Oliver's 1st Birthday

This delightful Little Guy is 1 year old!!  It's so funny to me that we live so long without people in our lives, and then once they are a part of it we can't seem to imagine life without them.  Here are a few things about this can't-do-without-him boy of ours, Oliver Mac:

• He is a funny mix of chill and busybody.  He gets dragged, knocked down, toy-swiped, and left inside all the time and doesn't have much to say about it.  Well, except for the "left inside" part, he's starting to have a lot to say about being left inside.  
• He's lost most of his growly laugh that he had for months, but sometimes it still comes out.
• He started protesting to baby food several weeks ago and pretty much eats whatever we're eating.  
• He's got a soft jabber that is darling to listen to and a high pitched I-need-your-attention-now ear-piercing scream that is... well, ear-piercing.  
• He likes to put things in his mouth (no surprise there) including bouncy balls, toy cars, rocks, sand, and dirt.  
• He sleeps like a dream, (he, Kate, and Daniel are all in the same room), and is always found standing at the end of his crib, craning his neck around the edge to get a look at the door when I walk it.  I love to see his little face.  
• He took his first steps while we were in the Dominican Republic, so at almost 11 months old.  Now he is all over the place, including up the stairs and going down the stairs with a little help to get started.  
• He says "Ma ma ma" at me sometimes, usually when he is desperate for a snack, but no other word-ish type sounds.  He was saying "Dada" a lot several weeks ago, but we haven't heard it as much recently.
• He putters around most of the time that he's awake, finding toys to play with or cupboards to empty.  The elastics on the cabinets keep mysteriously disappearing so he is able to get in where breakable dishes are located.  He broke one glass dish when he pulled it out and it fell to the tile floor.  He looked quite confused.  
• We love him all day.  Every day.  And can't imagine life without Oliver Mac.

We decided to have extended family come over for cake and ice cream to celebrate Kate and Oliver's birthdays and then wait for the big kids to get home to have their birthday dinner and presents.  It was a great excuse to get together with people we love and enjoy some cake.  I don't usually make birthday cakes because I don't seem to have the "knack" for it.  I've done a chocolate bunt cake several times so we made that for Oliver, including a little one of his own to eat.  Then I planned on making a strawberry-lemon cake for Kate and stack it up.  That ended up being much more of a challenge than I expected.  Let's just say that the cake had several skewers in it and lived in the fridge before the gathering in hopes that it wouldn't tip over.  In the end it looked pretty lousy but tasted delish (and tasting good is really the priority in my book).   

Oliver in his pre-cake condition all clean and creamy.  Look at that little tabernacle.  It's perfect.

 

He picked off some of the white chocolate and ate it first.  Then he picked up the whole cake, looked up at me and gave a little "Uh?" as if to ask if he could eat it.  We smiled and encouraged him to dig in, and he did just that. 

 

    

Grandma & Grandpa Cornish gift to Oliver was a little puzzle that makes sounds when you put the pieces in.  When he opened it I was taking some pictures to send to Grandma & Grandpa.  The first one is when he started taking pieces out.  The second one I happened to capture when he put one in and it made sound for the first time.  His reaction was so funny. 

        

 We got a toy at a local second hand shop (Kid to Kid) called and "Elefun."  It blows little balls out of it's trunk and the roll into his ears and either back out his trunk or into his tummy.  He still likes to play with it, which is a win!

 

This year I decided to try and start making a short video for the Littles on their birthdays (I'm not sure the big kids would think it was as cute).  It took longer than I expected, as it always does, but mostly because I was enjoying going through all their pictures.  Once I had the pictures in place and the songs picked out (that actually took a much looonger time than it needed to, as well) I couldn't get the music to play with the pictures.  Grrr!  Then Matt came to the rescue.  He looked up ways to get the music to play and within a relatively short amount of time he had the music playing.  He earns his keep in so many ways!  Here's Oliver's birthday video that we played at the cake and ice cream party.