It's Michael's Birthday Today!

One year ago today, Michael was born.
When I was pregnant with Michael, I remember feeling worried about how our family of three would adjust to having a fourth member. How would Elizabeth react, since she'd been an only child for the first 5 years of her life? How would our finances hold up to this new addition? I had so many worries.

But as soon as Michael was born, my worry just seemed to disappear and it was replaced by a feeling of serenity that is a little hard to put into words. When Michael joined us, he brought with him this feeling of wholeness to our family. We were finally complete. Even Elizabeth's love for Michael was instantaneous, and over the next few weeks, it was apparent that Michael felt the same way about his sister.
And throughout this past year, we've had a great time getting to see Michael's little personality develop in a very big way. I think the strongest aspect of his personality is his determination. He is one determined little guy.
He spent the first few months of his life carefully watching us and everyone around him.

When we would eat, he would follow the way our fork went from our plate to our mouth, and you could tell he was just waiting for the day when he could eat
what we were eating.

If kids were around, he would just silently watch them running around, and you could tell he was just planning how he would be able to get around on his own someday soon, and he would no longer need someone to carry him.

And sure enough, this little guy was determined. He started crawling when he was 4 months old. (It wasn't exactly crawling at first, but more of a breast stroke / army crawl.)

And when he started eating solids, he didn't care for mushy baby food, because he wanted to eat what we were having. It's a good thing then that he grew 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom) when he was about 6 months old since he wanted regular food.

And then he started pulling himself up to stand when he was about 7 months old because he was still determined to walk around like all the other kids. He started taking a couple steps here and there when he was 9 months.
And by 10 months, Michael was an official walker! It was hard to believe, but like I said, he is determined!

Michael displays his determination in other ways too....
If Elizabeth is using his favorite fuzzy blue blanket, he has no qualms about pulling it off of her so that he can be the one use it.
Or recently, he just grew attached to a certain Sesame Street DVD that Elizabeth had, and when he wants you to put it on, he will continuously hand you the DVD case (or even throw it at you) until you put it on for him.

So Happy Birthday little guy, may your strong determination lead you to wonderful things in your life!

Just a couple minutes old..


This lady's hands sure are cold!



(2 months)

I love going to the beach!



Being a baby is hard work..





Cheerio Breath

At Chuck e Cheese

1st Halloween: Baby Ninja

1st Christmas