This past Saturday was Davis's first birthday and we had a wonderful time. We started the day off with a trip to the Horse Retirement Farm in Alachua. Mom and Dad and Chase met us there. Daivs loved feeding the horses, but he also tried to eat the carrots himself a couple of times. Next we picked up a beach bike with baby seat that I spottted on craigslist. We took Davis on a quick spin and then we took his seat off so we could use it on my new trike. That afternoon Chase and Tim took D to the park while I got dinner ready. Once mom and dad arrived at our house we opened gift and had cake- it was a simple celebration but it was so so nice.
It really doesn't seem like its been a year already- feels like someone put this past year in fast forward. I must admit that as he changes I learn to appreciate each new time with him. Now that he is walking, and climbing, we go the park all the time. I also try to let him walk some when we go to public places. Which is why I ended up getting him the monkey backpack with leash. Yep- I have my child on a leash. I always though that leashing your child was aweful/funny, but that now joins the long list of things that I said I woudln't do but I now do. The problem is that I never understood how fast and determined a one year old could be until I was in charge of one ALL the time. He loves those doors that automatically open, like at Publix. If he sees those- forget it- he is out the door.
Another new phenomenom is our dust trail. We leave a heavy trail of Cheerios wherever we go. You can spot a table at a resteraunt that we have destroyed by the number of Cheerioss on the floor and the tons of wadded up, chewed up napkins on the table. Wondering if we made it to church that morning? Look for the scattering of Cheerios all over the seat, hymnal and stuck in the offering envelpes. I really try to clean up as we are leaving, but many times we are leaving because Davis is screaming and that leaves little time to gather the Cheerio debris.
Now I've never been one to have a super clean car, but having a baby has taken it to all new levels of filth. Not only is there the usual stockpiles of stale Cheerios in every crevase, but we also roll around with several of Davis's outfits, socks, shoes and blankets in the back. These outfits may be clean or dirty when they got in the car, but due to the high number of food particles and flying milk sippy cups in the car, they are always dirty when I find them. Plus Davis thinks that as soon as you get itn eh car, its time to kick off your shoes, pull of your socks and chew on them for a while. So sometimes I find his socks and shoes once we arrive at our destination, but sometimes I don't and they join the heaps of mystery clothing in void of the floorboard. Oh and toys too, of course- we have all kinds back there and they are usually sounding off making me think that there is some kind of Emergency Vehicle behind us. I try to clean it out about once a week, but its back to trashed again in a matter of hours.
But even with the all the Cheerios and dirty clothes, I am absolutely loving staying at home with him. Somedays are rough, but overall this year has been the best of my life.
Jenn
