The Big ONE.

Asher has been ringing in the first month of his second year of life with new teeth! and words! and belly laughs! and any other number of growing-like-a-weed antics.  He pulls a new trick out of his sleeve daily, and all I can say is, the kid must have some pretty deep sleeves, because we continue to be bowled over by the changes that are emerging day after day.  But first!  The first birthday!  I have to say, it’s kind of hard to top the party that we gave him last year (har har) but we took a stab at it by keeping it simple and small, and headed to a local park for two hours of sunshine and smiles.  Oh, and mustaches.  You know, it wouldn’t really have the Walton brand on it if there weren’t some kind of costuming involved.  Poor kid, the first year of therapy is on us, we promise.

So, I was all consumed with coming up with some kind of wildly healthy first birthday cake that would be sugar, dairy, wheat, and egg (flavor) free, and was beginning to think that we were going to just give Asher a piece of cardboard to suck on and call it a day.  We had his 1 year check up the day before the party and I asked our most amazing pediatrician what he would recommend as a first birthday option.  He told us a story about how he and his wife (both doctors) attempted the same healthy cake thing with their first child’s first birthday and the “cake” that they made was so hard that they couldn’t cut it.  In fact, the “icing” lifted off the cake in one solid piece and didn’t even break when dropped on the floor.  He said for their second child they wised up and gave the kid a cupcake.  I mean, hey, if a doctor prescribes a cupcake, a cupcake ye shall have!  So that’s what we did, and Asher was kind of into it.  Kind of.

But eventually he got the hang of it.  (Note that he was extremely serious about actually digging around in it.)

And didn’t I promise mustaches? (Think of the glasses and eyebrows as a little first birthday bonus…)

(Enter Most Wonderful Friends Ever.)

And yet even more pictures from the day… (side note. Did you know that when you have children you want to take like, 10,000 pictures of them and show those pictures to everyone with a pulse?  Well, to be fair, maybe you don’t, but apparently this girl sure does…)

And I’ll close with this…

Dear Asher,

Thank you.  Every day, thank you so much for choosing us, for your laugh, for your serious expressions as you explore every inch of the world, for already showing signs of having your dad’s sense of humor, and my desire for a good snuggle every now and again.  Thank you for opening our minds and hearts, for making us literally well over with joy, for softening hardened edges, and for teaching us patience.  Thank you for opening our eyes to the minute aspects of life that we were beginning to over look, thank you for being healthy and grounded, thank you for sleeping through the night and above all, thank you for being here.  It almost seems trite to say that you are a blessing, but kid, you are one heck of a blessing.  Thank you for resolving any issues that I might have had with my gag reflex, thank you for your easy smile and crinkly eyes, and for your admittedly inappropriate but incredibly charming open mouth kisses.  Thank you for your awesome appetite (for everything!) and for innately possessing the knowledge of how to really make us laugh.  We cannot wait for everything that the future holds, and we apologize now for being big dorks and always tearing up and being so goofy, but the thing is, we’re just so in love with you.  You have it all kiddo, and we are so grateful to have a front row view of everything that life holds for you, and that you hold for life.  You are it.

So much (so much!) love,

mama and papa.