Birthday Celebrations

Zane,

For your first birthday you had two celebrations! You are one lucky kid. On your birthday we woke you up in the morning to say happy birthday. You were not happy about this and whined. That's my boy...sleep in!!!

You played at Grandma's all day with the balloons she taped all over the house for you. Your other grandparents came down that evening for a dinner with you and some gifts. You had your first sugar cookie and had no clue what to with it. The icing was a little too slimy for you maybe. You have this thing with texture! You ate about half of it but then were done.

You got a huge set of blocks and some other fun toys too. You were most interested, or scared of, a music card Grandma got you. We think you might have been scared of Shrek on the card because he is a bit funny looking. You kept close to me as you opened and closed the card to hear the song again. It provided great entertainment for all of us! You loved every minute of the balloons we had you play with. Whether it was in Grandma's studio, your crib or your pack n' play, you ate up the fact that you could crawl around with balloons. You didn't want to get out of the balloon filled crib and complained a bit about us removing you! I think we'll make a tradition of having tons of balloons around for your birthdays.

That weekend we had both families to our home for a dinner of some of your favorite foods. The menu included pulled chicken, asparagus and mashed potatoes. We put you at the head of the table where all these people who love you so much could see you! You knew the attention was on you and seemed to be eating every bit of it up! It was so nice to sit at the table and see your family surrounding you. They have been so supportive in your first year and it's amazing to see how their love for you is so strong. It was a the perfect, intimate way to celebrate your birthday.

In our excitement to give you a cupcake covered in icing we forgot to light a candle and sing to you. I was in tears later about this and we did a brief singing of the birthday song later. Sorry about that one...I guess we'll for sure not forget that again!

The cupcake...let's talk about how daintily you touched the icing at first. You'd place the tip of your finger into the icing and put what little bit you had into your mouth and then repeat. Great Grandpa must have realized how long we'd be sitting here watching this because he showed you how to get into the cake part of the cupcake. Once you realized this there was tons of slamming and smashing which resulted in your hands covered in icing and cake. You are not a fan of stuff being on your hands and instead of eating the sweet goodness on your tray you fixated on the mess on your hands. You opened and closed your hands over and over trying to get the mess off. Only you!!! I think you'll start to realize soon to not care about the mess and just eat the sweet treat!

We all laughed and you looked at us like we were crazy. You probably would've screamed "someone get this mess off of me!" if you could. After some wiping of the hands you enjoyed more of the cupcake.

After more presents and some loving from your family we placed you into bed. It was so hard to believe that your first birthday came and went that quickly. We hope that we can make all of your birthdays as a memorable celebration of all you've accomplished in the past year and of how much you are touching those you surround.

Here's to you Zane and a very happy first birthday you had!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

Check out birthday photos here and the birthday party photos here.