It's not the Eagle, but it's still fitting for July 20th.
Our little happy guy is one. He's been a sweet affectionate blessing from day one and certainly has lived up to his name as an old friend or protector. Old in that it's hard to remember life without him and we wouldn't want it without him, friend because he just loves to be interacting with people, and protector because he will still wake up in the middle of the night to check on the family and because he screams bloody murder when Rhianwen is behind closed doors experiencing correction by her firm mommy or daddy (you can laugh; it's supposed to be funny).
We had a small celebration with family at Pullen Park (our tried and true park for celebrating birthdays). We rode the carousel, train, boats, and ate a big picnic lunch followed by a lopsided airplane cake made by mommy (let's just say I'm not going into business any time soon).
"Now this is serious fun."
Multi-tasking with a graham cracker on the carousel.
Alden was not the only one having fun.
Aunt Clara and Uncle Brooks fresh from Uganda.
Alden threw out tradition and opened gifts before cake.
"My favorite! Paper!" It ended up being a cool little zebra from Uganda from Aunt Clara and Uncle Brooks. You knew he loved it when Alden said, "Baa!" (his universal animal sound) and stuck it in his mouth for a chew.
Nanny Kim made a fun sock monkey for Alden. He promptly tried to remove its scarf so that he could wear it (Alden LOVES to wear things around his neck and normally has one of Rhianwen's necklaces on all day long). We need to find that kid some mini-ties or something.
Alden didn't seem to realize the cake was food, but instead wanted to crumble it and sprinkle it onto the ground. This is the kid who swallows pebbles, eats sidewalk chalk, and crunches crayons to make fabulous colored drool. I finally had to stuff a bit of cake into his mouth before he caught on.
I think it's funny to guess whose feet are whose in this video.
Tasty!
He loves the toy push mower for outside...just wait until he finds out it's a bubble blower too.
Can you guess whose new favorite toy the Twilight turtle is? His big sista's. We're hoping it'll help once he starts a big-boy bedtime routine (aka no nursing).
Happy to be holding PaPa and Greatmama's card.
We got him a Playmobil car, motorcycle, and airplane (the 1 2 3 series for babes...no choking hopefully) to help him enjoy his new cool playrug from Grandmama and Grandaddy. It's a big hit!
I find it strange that each child has a different prayer focus, but early on I've prayed specifically that my little man would find Jesus to be his ultimate joy and satisfaction always and that all his life he will be loved and feel loved by those around him.
Very cute!! Oh, that turtle looks like something coooooool!! The rug goes nicely in his room !
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun birthday!! I'm so glad family was able to be there. It's so much fun to have family around for celebrations like this.
ReplyDeleteThe video was classic. All of the cameras made it look like he was some kind of rockstar... or maybe a monkey in a zoo.
ReplyDeleteSo sweet. :o)
ReplyDeleteI find it to be a bit of a tragedy that my best friend's child makes it to his first birthday without me having a chance to meet him in person yet. Sniff. We gotta do something about that!