Daniel Robert

Today is Daniel's 1st Birthday. I can't believe how fast this year went. I'm wondering if it just seems faster with each subsequent child??? hmmmmmmmm.
Anyway, Daniel wanted to celebrate his first birthday hours by crying in his crib half the night. what is up with that?!? not very celebratory for me! I think he is teething really badly but still. . . it was ridiculous. He also has double ear infections again (with the tubes!). They are draining (gross) so theoretically they shouldn't cause him any discomfort. But based on last night I am not convinced. Gonna call the ENT today.
Despite the sleeplessness, we are going to celebrate today. We will have a little family party at my parents. We have celebrated all of our children's first birthdays at their house which is fun. They have more room and we just generally love being there.
I am working on a little monkey cake to serve. i got the idea off a blog that i follow. We will see how it turns out. He is such a climber that i thought the monkey cake appropriate. Plus, for some reason, I have called him little monkey since he was tiny. Weird how some nicknames seem to become self fulfilling. . .
A year ago today I met my little 9 lb 1 oz bundle of baby boy. We didn't know what the sex was until he was born so that was so fun. He had lots of kinda wavy hair which was a first for our children. And it looked dark, at least for a while. Now he is a dirty blond with no waves and the biggest blue eyes and eyelashes. Seriously, why do little boys get such good eye lashes?!? Strangers comment on his all the time. They really are quite adorable.
We are entering the discipline/spanking age which is not so fun. He is starting to do things defiantly. Like when his sister is asleep and he repeatedly charges into her room, despite being told no over and over. Or when he tries to bang on the computer any time i am using it. He knows what no means. I am certain of that. He has even started shaking his little head back and forth vigorously when he doesn't want something. Even that is cute to me right now. I'm sure in the near future when it is accompanied with a verbal NO! in response to me telling him to do something that it will quickly lose its cuteness.
So many thoughts as I remember all that the last year has held. . . trying to pull memories out of the sleepless fog is sometimes difficult, but at this moment it seems like the whole year is crystal clear. I'm so thankful for this little boy.
More birthday thoughts later. . . gotta go wake Isaiah up for school. :)