Celebrate!

Each week for the past year I have been getting a weekly message in my Inbox.  It's a message from Babycenter with an update on my baby's progress.  The subject line reads something like, "Your Baby, Month 4 Week 3" and within the message is information about milestones he may be accomplishing, challenges we may be having and fun activities to help my little one learn.  But this week the subject line read, "Your Toddler This Week, Your 1 Year Old".  Cue the tears, the aching heart and the immediate need to look through his baby book. There are differing opinions on when a baby officially makes the transition to a toddler.  Some say as soon as he starts walking and others say that the one year mark is the gateway to toddler-dom.  Either way you look at it O is officially a toddler.

To celebrate the occasion we had a birthday party for him this weekend.  The aunties came, Grandpa and Grandma Rekers came, Great Aunt Fonda and second cousin Amanda made the trip from Iowa too.  Along with a few of his little friends and their mommies and daddies we had a lovely little party on an otherwise gloomy, cloudy Saturday.  We brightened things up with balloons...lots of balloons. And also with lemonade, a cake and of course presents.

After weeks of planning a menu and crafting and cleaning it was so good to relax and watch the people I love love on my baby toddler. I hope that when he looks back on these pictures and moments he truly knows what a loved human he is.

I realized a day or two after the party that I got absolutely no pictures of Oliver with Corey and I and also didn't get any pictures with Grandpa and Grandma Rekers. Worst. Mom. Ever. This is the closest thing we got to pictures with mom and dad.

I guess my only defense is that photographing a whirling twirling toddler all hopped up on cake is crazy hard.  Speaking of cake. Did he ever love his cake. It went exactly as it should go. The first taste, a bit tentative then when the sugar hit his blood and the receptors in his brain received the message that went something like this, "sugar? What is this delicious treat, it tastes so swe---GAHHHH sugar!!!!!" And then he dove right in. Face first, hands back, the way you should be obligated to eat cake.

He quite obviously is in heaven.

It was an awesome weekend.  When all the wrapping paper was picked up, the food put away, the dishes done and the last car had left the driveway I found myself a little sad.  Sad for the baby that is now a toddler and sad that our family lives so far from us that we can't do this every weekend.  I remember growing up each Sunday we would go to my Grandpa and Grandma's house and have dinner after church.  All the cousins would play together, the aunts would do the dishes and then we would all sit around in the afternoon.  No TV, no video games just family being family. The birthday week is being extended into this next weekend.  Grandpa and Grandma Lisk and Uncle Carson are coming and we're looking forward to more celebration and more hugs and kisses. I wish that we all lived close enough to get together every Sunday.  Unfortunately that's not the case right now.  We live in different states and different time zones and these large gatherings can only happen a few times a year.  I guess the silver lining is that when these gatherings do happen you hug a bit tighter and laugh a bit harder because you know these moments are few and far between.