Happy First Birthday Will!!!

Wow, what a day. Today was, I can hardly believe it, Will's First Birthday! We went to the park with our close friends and then came back to the house for a little cake. The big celebration will be next weekend. Sadly, I am a totally mean mom and scheduled his doctor's appointment today as well. Four shots, in his little arms!!! So sad. . .we both cried and all I could think was I wish I could do this for him.

The good news, Will is perfect! His current stats are:
30.25 Inches Tall (65th percentile)
22 Pounds 12 ounces (50th percentile)
50 Centimeter Head Circumference (79.5 percentile)

Will is not just walking, he's running! He runs laps around other little one-year-olds like it's no big thing and he has super-human strength he uses to get into mischief. He climbs at every opportunity. Yesterday, Will and I took dinner to a family in our ward and they had a huge staircase that Will raced up (I have no idea how he learned to do this as we do not have even one stair). He is utterly fearless and is the happiest, smiliest, most loving little man on the planet.

He bites me (and ONLY me) if I'm not paying enough attention to him (the doctor gave me tips on what to do to curb this behavior so hopefully this won't be an issue for too much longer. He claps, hugs, kisses, sings, dances, and takes instructions (when he wants to).

I have no doubts he always knows what I'm saying, it's really a matter of if he wants to do what I'm asking (or telling) him to do. He is incredibly loving to us and amazingly kind to other kids. He now doesn't just remove the rings from the post but puts them back! He can also put the circle in the shape sorter every time now (he still needs help with some of the more complex shapes).

We go to the park or somewhere similar so he can really run around every day because without that he can't sleep (he has THAT much energy). He knows he needs his shoes to leave the house. The other day, when I was making that dinner to take to someone, we had been in the house all day and he REALLY wanted to get to the park so he grabbed his shoes and came to me then went to the door and started pounding. He does not like being cooped up.

He still lets me cuddle him, but only right after his nap (it takes his about 15 minutes to really wake up). After that, no cuddles. . .just running, exploring, and mischief.

I "gave" him two drawers and one cabinet in the kitchen that he is allowed to pull everything out of and explore (yes, I do have to put everything back 10 times a day, but it's worth it!). He still LOVES bath time. But most of all, he LOVES LOVES LOVES playing with Dad. They run around together and tease each other. It is ridiculously sweet. Will has now started repeating behaviors or things we've done to him. He like to feed us now and really enjoys making faces at us that are very similar to the ones we make at him. He is basically the best little boy that ever lived and I'm beyond lucky to be able to call him my son.

For his birthday today we got him a cupcake from Costco and it didn't go so well. He wasn't really that interested in it so we thought we'd help him out by giving him a little taste of the frosting, check out the video to see the outcome (TURN YOUR SOUND UP, Jason's commentary is priceless).



After that rather epic failure we removed all traces of frosting and gave him back the cupcake. Apparently, Will has a long memory, so he did not eat the offending cupcake but destroyed it and after it was removed from his sight he proceeded to make sure all of the crumbs met the same fate (a date with the floor). Below is the video. His little face when we put the cupcake back in front of his is so funny.


Amazingly, after the vomit, Will did something tonight that he's never done before, dropped a little load in the tub. Super fun. I grabbed a disposable mat for him to hang out on while I cleaned and sanitized the tub so he could finish up his bath and while waiting with Dad, without a diaper, he peed. Fortunately, he hit the disposable mat so it wasn't the additional disaster it could have been but I think it pretty much goes without saying that today was full of surprises and funny moments.

We are grateful every day he came into our lives and we love him more with every moment. There is nothing better than being his Mom and Dad. I'm only sad the time seems to be moving so quickly. Before I know it I will be sending him off to school and I hate to think of the day when I won't see his sweet little face all day. Maybe I'll have to consider home-school;).

Happy Birthday Will! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!