As I rocked you last night, I fought hard to hold back the onslaught of tears over the fact that today is your first birthday. Happy Birthday our sweet angel boy. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday, anxiously awaiting your arrival, the doctor asking us if we wanted to have a baby today, and then seeing the precious sight of your dark head of hair!
And while that day changed the shape of our family forever, today is just as valuable to us because of the joy, laughter, and love you have brought into our family! I never thought we were missing anything, but your little personality brings so much happiness to our days, and I love the space you have filled in our family and in our hearts.
Here are a few things that we have learned, and loved about you from this past year:
1. You have always been a sweet easy going baby. While everyone said how calm your brother was, you are calm in a different way, and tend to just go with the flow. You are happiest when you are surrounded by people enjoying a snack at the table.
2. From day 1, you have loved to talk. You are such a flirt and love to be social with everyone, so it seems only natural that you enjoy trying to talk to people, and your little face lights up when people talk back to you. You say da-da, ma-ma, and seem to be trying to come up with a word for the dogs.
3. You are a partially fair-haired blue eyed version of your daddy.
4. You love your big brother, and we see your relationship with him blossoming daily. As you become more independent, I have a feeling you will spend hours playing together, and hopefully becoming life long best friends.
5. When we pour water on your head in the bathtub you try to stand up, every time. Not sure why I am including this but it is pretty funny to see.
6. You will eat almost anything I put in front of you, and love when we put food on your tray to let you feed yourself. I have definitely let you explore eating with your hands more than I did your brother, and you generally look like pigpen after dinner every night!
7. You have four teeth, are in the 90% for height and weight, and are literally days away from walking. You took four steps the other day so we know full on running will be coming soon.
8. You love going to school. When we turn the corner for daycare, you happily start blabbering, and insist on being carried facing outwards so you can flash smiles at everyone you see. Occasionally if you are really excited you will offer them the raised hand, which you haven't quite figured out how to wave just yet.
9. You have rhythm in your soul! If you hear music you will start bumping along to it. In the past week you have started to love dancing to Christmas music too.
10. You love to crawl around and wrestle with your dad on the floor. Sometimes you crawl away just so you can get a better angle to tackle him from. Best of all, you almost always include a little growl in your counter attack!
11. When I put you to bed, you let me rock you for a little while. You never fall asleep for me, but you do lay there just as content as can be snuggling on my shoulder. I adore it, and I hate when I have to lay you down in your crib. At night you sleep with your gators, who we often hear you wrestling with in the early mornings before you are ready to get up!
12. When you smile, it shines all the way up to your crinkly blue eyes. You are such a happy little boy and we are blessed to call you ours!
Binny, Binnegans, Finny, Bitty, cat, Finn, Finnegan, we sure do love you, and we hope this is the first of many happy birthdays to come!
