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It doesn’t seem possible that my baby is 1.  The past year has been a blur for me, but I wouldn’t do it differently if I had the choice.  I never felt quite myself this past year.  I don’t think it was depression, but more like a case of being seriously overwhelmed.  When I think about what we accomplished–new baby, school transition, moving, progress with remodeling two homes, plus the kid’s activities with soccer, orchestra, church plays and choir performances, and travelling for Darren’s ministry–it’s not a wonder.  There were good times too, but I felt like I was constantly reminding myself to take a deep breath and just go with it.

For Grant’s actul birthday, we went up to church and played games with our Twirties (twenties and thirties) group.  It was fun and Grant enjoyed it too.

We usually keep 1st birthdays pretty low key.  Anything big makes the babies miserable.  Really, they just want their food and a nap.  And too many presents is torture.  One year olds want to play with the first gift they open.  To take it away just to hand them a new one to open….just to take it away…Well, they don’t see the fun in that.

I was tempted to skip the hooplah all together, but we had never had dinner guests in our new home.  So I invited my brother and his family and my parent’s over for Sunday dinner.  Just 3 gifts to open—almost too many, but just about right.

A MegaBlock  dumptruck from my Brother.

A ride on toy and shopping cart from my Mom and Dad.  (Grant isn’t quite walking yet and we’re hoping these push toys will help with his development.)

 We bought him a small electronic house from my sister-in-law at my garage sale.  It has a light-switch on it, Grant’s favorite thing, lol.

We let Grant play with each toy for awhile before Darren unwrapped and showed him the next item.  No birthday boy tantrums–yay!

He took his first steps on the day after his Birthday while being a noisy baby in the foyer with Daddy during his older brother and sister’s orchestra concert.  I missed it.

But I saw this! Lol.  He sure is a happy guy…most of the time.