Alex's First Birthday!

We were going to have a big party for our lil guy, but realized that our house just wasn't big enough to hold everyone. So we scaled back, and just had a cake with Mommy, Daddy, Ajay, Nana, Aunt Shelly, Paige, Aunt Brandi and Jenna. The house felt strangely empty - like we should've had more people there to celebrate! We did make plans, however, to have a little party on Easter while we're up visiting the rest of the family. Alex will share a birthday cake w/ Brandon, who will be (gasp!) 14! I only got a couple snaps of his cake experience, the rest was on video. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it! He very timidly touched the frosting, and eventually I put those sticky fingers into his mouth so he knew he was supposed to eat it. I also had to slice a bit of the cake off for him to then put into his mouth. He just didn't want to dig in! The pic of Ajay is after he got too close smelling the cake - he had a bit of frosting on his nose, but his hand covered it up. The cake was an applesauce cake (from the Fidelity Favorites cookbook!) and I used a buttercream frosting. Mom ended up doing the decorating of the cake, as I got a little occupied with the boys! I couldn't find our candles, so we cut off the ended of a wooden skewer. I've been thinking back to Alex's birth a lot lately. I've been remembering the feeling of contractions and birth-giving, the joy of first seeing our newest family member, and introducing Ajay to his little brother. Then of course, over the year we've gone through so much with his colic (fixed by the chiro!), and allergies (made better by altering my diet). Luckily his reactions are so little I can give him most foods and not be concerned about what it will do to his breathing. He's still just a little feller, tho - At 18 pounds 1 ounce, he's not even on the charts for weight, and he's in the 3rd percentile for height at 27.5 inches. I hate to think of what he would weigh if I restricted his diet even more! This munchkin brings so much joy to our family. We love seeing him experience his surroundings every day. He took his first steps (3 of them) two days before his birthday, but he refuses to take anymore...other than the occasional step to get from one thing to hold (a chair, maybe) to the next (perhaps my leg). He likes to clap, he calls the kitty "khee," he enjoys (a bit too much) pulling Ajay's hair, he's addicted to nursing, and he likes to play with cars (it's cute watching him push a little Hot Wheels around on the carpet!!).