Nate is 1

My baby turned 1. I can't believe it! This year really flew by. I still think he should be this size sometimes:

Don't get me wrong. I love him just how he is right now, too:

He is my boy. He has been SO different than the girls were in a lot of ways.

For one thing he is messy. He makes a bigger mess just with a sippy cup of milk than any other baby I've ever seen. He just spits and dribbles it out like crazy. I took a picture one day:

How did he get it on his forehead? I have no idea.

When he's eating something he likes, he just shovels it in. One day he was cramming about as much beans and rice as he possibly could into his mouth. He made himself gag and threw up onto his tray. He was about to pick it up shovel it right back in when I stopped him. Yuck.

He can also be quite violent. He is still a big hair-puller/scratcher/biter. Luckily the biting hasn't been as bad lately. I've been punishing him for these things but he's always yanking on Elizabeth's hair in the car when she's reaching down to buckle her seat belt. I can't do much about that. That's one of the downfalls of close quarters in the car I guess.

With all of this, it's quite a miracle that his sisters are still completely smitten with him. It probably has to do with his smiley and lovable side. I keep waiting for them to be annoyed with him but it just hasn't happened yet. They are such good sisters, for one thing. I don't give them enough credit for that. And, he is one happy, adorable little boy. We are so glad he came to our family.

He is still not walking and not really all that close either. He can stand well but he doesn't think he can. I still think he will walk before the girls (15/16 months) but we shall see. His only words so far are "mama" and "dada" and even those don't always refer to us. This age is so fun because it feels like they are learning something new every day. The other day I saw him rolling his little car along the ground just like a big boy.

He loves cars and balls. He loves his green blankie. I love when he snuggles on me. He still does his shy look sometimes, although it's much less often. I'm going to be really sad when he doesn't do that anymore.

Anyway, we had a couple of birthday celebrations. We went to my parents' for Labor Day and celebrated the late August/September birthdays.

Here they are:
(Abby, Grandpa, Nate)

This one turned out great:

Monday night, we had our own little family party. First we had dinner. I included two things I know he loves in the meal: watermelon and rice.

Enjoying his watermelon

Then it was cake time!

He wasn't sure what to think about us singing to him:

He smashed it up before he even took a bite

Finally tasting it

Yummy...

Natalie made quite a mess herself...

That will an excellent blackmail picture when she's a teenager.

Then it was present time.

He got a fire truck

And....a gigantic basketball hoop!

It was quite a bit bigger than I realized when I bought it so it's mostly an investment into the future kind of present. He can't play with it now (oops). He did love when Daddy helped him dunk, though, and he loves just playing with the ball...

The girls love it, too

Coming up next: Before and after pictures of the haircut his daddy gave him while I was out Tuesday night...