1 Year Old!

Yep - Holdie turned one last week and it's been craziness ever since!  We've had his actual birthday, then his birthday party, then Halloween.  Lots of fun stuff to talk about and a cazillion pics to get through.  

So let's start back to last Thursday.  10.27.11.


Our little guy is 1.

It's always unbelievable when your child has another birthday.  It seems impossible.  But it's obviously not.  These milestones always make me pause for a bit and reflect on what transpired over the last year.  I'm constantly amazed that this is my life and this is my family.

Holdie burst into our lives a year ago and added such a great dynamic.  I love looking at my two kiddos, sister and brother, and imagining the love they share and will continue to share.   And how this relationship will grow over time.  But no worries, I know it's not all flowers and rainbows.  I can guarantee we will have our share of monumental fights!

But back to Holden.  Holdie, H, the Holdie Meister, Holdie Monster, the Wild Boar, Holderman.  

His personality is so utterly enjoyable.  Everybody loves this guy.  You can make him smile like *that* and not just his closest family.  He loves to bring out the smiles for strangers too.  He's super laid back and flexible in so many ways.  (such a second child).

He's not a timid little creature though.  I think he's going to be a bit rough and tough (which makes daddy happy).  He does.not.stop.moving.  EVER.  He must burn almost every calorie he intakes.  We need to get the big baby gate back out of storage because even when you do the "Holdie barricade" as we call it, he ALWAYS finds a way out of the living room.  It's actually pretty impressive, he will move like four dining room chairs, 3 toy bins, all in a perfectly strategic way to slip through a 3 inch opening into freedom, aka, the dining room area.

He's walking quite a bit but will crawl when the situation calls for it - like if he needs to get somewhere as quickly as possible.  Usually in order to get one of Avery's toys.

It's pretty common to see him hanging out with Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White or Belle hanging from his mouth covered in drool.  Makes big sis ecstatic as you can imagine.  "HOLDIE NO" is a pretty standard phrase in our house.

He eats like a champ.  Or a monster.  Loves table food like you can not even imagine.  Loves to crunch on things and wants to feed himself.  If he wasn't as active as he is, I can only imagine how big he would be!

We've fully moved to cow's milk and his milk intolerance seems to be a distant memory!!  He refuses to take a sippy cup though.  Super annoying.

Of course I could go on and on about little H, but I won't bore you anymore.  On to the pics!!

Oh, did I mention - he's pretty much perfect?

yep, snot, drool, we got it all. 

We celebrated Holden's actual birthday totally low key.  Just some family, some homemade mac & cheese and some cupcakes.  Homemade Halloween cupcakes made by big sis actually.

stand away from the lit candle.  of course he was obsessed with it. 

So Avery blew it out.

yup, that's Holdie under there. 

Past his bedtime + cupcake overload = not a happy camper willing to pose for mommy's pictures

And in a desperate attempt for pictures of me and H.....you can at least say I tried.