Sunday, August 10, 2008

O N E !


so i'm not sure why i haven't been blogging much this week...i haven't had an editing project. maybe i just felt like there wasn't really anything exciting to report. and i certainly wasn't going all out planning this little guy's celebration! poor thing--i almost considered doing absolutely NOTHING for the holiday, telling myself "well he's only a baby, he won't remember anyway."

i'm not sure why i wasn't in a festive mood. at any rate, it kicked in on saturday (thank goodness, because that was his birthday!), so i made cupcakes and we grilled (ok, rick grilled) and ate fresh veggies with the meat. after i sat down i realized this was NOT a 1-year-old meal, but then again, for gillian's 1st birthday we had adult friends over (no kids because none of our friends had kids) and rick made the spiciest chili! so i guess we have a history of not catering to our kids' palates when it comes to birthday parties. (you can read here about my traumatic experience with gillian's most recent birthday party fare!)

ok, so back to rhys's big day. the cupcakes were really a chocolate raspberry muffin mix from supertarget, and boy were they delicious! you would never guess how yummy they were from the looks of them: it looked like i had turned a preschool class loose on them armed with a can of white icing. yes, i am ashamed to admit that i did all the white icing drawings myself. i have never claimed to be able to draw worth a darn--stick figures are a challenge for me.

it really was priceless to see the look on his face when we all started singing "happy birthday." he had been crying, increasingly louder, because it was really naptime but we were forcing him to stay up and eat cake...so here's what his face looked like after i blew the candle out for him:

(note: the wine was not his, people. but it certainly helped me during the party prep!) :)

rhys had a great time eating and then opening his presents.

(notice the change of clothes--there was chocolate icing e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e...)

And his older brother and sister started hijacking all his new toys right away and trying to force their way into every photo op--doing a great job of ushering him into the world of sibling rivalry.


lucky for us he has no idea what they are doing (at least for now!) so he doesn't complain at all when they come and take things.

after the sugar crash, while the baby was napping and recovering from all the hullabaloo, gillian and aedan played outside on their new slip 'n slide (we love target endcap summer clearance markdowns!).


i have found myself feeling much more sentimental about this 1-year milestone than i was when the older two hit the mark. maybe it was because when gillian turned 1, i was 6 months pregnant and miserable and because the day aedan turned 1 we were on the road moving from boston to florida. so he didn't have a party at all--we celebrated with my parents at a cracker barrel!

i think i missed so much of gillian and aedan's baby years because they are so close in age (16 months almost to the day), and taking care of two babies, especially when they are always at slightly different stages, was really difficult for me. in fact, i think it's still hard. i wonder if i would struggle so much if they were spaced just a little farther apart?

but rhys has no competition for my affection, so i end up dwelling on all these milestones and feeling a twinge of sadness that he's already growing up. i'm going to try to savor these moments, because i know they are going to keep flying by!

3 comments:

Amy said...

such great photos! rhys already looks different from when we were there!

Amelia Plum said...

happy birthday rhys! i love the photo of rhys with adean and gillian where he has cupcake all over his face.

Kellie said...

From the looks on your kids' faces, I would say that you did a fantastic job of party planning!