be still my heart, it appears he is a hugger! Getting a little squeeze with his little arms around my neck is precious enough to make me glad I got woken up at 5:00 a.m.! While he's happy to see me in the mornings, he's definitely glad to see T when he gets home from work. He immediately wants to go to T...understandably...he's been surrounded by girls most of the day! And, after 51 weeks of ups and downs with his sleeping, I am thrilled (and yet a little wary) to say that we're now on night 11 of his sleeping through from about 7:30 to about 5:30...major progress and relief! And another notable skill he's developed in the last week: drinking from a sippy cup. Previously, he was only interested in them as a throw toy, or maybe to occasionally chew on. Now he is really drinking, and today he even had some milk from a cup. We are all so thankful for his little guy and look forward to seeing how he grows and what he learns in the coming year.