There is no Birthday like a First Birthday!

What a wonderful blessed day October 21, 2010 was! How excited I was to celebrate the one year anniversary of our two little beans birth on October 21, 2011! The day didn’t start like every other Friday. The day didn’t start with a scream from upstairs, a little voice desperately trying to tell Mama and Dada that they were ready to start the day. The day didn’t start with Mama frantically rushing around the house with a baby on her hip trying to put on liquid eyeliner and still coo words of encouragement to the other little bean pulling at her pant leg.

This special day started with the sound of a little voice quietly talking to make-believe friends. Silas' voice raised and lowered as he spoke to his buddies painted on his bedroom wall, most surely explaining to them the meaning of life. As I laid in bed listening to him, I replayed in my head what I was doing a year ago at that time…which was receiving a hefty dose of petocin, and how different it was from what I was doing at this moment, at that time I knew I loved the little babies, but I had no idea how deeply the love would grow once I could hold them.

Listening to Silas babble on is truly the best way to wake up in the morning. When his voice started to become louder, I knew it was time to go gather up our little boy and start the day. I softly climbed up our creaky wooden stairs, trying not to wake Grace. I slowly opened the door to find our little man sitting in the middle of his mattress holding his blankie with a big smile. I walked over to him and whispered “Happy Birthday my little love.” He snuggled in the way only babies can do, nestling in the crook of my neck and relaxing his body. I wish I could start every Friday this way.

Grace was up within minutes, hollering at either Cory or I to attend to her. Even she knew it was a special day, because she just whooped out for us a little high pitched noise, not a frantic “Hey, come and get me guys!” yell. As Cory brought her downstairs her eyes settled on a Mickey mouse helium balloon and she could not look away. She kept pointing, willing her little arms to reach higher and farther so she could touch this unusual floating picture of her dear friend. “Happy Birthday little love!” I exclaimed to her, and she clapped her hands. For the second time in an hour, my heart melted and I reflected back on the momentous anniversary we would be celebrating today.

Around 1:30, Grandma Helen came and helped me prepare the rest of the decorations…which consisted primarily of us spending 20 minutes deciding how the happy birthday banner should be hung. We then waited for the little ones to wake up from their nap. Around 2:30 the rest of the crew showed up, Aunt Bitty, Nana and Papa. The little beans were very excited to see their loved ones all in one place at one time! We opened presents (or rather, I opened presents and convinced them to tip over a couple of bags) and they couldn’t decide what to play with first. I think most of the time after they were opened was spent by Grace and Silas walking around in circles debating what to look at or touch first/next. Smiles and giggles were in abundance, and the babies kept trying to practice their new skill (climbing and standing on anything they can) on most of the toys/boxes the toys came in.

After presents, we moved upstairs to eat cake. Cory made the babies a vanilla cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and made espresso cupcakes for the adults. Grace had the most fun with the frosting and just kept smacking her hands in it. The cake was dense as the recipe used yogurt and minimal sugar, so when you picked up the cake it didn’t crumble. Grace picked up hers after about a minute and threw it across the room, to where the dogs were eagerly waiting. We had to quickly scramble and give her smaller left over pieces, because we didn’t have nearly enough mess on her face yet nor enough pictures. Silas was straight down to business and systematically ate all of the frosting off first, then picked the cake brick up and took bite after bite. After one or two glances at Cory and I as if to say “really? You are letting this happen” they were giggling and munching.

All in all, it was a practically perfect birthday, I wish Uncle Jay, Aunt Mandy, Reese & Ronin could have been there, but I am sure there will be many more occasions soon for everyone to be a part of. Thank you all for the love and support you have given over the past year to all four of us, it has been appreciated and never taken for granted. I cannot wait to see what is in store for our little beans in the coming year!