Da Da Happy Birthday Eli

So today was Eli's first birthday. It was fun because yesterday I kept thinking at this time a year ago we were doing.....(fill in some detail of my delivery here) Then around 1:20am Eli woke randomly. Instead of being grouchy I thought how sweet this was because Eli was born at 1:52 a.m. so it was pretty close to the real first time I held him. I just cuddled and kissed on him. I wanted to cry a little because I am sad my baby is getting so big, but I couldn't let myself I am sure Jacob would think I was crazy if I did let myself cry. So today was close to a normal day except I finished Eli's giant cupcake, and we went to lunch to celebrate my dad's b-day, and Eli's. We ate at Oregano's, and we had a pizzookie when they brought it out was sang to Eli and he had the biggest happiest grin on his face. Lee said he was so cute how excited Eli got. It was hard getting everyone together, because this whole week Chase had a Baseball tournament in Peoria so everyone was out there for his games. Anyway we are having everyone over later to watch Eli eat his cupcake, and sing to him again.

These are all the pictures from the first part of his birthday...

Now for the 2nd part....

I went home and finished the 2nd cupcake. This cupcake was more of an experiment with colors, and candies to see what was best. Debbie kept calling this a cupcake on acid, but I think it still turned out pretty cute. Then after dinner Linda and Cecil came to my parents house and we opened up Eli's present from them. Then we let him loose on his cake. He ate a really big lunch before that so he didn't dig into the cake like I thought he would, but he still had a lot of funny just grabbing the cake.

Things I want to remember...

• How cute and excited Eli got the 1st time we sang happy birthday to him. I am 100% positive that he had no idea what it meant, but he sure loved everyone looking and singing at him.
• Eli's sweet spirit. He is truly I loving sweet child. He likes to cuddle up on someone...ex specially me!
• Aly and Ethan got him a truck that he just loves. Along with the truck Aly made him a card which said, "Dear, Eli, I hope you have a great first birthday! I'm so excited that I get to see you!" Have fun from Aly. Aly and Eli have become little buddies. Since she was gone in Peoria so much he hasn't got to see her so they have missed each other very much. Oh yeah and Aly put $1 in there because Eli turned one! How cute.
• I also want to remember how hard, fun, rewarding, stressful, funny, and exciting this past year with Eli has been. Even though I am tired or it is just plain harder to go places now it is all worth it to have this sweet baby boy in our home and lives.
• My dad and Eli share the same birthday. I think that is such a sweet think for Eli to share with his Papa. They love each other so much!
• How fast a year goes by. I want to soak up my baby and enjoy him I don't want to look back and think I missed to much or made him grow up to fast. I want to enjoy these sweet tender moments with him.