Luke turns One

So we wrapped up celebrating Taylor turning four with her birthday party on Friday afternoon, and woke up Saturday morning bright and early to observe Luke turning one. In fact, my eyes popped open at 6.15 that morning and I just laid there and watched the numbers on my clock move forward seven minutes until it was 6.22. And my mind was flooded with memories of a year ago at that moment, meeting and falling in love with my son. Happy birthday, Luke!

And you only turn one once. So of course we wanted to fill his day with as much special, Luke-loving happiness as possible. But we kept it just our family. And even though my middle-child sister clearly expressed her angst over the fact that Princess Taylor got a first birthday party with lots of people and fanfare, I just felt like it would be a little silly to put together a big party for Luke. One reason being that our friends are his friends, and they just got done celebrating and buying gifts for Taylor. And let’s be honest, the first birthday party is really more for the parents than it is for the kid. Luke doesn’t know it’s his birthday or cares if people are singing to him or watching him eat his cake. So we kept it in the family and had a special Luke-day with the people that love him the most – Me, Chris and Taylor. And, you know what, it was perfectly low-key. And I was able to focus on making my little birthday boy the happiest he could be, and not worry about entertaining guests. Win-win.

So everyone was happy. Well... Everyone but Taylor. As amazing of a big sister as she is, she didn’t quite handle her little brother having his special day very well. But, in her defense, it was the day after her own week of birthday party fun, which meant she was coming down from her own celebratory cake and presents high. So Saturday would have been a rough day regardless. But throw on cake and presents for Luke and she was a bit of a monster about it. It’s all fun and games until it’s someone else’s birthday.

So we spent the day doing all the things Luke loves to do:  Throwing balls around the house, blowing bubbles outside, eating snappea crisps and grapes, dancing to the running mix on my iPod and stealing whatever toy his big sister is playing with and crawling away at lightning speed. And while we forwent filling the nursery with balloons, we did get him his own inflatable to play with drag around all day. And not only was endlessly entertaining for him, I was able to keep track of him crawling through the house when I couldn’t see him. And it makes me want to tie a balloon to him everyday.

And, of course, we had cake. That’s the best part of having a kid turn one:  Putting a giant serving of cake and frosting in front of them and watching them go to town. And my boy did not disappoint.

He DESTROYED that cake. By the end he was covered from the top of his head to in between his toes. You would have been impressed. At some point in our son’s life, he’s going to hit a golf ball a mile or throw a perfect spiral or do long division in his head, and people are going to look at him and say, That is Chris’s son. He inherited those sets of skills from his father. But when Luke had both hands full of chocolate cake and was obsessively shoving as much sweet goodness into his mouth as possible, THAT was MY son. He got that from his Mama. It was a proud moment.

And then we opened presents. And for a boy that has been entertained by the Princesses hand-me-downs for the past year, he was thrilled to have some shiny, new boy-toys to call his very own. Our present to him was creating his own personal ballpit using his pack-and-play and a giant bag of tiny plastic balls. He was in heaven. Best present ever.

So it was an awesome day for an amazing little boy. And from here out, I’m sure the parties will only get bigger and crazier and involve way more work, so in no way do I regret just having it be the four of us. And I don’t think Luke would have changed a thing either. It was perfect.