librarysarie: One

The big day was nearly two months ago now, but I still can't quite get over the fact that the little man is ONE.

I hadn't decorated a cake in quite some time, but obviously the big 0-1 was just the occasion to bust the Wilton equipment out again. And, like all good cakes, this one was decorated well after midnight. ;-) (What, you don't decorate cakes in the middle of the night?) Nothing too fancy -- just a star-tipped dino (the outline was stolen from, of all things, a quilt pattern). We had a whole dino theme going for the party.

My mom insisted that Ian needed his own cupcake rather than just having a piece of the big cake, so I made him a GIANT cupcake using my brand-new giant cupcake tin (thank you, Target clearance endcap). He had never eaten anything so big before, only cut-up food, so we weren't sure he'd know what to do with it. Obviously, we shouldn't have worried....he just picked the whole thing up and shoved it in his mouth.

And really, have you ever seen anyone SO happy to eat cake? Just look at this face!

That photo pretty much sums up the whole day. The celebration of our little guy's first year was SO much fun, and it was wonderful that all his aunts and uncles drove in from far and wide (Ohio! Virginia! New Hampshire!) to be here, along with our local family and friends.

Since then, the big news is that we have a TODDLER! Ian took his first steps on May 31. He still very much prefers crawling as his means of ambulation -- he pretty much will only take a few steps at a time, and only to show off, not to actually get from one place to another -- but he's getting less shaky and more confident with each passing day, and in no time I'm sure he'll be running around all over the place. And in related news, he got his first little pair of shoes. He has a whole box of hand-me-down shoes (many of which are brand-new!) but none of them fit him quite right, so off to Stride Rite we went. There is not much cuter than TINY LITTLE SHOES -- although I can't get over how un-cute the pricetag is. His shoes are more expensive than mine!

He doesn't have many words yet, although he "talks" quite a bit -- he says four things, pretty much: "uh oh," "dada," "mama," and -- his favorite -- "dat!". "Dat" is quite a useful word: it seems to mean "What's that?", "Give me that!", "Look at that!", and sometimes, even, "here, take this." And it's usually accompanied by finger-pointing. "DAT!" And there's also "Wha," which he says all the time and doesn't seem to mean anything in particular, unless he's just wandering around all the time saying "What? What?" Which is, I suppose, entirely possible.

I'm a broken record when it comes to his personality, but he contines to be the Best Baby Ever. He is HILARIOUS and goofy and affectionate and, if I may say so, very very smart. He makes this whole parenthood thing easy (at least, as easy as it could possibly be!) AND fun.

Some pictures that I just want to share: