The First Year..

(waiting in his crib in the morning)



(his usual face lately.. driving me CRAZY!)
Holy smokes!! Reilly is a year old.. an entire year has gone by, when?

As 12 months approached I wondered how I would feel, I wondered mostly if I would get emotional and cry about it, but the closer we got, the more excited I felt! Yeah, he is no longer in his first year of life, but I'm so excited for what's to come! He is so much fun now, okay.. if you have spoken to me in the past week you know I'm lying, but even his screaming all day long is fun in that.. he's showing personality and growing, and being a little too demanding for his own good. He is his mother's son, can't blame him. I cannot believe that a year ago I was tucked away in my hospital bed just watching the baby in the bassinet next to me, until the took him away to do his pku test in the middle of the night.. weird! When I was pregnant, I couldn't remember a life without my massive belly, I got so used to it and couldn't remember what it was like to have rock hard six pack abs.. ha.. ha. Yeah, that's a joke if you didn't catch it. Now I don't remember what it was like TO have the belly, I put a balloon in my shirt the other day just for kicks, and immediately was able to navigate through the house and small doorways like I had been doing it every day of my life. That's kind of strange. Anyway.. I was excited, and am excited for the months to come and to be able to do more with Reilly! He really is the funniest little guy, and I know every mother things their kid is the most beautiful, most sweet, most funny, most perfect kid.. I don't think he's all of those.. but he is the funniest, that kid.. that kid.. his new thing is jedi mind trick moves. His uncles taught him that- where he waves his hand across the air in front of you. Like really.. are you joking me? Jedi mind tricks? And he has also developed a love of the word "no".. he says it so pretentiously too, I like to offer him things I know he doesn't like just to see him close his eyes and shake his head with a quick "Neh", until I finally offer what he does like, to which his face lights up as he reaches for it.

On Wednesday I had my first "whoa" moment. The day before Reilly was born last year I had a crazy long to-do list. I guess that's the joy of knowing when your baby is being born (he was induced), you get to make sure everything is ready! So I was running every errand in town, including grocery shopping to make sure the house was full of food for at least two weeks (NOT the brightest idea 9 months pregnant, getting the groceries into the car was not a comfortable task..)! Anyway, I went to the Walmart near our house, well on Wednesday I had to stop there to pick something up and walked out at the same hour that I did a year prior, then looked in the cart and saw my baby sleeping in his car seat and had a total "holy crap, where did he come from" moment! Seriously.. a whole year! Insane, I can't get over it. However, I am definitely happy where we are now and I wouldn't go back for anything in the world, only forward with this little guy. I told Jeff that I was kind of sad on Wednesday, because there's nothing more exciting than the anticipation of a new baby, and getting the hang of things, and everything being new.. whether it's your first baby or not- it's always a new adjustment and lifestyle. His response was "well we'll be doing it again pretty soon anyway".. which is so exciting, but I only want two, so.. that leaves me sad about the thought that we only get to do it once more (yeah.. sit inside my brain for a minute.. it's a roller coaster..).

Aside from all of that.. Reilly's 1st Birthday was pretty good! He woke up to balloons and Jeff and me singing Happy Birthday to him at 7 in the morning, had blueberry pancakes, slept through My Gym, went to Papa's for dinner, and a cupcake, then screamed himself to sleep from exhaustion on the drive home. His birthday party is tomorrow.. which I am vowing to never do again. At least not next year.. I have planned this thing for months, gathered for weeks, and have now worked my tail off since 9am preparing everything for his hour and a half party! Next year.. Disneyland, it's already decided!