Birthday Week- Day Four

Today was unfortunately a rainy one and Brett could only dream of being outside.  This ended up working out for the best as Brett had his 1 year shots today and wasn't his usual self. 

While staring through the window, Brett met his alter-ego.  We will call him Wyatt (Cody was dead set on naming Brett Wyatt, but I vetoed the name). 

Our visit with Dr. Winburn when great today.  Brett received gold stars all around.  At 1 year, Brett is 28.3 inches long and weighs 20 lbs 8 oz.  He sure has come a long way in the last year!  We were given the go ahead to introduce some more allergens to Brett's diet.  I started him on milk a few weeks ago (don't tell Dr. Winburn), so we decided to start with peanut butter!

Brett seemed a little unsure at first. 

 But a few crackers and big glass of water later, Brett decided he was a peanut butter fan.  I probably would have questioned that he was mine had he not. 

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Today is your 1st birthday and my, oh my, has it been a year!  I'm not sure I realized how much our lives would change at 5:36 am that morning.  You've brought more tears and laughter, more stress and joy, and more love and happiness than I could have ever imagined. 

Don't get me wrong, I've been very blessed and have experienced more love and happiness than one person should be allowed in a lifetime.  But the love you brought was different.  It's a love that makes me run to your bedroom as soon as you wake each day, just to tell you good morning.  A love that doesn't mind rocking or holding you over the sink when you are sick (I've done this for your daddy as well, but I don't think he found the cursing under my breathe as comforting as you find my kisses).  It's also a love that has taught me about kindness, humility and not to sweat the small stuff.  

BB, you amaze me everyday and I can't wait to see what is in store for us this next year.

Now, onto the good stuff!

I knew the whole point of getting a baby cake was so Brett could destroy it.  This was harder than one would think, because his cake was so cute!       

I'm not sure if Brett was intrigued by the cake or the flame. 

I'm pretty sure it was the candle as he was concerned when it disappeared.

We are still working on self-feeding, so I wasn't sure if Brett would dig into his cake on his own.  My worries were silly.

He ate so much cake so fast, he actually had to stop for a breather midway. 

After a short break, Brett attacked the cake with full force.  He gave it his best, but his belly could take no more. 

We thought he was out for the count, until...

we brought out the ice cream!

Happy birthday my baby big-boy Brett!

Birthday Week- Day Three

Day three was a busy one.  We headed to Topeka to get Brett's 1 year pictures done.  We've already seen the proofs and are impressed, once again, with Jolee's work.

After some lunch and a nap, we headed outside for some bubble fun.  Brett refuses to clap his hands, so the hope is Brett will try to pop the bubbles as they float by.  It's always great when play time and therapy time can be combined into one.   

We've tried bubbles with Brett before, but he has never been very interested.  Today, however, was a very different story.  He was hooked with the first bubble. 

Brett was convinced he could blow them by himself, so he took matters into his own hands. 

It didn't take long for him to realize he would need some bubble blowing lessons to be able to master this skill. 

Me, being a master blower (I know, this is supposed to be family friendly, but I couldn't resist) showed Brett the ropes.  He was a good student and took detailed notes.  

Even though Brett was unable to produce a bubble, he was still happy with his afternoon. 

Bubbles were on sale at Wal-Mart, so we will be able to get a lot of practice in this summer.  Who knows, Brett may be the neighborhood champ next summer. 

Birthday Week- Day Two

Since the week started off with a birthday bash, we knew it would be hard to continue the excitement through Thursday (Brett's actual birthday).  Therefore, we thought we would try something Brett hadn't done before...

Fishing!!!

Before we could get down to business, Brett had to check the windspeed and direction.

He was pretty excited when we caught our first fish.  It wasn't a keeper, but Brett didn't seem to care.  He was ready to take it home. 

Brett had so much fun he passed out 30 minutes after we arrived.  While, we weren't able to out do the party, it looks like we got close. 

It's My Birthday...Week!

