ONE YEAR OLD!

This past weekend, we headed to Oxnard to hang out with my parents and celebrate little D's first birthday. This time, one year ago, I was heading to the hospital to check in for my induction. Crazy. We left late Wed night (like, nearly 9pm!) thinking that D would sleep in the car on the way down. We went thru the In N Out drive thru at 11:30 at night. Yeah. We hit some crazy fog for, like, 40 miles, and my poor husband was super diligent, but seriously falling asleep by the time we rolled into the 'Nard. Ugh. I'm not sure we will try that again. My parents were thrilled to see us, even at 2:30am. And, of course, little D thought it was time to get up. He finally went to sleep at 4:30am and slept until 8:30am (thank you, son). We are crazy.
Thursday night we went to my cousin Alison's house for dinner. It was a nice big family dinner, and D got a ukelele for his birthday. He also got to play the guitar with my amazingly talented cousin Adrian and he played the piano and danced around the room with my other cousin Lizzie. Dinner was amazing, and D ate more than I have ever seen him eat. Meat, potatoes, corn casserole (um, the best!) garlic bread, and chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Holy moly. So amazingly good. It's so nice to have him be older and see people. He's much more interested in what people are doing, he's much more engaged, and he's just plain fun. And it's so great to see him walking around (with help, of course) and interacting with people. He brings out smiles in people. He's just the best.
On Friday, I got to go get my hair cut. Thank you god. Alex and my Dad ran some errands with D to get things ready for the party on Saturday. And then Friday afternoon, we got some pictures taken of my little guy. I can't wait to see how they come out! Friday night, we headed to Rancho Viernes (how fitting) for some pizza and hanging out. D loved the kids. He couldn't get enough of 4 year old C. They were goofing off and having a blast. D also loved Brad. He followed him around all over the house. Like Brad said, us big guys - we have to stick together. D also earned the name "Little Bulldog" and it's kinda true. He's stubborn and determined and by far the most solid kid his age I've seen.
On Saturday, it was party day! We ran some errands, picked up a pretty cake and set things up around the house. People started arriving around 4pm and it was so fun to see everyone and have them see D again. It's been 10 months since we've been to Oxnard. Too long, in my opinion. We had dinner and cake. Watching D smash cake around (and finally discover that it was edible) was hilarious. As far as I can tell, he had a great time. He got lots of present - clothes, toys, books, money. It was so, so nice. And yesterday, we hung out and had a big breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa. D slept for 3 hours straight on the way home. The other three hours, I sat in the back with him and entertained him with books, singing, stories, toys and goofy faces. We stopped once at a rest stop and he walked all over the place - get the kinks out, you know. It was so cute.

And now, the stats (in case you want to know)
D had 6 teeth (4 top, 2 bottom) and is probably close to 24 lbs. I would say he's maybe 26 or 27 inches tall. Maybe a little more. He crawls like crazy and walks with assistance. He has lots of ideas and is really stubborn and persistent, even when you try to distract him from something you don't want him to do. He has the best smile and loves to be goofy. He's ticklish on his toes, his knees and his sides. He's starting to say some words, or at least try to. He can say "Mama(mamamama)" pretty well and I think he's saying it in reference to me. He tries to say Dad, but it comes out "Ah-da" or something like that. He met dogs for the first time ever this weekend. He also tried to say "dog", which is more like "Dah". And I realized that "Ducky" sounds like "Doggie", so he now thinks that the cats are dogs. Oh well. He can do some sign languange, like "All done", "Milk" and he can wave hello and goodbye. He also likes to clap and throw his hands in the air when you say "Hooray!". He is understanding more and more of the things I say and he's just an all around joy to be around. He is always trying to "figure stuff out" so he often has a furrowed brow when looking at things and seeing things. But he's quick to giggle, loves singing and music and is just the cutest kid in the world. I am so lucky to be his mom.

Oh, and pics will be forthcoming later today...