Charlie's First Birthday

So, I’m a couple weeks behind on posting this, but it’s only ‘cause we didn’t have the internet at our new house until yesterday. (Yes, we bought a home! I’ll blog about that later.)

I had been looking forward to Charlie’s birthday for MONTHS! I was so excited, and the experience lived up to all my expectations. We kept things pretty simple and just had family and friends over for some cake and ice cream. I am actually really proud of the cake I made. It’s a banana cake with chocolate frosting. I chose to do it as a monkey because Charlie’s been our little monkey from the beginning. When he was just a month or so old, if his blanket got pushed down, he would grab it with his toes, pull it up to his hands, and cover himself. It was cute. So a monkey cake for our little monkey.

Charlie got lots of excellent toys and books. And he did a good job opening his presents without eating too much paper. I’m also proud of the fact that Charlie blew out his candle by himself even though I can’t take the credit—my mom coached him on that one.

Now for an overview of Charlie. As is pretty typical of one-year-olds, Charlie is interested in EVERYTHING. Every day is an exploration which unfortunately tends to turn into a lot of no’s. Often when we tell Charlie no, he’ll turn around, shake his finger, and say, “no” as if to instruct some unseen entity. If his uncle Shawn is around, he’s the one that gets instructed. Charlie also has a pretty good vocabulary—there are a lot of words he can say. Whether or not he will is the issue. More and more I see a strong personality trait manifesting itself in Charlie: if he doesn’t want to do something, he will not do it. No amount of coaxing or bribing works. (He’s so much like his father.) The words he says most often are no, oh no, shoes, book, juice, mom, dad, and Shawn. The animal sounds he makes most often are woof and roar. What I think is especially cute about his roar is that it’s quiet—not a lion making his presence known, a lion chuckling mischievously to himself in the tall grass before he attacks. Charlie loves to eat, and he’ll eat just about everything, which explains why he’s over 25 pounds. It was funny to watch him eat his birthday cake, because he wasn’t playing in it and occasionally eating or just mashing it against his face. He strategically maneuvered large pieces of cake into his mouth maximizing the cake devoured; he actually left very little mess.

In general Charlie is a very happy kid. He loves to be around and play with other kids but will also play by himself happily for 30-45 minutes at a time. He’s a mover and doesn’t stay in one spot long. He only cuddles when he is very tired or very sad.

Charlie is a huge blessing in our lives, and I am excited to see what his next year brings!