Xander's First Birthday

I can't believe my sweet baby is already a year old! The time has passed so quickly with this one...it makes me a little sad. But at the same time it's so fun watching him grow up. I love seeing the wonder in his eyes when he discovers new things and watching him try new things. It's fun having other young children that get excited about his milestones too..."Look Mom! Xander is standing!!!"

We didn't do anything too over the top for his birthday, but we spent a lot of time together as a family that day. He was so happy and cute all day long, like he knew that day was all about him. We let him try ice cream for the first time...

... after a couple licks he grabbed the whole cone and went to town! I think he got Mamma's sweet tooth!

I wanted him to get plenty of play time, so we took him to the mall and let him crawl around on the playground. It wasn't very crowded that day so we were able to just let him roam around on his own. He was in heaven. He's still not very interested in trying to walk, but he has become a turbo crawler. He was crawling, rolling, climbing, sliding and giggling all over the playground.

Next he opened presents. He was really excited about the balloons and got pretty into ripping the wrapping paper. I don't remember the other kids being so into opening their presents at this age. I think he felt special getting so much attention. Tressa and Corbin were really cute about making it special for him too. They picked out gifts for him themselves and he had a ball with all his new toys.

Doesn't he look cute in the new hat Grandma Jennings sent?! He loves hats...but we normally can't keep them on him for very long. He thinks it's a pretty fun game to put it on and take it off, on, off, on, off...

Finally we sang to him and had some birthday cake. We got him his very own cake to demolish. Here's his first taste...

...mmm...sugar...

...good thing we stripped him down first!

It was so fun to watch him dig in like that! He's the first kid of ours to get so into it...I don't think Corbin and especially Tressa liked getting dirty at that age. What a goober. We love you little guy! Happy Birthday!