The Jarrett Family Journal: Happy 1st Birthday Luke!

It's official, our precious baby boy is a full year old. I'm pretty sure I wrote something about how fast time has gone every month, but it feels so much heavier today. Where did the time go? I've been going through pictures trying to pick my favorites (which is almost impossible for a Mommy to do when the subject matter is your child) and can't believe how much he has changed in a year and yet how much he still looks the same.

This little guy is an absolute blessing to have in our lives. He's got so much energy and is just DYING to use it. Changing his clothes or a diaper has become what I am sure could be an Olympic sport! He's still a pretty good napper and sleeps okay at night as long as he's not sick. He's slowly becoming bored with his ba-ba's and his favorite foods are avocado and Club crackers. I gave him some today before I used the rest to make guacomole and when his ran out he was MAD! He then proceeded to eat fistfuls of the guac!

He's got a handful of words now...Ma-Ma, Da-Da, Dog, May-May (what we call Molly sometimes), Hi, Ah-Oh and Na-Na (Banana). He's pretty funny, but still a little moody. He has never been a fan of riding in the car, but is liking riding frontwards a little better.

We had a few birthday celebrations this week. The first one was Sunday with my sister, Jill, and her family while we were all in Door County, Wisconsin for the week. He had a great time eating his cake all by himself. He ate mostly frosting, but I don't think he minded. Then today he had another mini-party at our friends the Lamothe's. We went to their house to play, have dinner and watch fireworks with Chloe and their other friend Jonny. The kids (including Mr. Birthday boy) stayed up to watch fireworks that didn't start until 10:00! Luke finally crashed at around 10:05! It was almost as if he was saying "I'll be darned if I'm going to miss a minute of this birthday!"

So, here we are, quickly moving from this baby phase to toddler-dom. I can't begin to articulate how much fun we've had this year and how much joy Luke has brought to our lives. From his little heckle to his belly laugh, from his brow furough to his smiling eyes, from his super long eyelashes to his crazy fast growing fingernails, from his perfect baby soft skin to his little birth mark that only Mommy knows about, from the smell of his clean baby hair to every stinky diaper...I love every little bit of this guy. You are so loved Luke William and your Daddy, Blake and I want to wish you the happiest birthday ever! We look forward to the rest of our life with you! Here are some of the favorite pictures I was able to narrow it down to...