Happy Easter week!

After going to daybreak (7am) Easter Sunday mass, we came home, put JW down for a nap, and then packed up the car to get ready to head out to our family's country property about 2 hours west of here.  I was pretty nervous about how JW would handle the car trip, napping in a new place, etc., but he did really well :) Here are some pictures of our Easter spent with family...

Once he figured out that people wanted him to put stuff in that basket, he held on for dear life.

Being the youngest kid there (out of 3 kids total lol) he got a lot of attention!

Playing with his first confetti egg... not sure what to do with it.

Ah, so if you tear off the paper and crack it a little, out comes confetti!

Very serious about cracking confetti eggs!

Happy Easter, everyone!

What do oranges, strawberries, and tomatoes have in common?

Apparently John is sensitive to this triumvirate because we've been dealing with off and on hives and general sniffly snottiness over the last few days.  I thought maybe the diaper rash he had was caused by his cloth diapers, so we switched to sposies for a few days and slathered on the rash cream, which seemed to help a little, but we noticed that the rash came back -- and spread to his legs and torso a bit -- after eating strawberries.  Soooo now we're playing detective, giving him benadryl (per pediatrician instructions, of course) and hoping that those pesky fruits get out of his system soon so he can feel better. 

So much for a pleasant birthday week!

However, he's being a good sport and has even started walking! No longer is he only taking a step or two, but now he's really going from one room to the other without tripping.  I guess in a few weeks he'll be refusing to be carried, right? Wow.

Congratulations to my dear friend M and her husband D on the birth of their baby girl! Sometimes I miss having a newborn in the house.... sometimes. :)

1 year old!!!

So Monday was John's first birthday! We had a big party on Sunday and he had a blast.  Seriously.  I've never seen such a young kid enjoy a big party like that.

His birthday brings back so many memories and is truly bittersweet because his babyhood is technically over.  I know he looks no different today than he did on Sunday, but he is a very different child now than the one I brought home in the early hours of April 12th of 2010.

There is no one on this planet whose face captures my attention the way his does.  I never get tired of looking at his little nose, his bright blue eyes, and that silly little smile (filled with big teeth!) What a honor to be his mama :)