Saturday, April 20, 2013

Rhett's Birthday Cupcake in Video


Rhett's Birthday--The Cupcake

With Rhett's first birthday came the iconic first bites of cake. We've actually been pretty picky about what we've allowed Rhett to eat. He hadn't had any sweets at all prior to his birthday. Josh kept trying to sneak him some cake or ice cream, but I really wanted to hold out until his first birthday for that first taste of pure, delicious sugar. So on Thursday evening, we grabbed Rhett his birthday cupcake! 

At first, he didn't really know what to think. He clearly didn't know that the colorful object in front of him could be eaten:
He spent some amount of time meticulously brushing off the sprinkles:
then, went in for the kill:






Loving Rhett

I just can't believe it. I have a one year old boy. I don't feel old enough to have a one year old! And Rhett definitely doesn't feel old enough to be one year old! I mean, just yesterday, I was meeting him for the very first time, right?
I've been a bit emotional in the weeks and days leading up to Rhett's first birthday. Because everything about first birthday screams "not a baby anymore" to me. Rhett's clearly in a transitional period to being a toddler. I can see it. He understands what we say to him. Last week, he crawled over to his diaper basket, pulled out a clean diaper and crawled back over to Josh, handed him the diaper and laid down on his back. And it's just astonishing to me. And moments like that have been happening more frequently. He's starting to understand more about his world and though it's amazing and wonderful to watch, it's also a bit heartbreaking. Josh (and others) have been perplexed by my sadness over the big 1. I finally broke down a little bit and told Josh how I've been feeling. I told him that from the very moment Rhett was born, every day he has needed me less than the day before. He's becoming more independent every day. He's learning how to sooth himself, how to feed himself and how to entertain himself. He's a very independent child and my feelings have been that he's just going to need me less and less until he finally goes off to college and I won't be a part of his day-to-day life. 

My poor husband had to talk me through this last night. He assured me that Rhett would always need me, I will always be his mother, and despite what greater society may tell me, he WILL always be my baby. When I met Rhett one year ago, we were complete strangers. He was completely dependent upon us as his parents to care for him, but he didn't really know us, and we didn't really know him either. Every day we spend with him, we learn more about him and he learns more about us. It's a constantly evolving relationship and we bond more and more each day.  People will say that it's impossible to understand how much you'll love your children until they are born. And I think that's true. But my love for my little son has grown immensely over the past year. When they pulled him out of me and brought him to me and our eyes locked for the first time, I knew that I would love him deeply. But even then, staring at my precious teensy baby, I could not have imagined how much my love for him would grow in a year's time. This year has been amazing for our family and Rhett has been such a joy to get to know. I've put away my sadness and I'm looking forward to another year of learning about my amazing son. 

Friday, April 19, 2013

Happy Birthday Rhett!

Happy Birthday, my sweet little bumblebee!





Sunday, April 7, 2013

Grandma Visited!

My mom was in town last week. She decided that she wanted to spend her spring break with us, and we could not be more grateful! Josh and I had to continue to work and go to school full time, but Rhett got a week off from day care to spend with his grandmother. Both baby and grandma had such a good time! Watching my parents become grandparents has been such a rewarding part of having Rhett in our lives. My parents just love him to pieces and he thinks they're pretty great too. 

I have been dying to check out some good St. Louis BBQ. We got a recommendation for Pappy's (the bes 'Q in St. Lou!), so we hit them up on Monday night. The line was long for a Monday, but the food came fast and was absolutely worth the wait. We're definitely going to be heading back to Pappy's. Even Rhett got to enjoy some ribs!



Mom spent a good amount of time this week cooking, cleaning and organizing for us in addition to babysitting. I have no idea how she got everything done that she did, but it was so awesome to come home to a clean kitchen and dinner cooking every night! We enjoyed having her so much. I didn't get any good pictures of Rhett and Grandma, unfortunately. By the time I thought of it, Rhett was exhausted.

We don't get to see my family as often as we would like. But our visits are always filled with love and joy. We are so thrilled to get to share our son with our family.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Forrest Park Revisted

I just love going to Forrest Park. The weather is gorgeous this weekend, so on Friday night, we walked around for a little while and enjoyed the fresh air in the park! We let Rhett crawl around on the grass, and when I thought about it, it occurred to me that he's never done that before. He didn't seem to care for it.

As a family, we're trying to make exercise into a prioirty. There's not much about excercising that I enjoy, but walking around the park is great family bonding and I count it as the majority of my exercise. With Rhett on our backs, we are adding his twenty pounds to our own and I do usually feel like I got a good "workout" done when I walk around with him like that. 
Josh wears him a lot too
We're looking forward to enjoying the lagoon a bit more when Rhett gets older. He enjoyed watching ducks with Josh, we should have brought food for them! I think he would have liked seeing them all gather around us. When he's older we'll have to make a tradition out of it. We also want to take him out paddleboating before we leave St. Louis
 
It's definitely fun to have such a large and well maintained park right here in the heart of the city. Though neither of us grew up in small towns, we really aren't used to living in a city where we can't go out and walk around our neighborhood. We're definitely used to more suburban surroundings. The park gives us an opportunity to still get outdoors and let Rhett enjoy the sun and fresh air. 

Happy (belated) Easter!