Happy First Birthday Dear Winston

We celebrated Winston's 1st birthday this weekend at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne with a wonderful group of friends. We rented a cabana, brought 3 car loads of stuff from home, and enjoyed a balmy and relatively mild day at the beach. Perfection.

Photos from the day are here.

Here's a cute video of Winston chasing bubbles before guests arrived.

Winston adored his adoring guests, although he seemed to get a bit shy when it came time for his happy birthday song and cupcake. [Watch the video here.] He was not very interested in his little cake [yet more video here], despite his little fan base urging him to sink his hands in.

He made up for it today (his real birthday)...he shared a cupcake with momma and ate it with abandon.

It has been quite a year. Dave and I feel very fortunate to have welcomed little Winston into the world. The love and affection and joy he brings into our lives each day is beautiful. Even when he is being devilish, opening and emptying every cupboard, climbing the step ladder, maneuvering out of his car seat while screeching, bopping his toys on our faces, squirming like a banshee to avoid a clean diaper, crying for his bottle (or cheerios, or yogurt), we love him so much.

Happy birthday Dear Winston. Here's to many more celebrations together.

Winston's Friend Molly

Winston is at the age where he is starting to recognize and play with other babies. One of his friends is Molly Goldberg (aka Miss Molly in our household). We attended Miss Molly's 1st birthday last weekend - her first birthday and our first child birthday party as parents. It was a great experience for everyone - bouncy house, pool, adult beverages for the parents - the Goldberg's know how to party in style.

My favorite memory was seeing the delight register on the faces of Winston and Molly when they recognized each other. Who knows what they were thinking...but it seemed to me it was something like "hey - I usually see you at daycare but now you are in the bouncy house! That's awesome!"

Delight in seeing each other not captured in this photo...

Molly went to town on her cake. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Dave had the camera and documented the experience in all its glorious details.

Here are photos from the event. Thank you to Molly's parents (John and Hillary) for hosting the madness!

Life's Tough for This 11 Month Old...

I included this so that you can all see that Winston does, indeed, have some hair. It doesn't show up in the photos because...well, there isn't much of it.

We just finished up a wonderful visit from Grandma Mary, who came down to Miami (missing a rare June heat wave in Wisconsin) for a week. Dave and I spent the weekend in Toronto. What a great city - don't miss the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Bell Lightbox Cinema.

Grandma brought these incredibly awesome boots for Win to test out.

This was my first full week away from Winston, and it was remarkable to see the growth in such a short time. When I left, he was able to pull up and then would fall backward to sit down. Now he can stand, hold onto the couch or table, squat to pick up an item, then stand back up. He is now an expert "cruiser" - he holds onto an objects and walks around it to get where he needs to go. He's talking a blue streak - no words that make sense to us, but he feels compelled to participate in many of the adult conversations and uses his hands and funny facial expressions to emphasize his point.

I love watching him negotiate the chairs and tables as he crawls - he's able to duck under a chair, crawling over the lowest bar and under the next without hitting his head. And he's figured out which items can be moved with brute strength (dining room chairs) and which are immovable (mahogany end tables). I know we are not entering genius territory here (except in mommy's mind), but it is interesting to see how children evaluate the physical landscape and adapt their actions to get what they need. When in doubt, push the chair aside and keep moving forward!

Here are some fun photos from Winston's new play area in the living room. Who needs toys when we can bang on mixing bowls from daddy's kitchen?

Another sign of burgeoning independence: Win hates to have his diaper changed. He will squirm and flip over at the slightest hint of diaper manipulation. I've taken to making crazy monkey noises to keep him intrigued and still. It worked today, not sure if it will help tomorrow though. One of our baby books says to get used to diapering the child standing up. really??

We spent Saturday morning with Mary at the beach. Here are some cute pictures from our adventures.

Winston got this awesome car from Grandma and Grandpa Wanless for his birthday. He loves to stand behind it and push and "walk" with his car.

That is one happy kid...and yes, that is a hotdog on his onesie.

So far, my all time favorite photo.

Winston discovering Grandma's yarn.