Our little boy is officially a one-year-old!  The past year has gone by so quickly.  Joshua has become such a remarkable little boy, not like the tiny little baby he was 12 months ago.  Even though he was always a cutie-pie back then (everyone said he was the most beautiful baby in the hospital!), he’s really become quite the little charmer.  He makes people’s hearts melt, especially when he’s being his extra cute self.  You can’t help but smile when he tilts his head to the side & grins—he knows he’s got you then.  He’s too smart for our own good.  The last few weeks, we’d ask Joshua “how old are you going to be?” & he’d show 1 finger.  He really seemed to know he was going to be a whole year old.  Our little man.

My mom & I took Joshua to get portraits taken on his big day.  He was full of smiles so the photographer ended up taking over 50 photos!  Sears ended up messing up & couldn’t put them online like we were told, so we’re probably going to have to buy them on a CD so that we can show them to everyone.  We had a little celebratory dinner with family & a couple of friends on his birthday.  Erick was able to get home from work at a reasonable hour so he could join us, so we were very happy about that.  My mom’s cousin & friend both came over, as did our neighbors across the street.  Joshua made out like a bandit with cards & presents!  He’s definitely one spoiled little boy!!!  I tried making a healthy birthday cake (despite giving my mom a hard time for years for doing the same thing for my first birthday cake), but it didn’t turn out well due to the cookbook being 35 years old & needing ingredient substitutions due to food restrictions for babies nowadays (the book was my mom’s when I was a baby).  As a backup, we used a boxed cake mix, but it was yummy—pineapple upside down cake, just like my grandpa used to make for me.  Josh had more fun playing with the cake than eating it, but it was fun to watch.  That’s why they call it a smash cake.  The rest of us liked to eat it, though.  My mom left the following day, after a nice 2 week visit.  Joshua was sad to say goodbye to Grandma but he’s already looking forward to his next grandparent visit (lucky boy—he’s got 5 of them!).

Josh got a clean bill of health at his 12-month pediatrician visit on the 9th.  He weighed in at 23lb 3oz, & topped out at 33″ tall.  That puts him just above the 50th percentile for weight for the first time (he’s always been between 25-50%), & again at the 100th percentile for height (it’s funny to see the dots on the chart since he’s always way above the top line each time for height).  Joshua was a good little patient for his doctor—he would “help” her move the stethescope around on his chest when she listened to his heart, & held really still for her during her examination.  He was excited that Daddy got to go to his appointment, too.  Josh flirted with the corpsman when she was getting his shots ready, but he stopped that flirting as soon as she poked him.  He gave her a look like, “why’d you do that to me?  I was nice to you!”  He looked so betrayed that she had to apologize.

Today was Joshua’s birthday party with friends.  Unfortunately, many of our friends are out of town on med school rotations or summer trips, but we had a really good time with everyone who could make it.  Again, Josh got lots of presents which he loved.  This time, the cake I made from scratch turned out really well.  It was an apple-pineapple-strawberry cake which I found the recipe for online (no food substitutions needed this time!).  Josh did not seem to enjoy this cake either but he still had fun playing with it.  We had so much fun today & can’t wait until next year when we can have another birthday party!  Our camera decided to stop working this morning (what timing!), so our friends took pictures with their cameras & are going to e-mail them to me to put online.  As soon as I get it figured out, I’ll post the photos from the past couple of weeks.

Erick & I want to thank everyone for all of their love & support over this past year.  Joshua is lucky to have been born into such a wonderful family with our amazing friends.  I definitely understand & agree with it “taking a village to raise a child.”  With Erick busy in medical school, I’ve certainly appreciated all of the help I could get.  Joshua is quite an energetic boy & he sure takes a lot of my engery to keep up with him.  We look forward to posting Joshua’s photos & milestones with you as he continues to grow (& in person as much as we can!).  We love you all!