First Birthday

Sam turned one on Saturday and many of the Staab and Ribar families were in town to celebrate! It was the first time both families were together since our wedding day. Leading up to the big day Sam had a virus and was still a tad under the weather on his birthday, but he enjoyed all of the company. He spent the day pushing his scooter around and into things. I was worried he would be overstimulated by all the guests, but he loved all of the attention. We ate a southern meal of pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and green beans. We also had cookies and of course, cake (red velvet) and ice cream. Sam had a personal chocolate cake, which he did not like one bit. As soon as the cake was in his mouth, he gagged. He didn't like the icing on his hands either. So, it made for an easy clean up and then it was on to presents! He got so many great gifts, many of which are for the outdoors, so we are looking forward to when he won't put every rock and blade of grass in his mouth so we can play outside.

As for me, I felt emotional all weekend. It may have been because I didn't get more than 4 hours of sleep for several days leading up to his birthday (Sam was sick, plus I was cooking/prepping the food), but there were several times I fought back tears. I couldn't believe a year already passed-- it seemed like yesterday we brought him home from the hospital! Don't get me wrong, I am very much looking forward to him getting older so that we can go experience more things, but it was still emotional. Plus, I loved having our families in town, and I hate it that we don't get to see everyone more often. So, to fight off the tears I just popped another cookie into my mouth.

Another first this weekend was Easter.

Indeed, Easter is the most important Christian holiday, and praise God we can live with Him forever since Jesus died on the cross for our sins and three days later rose from the grave and ascended into heaven. But Sam's birthday was the main event for the weekend, at least where Dave and Melanie were concerned. The Easter Bunny visited; however, Sam and I didn't even go to church. The Pittsburgh Ribar's and Dave went to an early mass, and then we met up for breakfast at a local eatery. Everyone left for the airport at noon, and Dave and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and putting Sam's new toys together and/or away. Then, we went on a long walk around the neighborhood. It was a great weekend that ended too fast.

Sam's 12 month appointment was this week. He weighs 22 lbs, 3 oz (45 percentile), his height is 30 1/2 inches (75 percentile) and his head width is 18 1/2 inches (70 percentile). He received a few more immunizations and doesn't have any problems. I had to fill out a questionnaire about his development, and I panicked after reading the questions, since Sam can't do half of what was asked. For example, "when you write on a piece of paper, does he copy you by writing too." (Haven't even tried this one. I tried it when we got home and all he wanted to do was eat the crayon). Or, another example: "does he hug his stuffed animals." (again, i tried this when we got home and all he wanted to do was eat the animal's nose and eyes). The doctor told me not to worry and said the questions were ridiculous. Either way, Sam scored within a normal range.

The birthday photos are in the April folder and the birthday videos are coming soon. Our hard drive ran out of storage, so there is no room, or memory, for the videos to upload. We need to purchase an external hard drive for photo and video storage. This is the reason it took me five days to get the blog posted and for minimal photos on this page-- the computer kept crashing every time I uploaded a photo.