It's Brett's birthday week!  We started off the week with a small party with the grandparents.  Brett has begun to get overwhelmed when surrounded by people (think pouty lip, screaming and a blank stare), so we decided to stick with something small.

Aunt Dana and I put together a picture frame to showcase Brett's first year.  FYI- since Brett was born on May 5th, we went with a Cinco de Mayo themed bash. 

  After church, Brett admired his deflated balloons.

Then it was time for gifts!

What's in that bag!?

Shorts!  My favorite!

Even though I was very thankful for the new clothes, Brett lost interest pretty fast.  In all fairness, the tissue paper was very colorful and made some neat sounds when he grabbed it. 

It didn't take long for Brett to perk back up when he saw some cash.  The money always goes straight to a savings account, but Brett still thinks cash is a great gift.  Who knows, since we got that $5 birthday gift card from Babies R Us in the mail last week, we may have to head to Babies R Us to let Brett pick out something.  We will have to remember to send them a thank you card too!

Now that I think about it, I don't think it's the cash Brett loves some much.  I'm pretty sure it's the card the cash comes in.  It took longer to go through the three cards Brett received, then it did to open all of his gifts. 

Once we read, and reread, all of Brett's birthday cards, he had his eye on a nice blue box from across the room.  

Once we got it open we found Brett had a new friend- a sock monkey!  We have yet to some up with a name for his new pal and are taking suggestions.

The day ended with cake, ice cream and a nap (for almost everyone).  We will have some pictures of the cake debacle later this week.  Stay tuned!

We had a great day with our families and want to give a huge "thank you" for all the birthday loot!  I'm most excited that I don't have to buy new clothes for Brett's pictures this week. 

Easter Festivities

Happy Easter!  Brett's Easter excitement started a few weeks ago with a DSG event.  Brett wasn't a fan of the Easter bunny and was in a hurry to get off his lap. 

At the DSG event Brett was able to meet Rachel Coleman of Signing Times.  He was a little star struck.  This was his first celebrity encounter and he wasn't really sure how to act.  Hopefully, he'll be able to take his eyes of the next celebrity he meets long enough for a picture.    

The Easter fun continued today with an egg hunt at the church. 

So many eggs!  Where do I start? 

Here is a nice blue egg. 

Oh wait, I see another egg I want.  Orange perhaps (Brett has professed his love for the color orange)!?!

Pink, even better! 

After the egg hunt was over, we headed out to meet the Easter bunny.  Brett still wasn't real impressed with the guy, so I jumped in to stall the tears.  Take note, the pink egg traveled with us. 

Finally, we headed to the gym for some dancing. 

Brett decided it was time for a rest and sat down with some eggs.  However, the eggs were not enough.  He gave the other kids some pretty good "share with me" eyes and they handed over a spoon.   

Unfortunately, no one told Brett the spoon was only for pretending and not actually eating. 

Somewhere in the confusion Brett misplaced his pink egg and was left with a yellow.  Not quite the same, but Brett was still excited to show it off.

Don't worry, we found the pink egg just before we left and Brett has been playing with it all afternoon.

Some Advice From Dad

First off, make sure you save before you close a blog post... if you dont, you have to retype it again.

Secondly, when buying a house... take everything you can get when closing.

Erin and I bought our house a couple of years ago.  The couple that lived in the house before us had a 2 year old daughter.  While going back and forth on closing the sale of the house it was mentioned that they could leave all of the child proofing items in the house for us.  Like a dummy, I told them to go ahead and take that stuff with them.  I could just imagine every time I tried to open a drawer or cabinet having to fight some child lock.  Sure enough, a few days after closing on the house we find out that Erin is pregnant.  Needless to say I was a very happy individual... up until this week.  Brett decided that he would start crawling, which is an amazing thing and makes me smile every time he wobbles across the floor... but it also made me realize that I now need to go spend a hundred bucks or so childproofing the house.  So, in closing, I would like to say that if you have the opportunity to get something for "free"... take it.  You never know when something as simple as a child lock will save you some cash.

Oh and by the way... Brett has his own style of "army" crawling.

Enjoy the Video.

-Dad