Anyone still out there?

Well HELLO there!  Anyone there?!

Why yes, the Kennedys do still exist and are in fact still on Guam.  The island has not tipped, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, drifted to another part of the world where there isn't a internet connection.  Nope.  Still here in the exact same spot.  So what's my excuse?  Um, give me another 2 months and I'll come up with a good one!

So what's the latest and greatest with the Kennedys you may ask?  Well, I gotta tell you…not much!  See?!  This is why I don't blog.  We are B-O-R-I-N-G.  Yeah, we have a baby and he does entertaining things, but quite frankly if I blogged about every little thing, I would get nothing accomplished in my house and my time on Pinterest would suffer greatly :)  So a healthy balance is what its all about, right?

So did you all hear?  Our little Reece turned the big O-N-E  on March 7.  It absolutely blew my mind that he was already a year old.  How did it happen so quickly?  How am I aging without even realizing it?!  Funny to think back on a year ago and remember how I was only sleeping for a couple of hours at a time here and there, had middle of the night diaper explosions because Reece still had skinny chicken legs that wouldn't fill out his diaper leg holes, a baby who would cry anytime I tried to sit down, and eating a meal seemed like a very difficult task.  And now?  One year later, while he still doesn't like when I sit down while holding him, it's different because now its because he wants me to get on the floor and play with him.  As for the sleep and diaper explosions?  Just a distant memory.  I have a 12 hour/night sleeper (sometimes we get 13 hours out of him on the weekend!!.  When it happens it's like striking gold…so I imagine since I've never actually mined for gold).  Diaper explosions?  Nah.  Not with his solid thighs.  I can't even say chunky thighs because they aren't really chunky…just muscular solid.  He is a strong baby…and doesn't hesitate to remind me.  He tried to "rock climb" himself up the back of a lounge chair at the Hyatt pool on Sunday, but that's a whole other story.

Remember when he looked like this?!  And no, he is not defying gravity.  Carlos scanned the pic upside down.

Then he was this!  (March 7, 2011)  See, look at those bird legs.  Oh the leaky poop nights!

And now he is this!

He is driving already!  Sigh. :)

He is a very independent eater.  Loves to feed himself and tries to just keep piling the food in for one long chewing process so we have to give him his food in moderation throughout a meal.  He successfully transitioned to whole milk and LOVES it.  I think if I could somehow just attach the top of his sippy cup to the milk jug, he would be one happy child.  And our biggest change over the year is how he went from a boring baby (lets be honest, newborns are rather boring.  Cute to look at and snuggle with, but boring nonetheless) to a walking, smiling, playful little boy.  His walking is still coming along.  He gets a little wobbly, but mostly when he gets very excited.  The most steps at one time he has done on his own has been 11 now, but he'll walk forever beside you if you give him a finger to hang on to.  He is even getting ready to transition out of the infant room at school and into the pre-toddler room where he will be a little grown-up!  I think I am the one having separation anxiety from his teachers in the infant room, but I have come to know his pre-tod teachers over the past year as well and they will do a great job with Reece.  But still…I'll need to take time to adjust as well!

So I've decided that the age of one is just the best age.  I enjoyed going through all the other ages/phases because I think as a parent you appreciate the new phase more knowing what you came from, but in turn appreciate certain things about the older phase.  The best example I can give is we love that Reece is walking/crawling and exploring EVERYTHING.  BUT, there are times we say to each other: "remember how nice it was when we could put him down and he would just lay there and not destroy our house?"  One of our co-workers (a father of two) warned me and said "you spend the first two years of their life trying to get them to walk and talk, but then you spend the next 16 trying to get them to sit down and shut up." :)  I think I will remember those words for a very long time because if Reece has shown us one thing this first year its that he is just warming up to life and he will be making sure he seizes the day!

So of course we couldn't let his big day go by without a celebration.  I of course started planning his party right after Christmas had passed (and this seems like a good time to use the party planning as my excuse for not blogging.  Yep, lots of planning.  I was busy busy busy!).  I knew it was going to be a Dr. Seuss themed party (and no, I didn't realize when I planned it that Dr. Seuss' birthday was the same day as Reece's party.  Just one of those fun coincidences) so I immediately went to work on finding fun ideas (PINTEREST!!!)  And in the spirit of Guam (and a neighbor connection), we had Lucy the carabao on hand for carabao rides!  I love that Reece's first birthday party had something OOG style (Only On Guam…very common saying around here).

 A lot of people, a lot of food, one little person to celebrate and it was a blast.  We know he won't have any memory of the event, but we wanted to do this for him and as a means to celebrate with people that have really helped us out over the past year and have come to know Reece just like he is a member of their family.  Will we do it again?  Only when the child is old enough to know what a birthday party is :)