Happy Birthday Caleb!

Today is my baby boy's birthday! Yesterday we had a birthday party here at the house. He even had some of his little friends from church come over to share in the excitement. We had sandwiches, cupcakes and opened presents. His favorite part was by far the cupcake. It was so funny...as you can tell from the video, he was so excited to see the candle I think...his eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. We didn't capture the actual "craming the cupcake" in his mouth on video but we did get pictures. Seriously he grabbed the cupcake and immediately icing first put the whole thing in his mouth, then he got both hands and was squishing and trying to eat all the cupcake at once. The whole thing was gone in liike 30 seconds. I was remembering from Hannah's first birthday, how she delicately put one finger in the icing, and then was shaking her hand to get it off...she did not like to be messy. I think Caleb is ALL boy, and will like making a mess.

On another note...I was reminiscing about all that I went through before Caleb was born. Starting at 28 weeks, I had bleeding complications. We moved to a new town at 29 weeks, and I was admitted to the hospital only after 3 weeks of being in Monahans. I was on bedrest for 32 days in the hospital, and I had IV's the whole time, and I kept bleeding and they were transferring me back and forth to and from Labor and Delivery trying to decide if I was going to have a baby then or not. I had so many ultrasounds, an amniocentesis, and lab work done every 3 days. Finally on July 20th at 9:09 pm Caleb arrived via c-section, after a day of more bleeding, contracting (without me knowing it), and an irregular stress test. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and it was just time for him to come into the world. He went to the NICU for 5 days and then joined me, Jeremy and Hannah at home. Praise the Lord for my sweet baby boy, Caleb.

I was so thankful to have a healthy baby, and to not be pregnant at that point anymore. God has blessed our family, and I love my children so much. So reflecting over this past year, I feel like I've been more sentimental for some reason. I'm not crying, but it's hard to believe that this first year is finished. Caleb is so much of a Mama's boy, he loves everyone else, but he really wants to cling to me. I'm still nursing him, I'm actually trying to wean him at this point. There are just a lot of things that are leading to his independence as a little toddler in the days ahead. He drinks real milk from a sippy cup, eats real food, obviously loves cupcakes, he sits forward in the car now (he doesn't even scream anymore when I strap him in his seat). He's just growing up.

I'm so glad my children are growing up and learning new things. I just pray that God will give us wisdom as we teach our special little ones the truths of God. Hopefully we will have many more days and events to celebrate together as a family!