Our Little Monkey's First Birthday!

Berkeley, my first and precious little son, turned one on New Year's Eve. I took the day off from work to spend this day with my family. I was much more emotional that I had anticipated on this special day; by far my little guys 1st birthday was much sweeter to me than any of my own birthdays. I reflected a lot about the day he was born and the enormous amount of responsibility and love I felt for this new baby. I was really ready to become a mother; throughout my life many close circles of friends have given me nicknames about being motherly, as I always try to take care of everyone. Maybe that is why I became a social worker. However, I was really excited about becoming a mother. Shortly after Berkeley was born a friend in my church told me that she had never seen any one transition so easily into motherhood. That really meant so much to me. This past year I felt such a smooth transition into motherhood, it has felt completely natural and happy. I really love being a wife and I especially love being a mother. Berkeley has brought so much joy into our homes. Each night Christian and I lay in bed and just talk about the adorable things Berkeley does that day and discuss how we can help him in his development. We are completely smitten with this little guy and want nothing but the very best for him.
In preparation for his birthday, I thought about what a one year old would love more than anything for his birthday. I thought that Berke would love to wake up to a kiddie pool full of balls, like a McDonald's Play Land (but much cleaner). I was right. This kid crawled straight from the other room straight into the pool of balls and never wanted to leave. Believe me when I saw that balls were all over my entire house (which meant this was a occasional and short lived kinda toy), but it was worth it, because Berke was in complete bliss!

He was also pretty pleased with his new Red Rider Wagon his Grandpa Bill sent him. He loved it when he daddy took him for a ride around the house.

We got him this adorable chair, but as you can see, it was not exciting at all with a pool of balls right next to it. I do have hopes that he will grow to love his chair.

The previous night, C and I baked some pumpkin bread, in the morning we wrapped it up with a note of Thanks and brought it to the nurses and doctors in the Labor and Delivery at Cambridge Hospital where our little guy was born. We had such a wonderful experience there and without their help we wouldn't have our beautiful little man now.

After that we ventured out in the snow to get Berke's 1st year pictures taken and to run a few errands. When we got home, we had a lot more fun in the balls. This kid was seriously in heaven. That night we had a few friends over for homemade pizza and cheesecake and played some games. Then we watched J Lo dance in a really awful looking full body leotard and watch the ball drop in Time Square.

We had a little Birthday Bash for the little guy on Saturday. Christian and I stayed up late the night before decorating this monkey cake. It only took us 4 hours to decorate; neither Christian or I had EVER done anything like this, so this was a MAJOR accomplishment for us. I think it turned out pretty well.

Like father like son.
This is so true for Christian and Berkeley; they love to work on the computer together. If Christian is playing the piano, Berke crawls right over to him and wants to be on his lap, he has a huge obsession with the piano right now. If Christian is fixing something or hanging something on the wall, Berke has to be there checking out his tools and playing with his own tools. It is pretty adorable how he wants to do everything his dad is doing right now. ADORABLE!!!

Here is mommy and Berke right before the big party. Oh, how I love this boy.

I think the best gift from his party was this life size Teddy Bear that our neighbor Agnus brought him. Berke loves eating his nose and giving him CPR, it is funny stuff.

Berke got sung to and got to eat his birthday cupcakes, which he was much more interested in smashing up than eating. It was a wonderful first birthday for our little monkey.

So there it is, we survived the first year and luckily so did Berkeley. His birthday was a big event and now it is over and we begin the 2nd year of his life.

Happiest Birthday Big Boy!