Our little guy turned one! I have quite a few photos to share, so I'll let those do most of the talking... We started off the day with a fun balloon filled crib just Adelaide had on her first birthday.
And since his birthday was the day before Easter this year, we rounded out the day with an Easter/spring themed birthday party, complete with a Daniel Tiger cake for the birthday boy. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out how to get the spring/Easter theme going for a boy, but in the end, I think it turned out really cute!
^^ He dug into his cake before we even started singing! ^^
And the kids had tons of fun between a bounce house, of which I have no good photos :( and an Easter egg hunt with special "baby eggs" stuffed with Mercer's favorite crackers, graham bunnies, and yogurt drops, and eggs for the "big" kids... I'm having a really hard time accepting that Adelaide is becoming one of the big kids!
And to round out Mercer's birthday weekend, a visit from the Easter Bunny!
Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and helped make Mercer's 1st birthday a blast (for him and Adelaide)!
A few of things about Mercer's past month or so: Things have been improving! He still doesn't love the car, although that's been improving ever so slightly (we all survived a 3-hour car ride for his first camping trip a few weeks ago! Post on that coming soon.) He's been happier with less crying overall, playing on his own more, and napping pretty well and consistently. Our one continuing sleep problem is that morning wake up; he's still waking up sometime between 6-7am for a bottle pretty much every day, so that's probably the next issue we'll need to tackle. Other than that, the bottle/weaning process is going really smoothly! He switched over to regular milk with no issue at all and is down to just that morning bottle and a bedtime bottle. And, he has no problem with drinking milk from a cup at meal times, which is super lucky! He's been standing on his own and starting to take a few steps. He's talking a bit, his most consistent word is still "Mama" which is good with me ;) He does say "Dada" and "Ada" (Adelaide), though not with a ton of consistency. He's said "Book" a couple of times and points out every "Bir" (bird) he sees, as well as whispers some sort of "kitty" type of sound/word when he sees the neighborhood cat. He signs: more, all done, milk, water and eat and is already showing us just what the toddler years are probably going to have in store for us on the fit throwing front :( He's typically a pretty good eater, but loves throwing food he doesn't want in the floor and unceremoniously swipes everything off of his tray when he's done. He is a climber - I've already nearly had a heart attack after discovering him standing on Adelaide's stool at the bathroom sink, standing on one of her chairs and standing in one our full sized rocking chairs. He climbs the stairs to Adelaide's playhouse regularly, and loves taking the slide head first... boy through and through! He is always happier when he's outside and adores his big sister more than anything... or at least equally as much as he adores his mom when she spends the majority of her day with him on her hip... And Adelaide has really taken to him over the past few months as well, actually playing with him and asking if he can go play with her (outside, in her room, in the playroom) and that has been so awesome to see!
We love you Mercer! Happy birthday and many, many more!
