Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

The little monkey climbed into the laundry basket while I was folding.

Our baby boy is one today!! It really is bittersweet as we look forward to the freedoms of toddlerhood. I'm definitely happy that we are more mobile and can be more spontaneous in our activities. On the other side I'm sad that he's growing so fast and his baby days are but a memory.

Trying on the new hat Oma made for him.

This last month has mostly been focused on enjoying the end of the summer, going out to as many activities as we could and getting ready for the transition of going to daycare. We've been trying to stretch out Ethan's awake time so that we can move to just one long nap in the day. It's a slow process and we're still not there yet. He has days where he can last a long time in the morning and other days he dead tired and needing a nap my 9:30!

Lately, Ethan has been nursing about 4 times a day but each session lasts about 2-3 mins! I figured that he wasn't really relying on the nursing for food, so I didn't worry too much about weaning him for when I'm at work. Sure enough, these last 2 weeks when I've been at work he didn't seem bothered by my absence. For him it's more "out of sight, out of mind". I have to admit that it sure was nice to come home and see him happy to see me and nurse happily again. We've also started giving Ethan some homo milk in his sippy cup. It was quite funny to see him drink for the first little while. He'd shake his head and shudder a little in dislike or sometimes he'd just open his mouth and let it all out. The last couple days have been better and I think he's getting used to the taste.

Ethan is not yet walking but we can definitely see that his legs are getting stronger. It won't be long and I'm really hoping that he'll pick it up soon so that he won't have to crawl around in this yucky weather.

The best development of this last month is that Ethan is communicating his wants to us by pointing. When Josh picks him up in the morning, he'll point to the direction that I'm in so that he can nurse. Just today Josh came into the playroom with a morning snack and if pointing had a sound to it, he'd be screaming. Another great development is that I've noticed a change in my role in the playroom recently. I used to be the bodyguard and make sure that Ethan wasn't about to eat a toy or hurt himself. Now I'm finding that I'm more of a referee between Maddy and Ethan, making sure that they share the toys fairly. I love this new role because it also means that if they are both doing their own thing, I can be working in the kitchen.

His first birthday party

We celebrated Ethan's birthday with just family over the weekend. Even though it was a smaller affair, it was so much fun and just perfect for him. We had an easy low key morning and just as he woke after his morning nap, the party was ready for him.

We showed him his cake the morning of his party and he nearly killed it before the big event.

The chunky monkey

"Awww, mom, this is SO not cool." Thank you for humouring your Mama Ethan.

We started with a BBQ lunch and he devoured the short ribs and BBQ chicken. Definitely eating like a 1 year old! Then we moved onto opening presents. This was so fun because mostly he's been playing with Jeh-Jeh's toys like tea sets, food and strollers. The smile he had on his face, when the more boy oriented toys came out, was priceless. Ethan is usually a more serious boy and mostly with us he'll smile, but after seeing his new toys, he had the biggest grin. It was almost as if to say, "Finally, some of my own toys!!"

This is Ethan's usual 'serious' face.

All smiles.

"Look! Welcome my very own 'man cave'."

From presents, we moved on to cake. I decided to make a 'monkey' cake because after he was born it was apparent that he was no 'lil peanut' and instead a total 'monkey'. (Besides, you'd have to be very careful with making a 'peanut' cake for fear of it looking like something else! ;) ) Ethan loved it when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and smiled through the whole thing. Maddy was also so cute as she stood beside him the whole time and them reached over and kissed his little hand afterwards. Ahhh...the memories I'll hold forever in my heart!

He loved when we sang to him.

I made a banana shaped smash cake because I thought Ethan would LOVE to get in there and make a mess. I thought we would get some really great photos.

The beginning of the cake smash

We even let Jeh-Jeh get in there to show him what to do.

I think my kids just don't get the idea of a cake smash. But isn't he cute!?!

I was so wrong, but that's ok. We had to take the cake away after a while because Maddy was ready to tear into the cake and show him how it's done. All in all, it was a fantastic birthday. Ethan was so happy and we even got to talk to cousins Frances and Pippa on Skype from Hong Kong that evening.

Happy 1st birthday my dear sweet boy. We love you so much and are so, so proud of you.

xoxo

All our love,

Mama, Papa and Maddy.