Marshall Veazey is 1!!!

I can't believe it!  As I sit here way too late trying to write this post, I have to admit I'm a bit emotional about the day being over, his first year being over and knowing how many other things are about to be over.  The end of the first year is bittersweet in my eyes because the baby stage is hard.  It takes a toll on you emotionally and physically, but it brings great rewards!  For the most part, babies only want their mamas.  I walk into a room, he drops everything and his face lights up.  He kisses me without asking for it and loves nothing more than to snuggle up in his rocking chair with me and his binky.  Marshall seems more babyish to me at this age than Jack ever did and I'm sure that's because I now have Jack seeming more like a big boy every day with the only thing babyish remaining about him being the binkies he still totes around the house.  These two boys pull at my heart strings daily and there is not one thing in this world I am prouder of than being their mommy.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

We bought Marshall a 4-wheeler, the same one we had picked out for Jack's first birthday that we decided against for a much bigger Jeep that he just now grew into.  You learn so much from your first child!

And from your second child.  (Note to self:  IF there is a third child, save the money and just buy them the balloon from the Dollar Tree.)

At first he didn't get it.

Daddy stepped in, but he was still a bit puzzled by the red button on the handle bars.

Where did my baby go?  This face is screaming "I'm a big kid now!"

Not to leave Jack out, he got a bag of goodies from "Marshall" to celebrate being a big brother for one year!  It was his day too, he kept reminding us.

He looks interested here, but he really couldn't have cared less about the gifts.

Well, except for the ones he could chew on.

Not a great picture of Marshall, but this is why I call him the "shoeless" or "one-shoed" wonder.  The child HATES anything on his feet and will go to great lengths to remove anything from his feet.  It never fails, I put socks on him and he has them off by the time we get to school.  The only solution I've found is shoes, but he's starting to figure those out as well and most of the time he at least has one shoe on and one bare foot.  We gave him these house shoes to try to keep those tootsies warm on our cold hard floors, but no such luck on day one.

Notice who has the gift and who is only interested in the shred of paper.

We had donuts for breakfast.  I took a picture of him devouring one whole with my cell and sent it to my family.  My grandfather called and said it looked like a certain girl he remembered who used to love donuts herself.  Another side note, when I was a child my grandfather brought me donuts every single Saturday.  We never even knew he came by, but it never failed that when we woke up on Saturday we would go out to the carport and there was a sack of chocolate covered donuts and donut holes waiting for us on top of the car.  Here's Marshall trying to remove his hat while we sang to him.

Fast forward to tonight when the Jostes crew showed up with Craig's latest masterpiece.  Marshall's big party is this coming weekend, but it's in Murray, KY, a long drive for our Jostes friends and we couldn't celebrate without them or not have cake on Marshall's actual birthday.  So I fixed some food, they brought the cake and the kids had a great time.  I counted up that out of 11 child birthdays between our two families, we've been together for 9 of them, only missing Kate's 2nd and Jack's 1st when they lived in New Hampshire.  That's also 4 birthday cakes that Craig has baked and decorated for my boys.  When they decide to move back to Chicago, we might just pack up and go with them!

When Liz grabbed the camera, they were all playing together, but that moment didn't last long.

I have to explain the Sesame Street theme.  Marshall has never even seen Sesame Street or laid eyes on Elmo until here recently when I've picked up everything Elmo I've laid my eyes on.  Sesame Street Live is coming to Murray, KY while we're going to be in Paris for Thanksgiving, so we decided to take the kids to the show as kind of a preparty.  Marshall will be very familiar with Elmo by the time this birthday celebration is over.

Big brother to the rescue to blow out the candle.

He didn't just take a little taste.  He dug in!

Are you sure this is alright?

So yes, I'm emotional because as of right now, this is our last planned baby.  In some ways, that excites me because I know fun stages are coming.  We can't wait to take the boys to Disney and snow skiing and ballgames and let's face it, those things just aren't as much fun toting a little one on your hip.  But a part of me is very nostalgic tonight of my nights in the hospital with Marshall when Travis was snoring so loudly on the makeshift bed I was so excited about my new baby that I couldn't sleep, his middle-of-the-night feedings when I would fall asleep with him in the glider in his room, and all those little mommy/baby moments when everything just feels wonderful and right with the world.

Now for the fun facts about Marshall:
* He says "Hi" when you walk into the room, mostly when his daddy gets home from work.  Just the dogs barking triggers that response in him because that usually means Daddy is home!
* He has 6 teeth, 3 on bottom and 3 on top, and it's a pretty good sign that he's teething when he starts waking me at night or extra early in the morning.
* I introduced him to whole milk yesterday and he had no problem gulping it down.
* He eats everything.  I would have an easier time telling you what he hasn't had in his mouth than what he has.
* He'll mimic some words like "duck" and "dog" and says "mama" and "da" or "dada" on a regular basis.  "Mama" still mostly comes out when he's upset.
* When he goes into a room, he closes the door behind him and then beats on it until you open it and then plays peekaboo with you.  Travis managed to catch one of his peekaboo sessions on video this weekend.

* He already knows how to push Jack's buttons and loves doing it.  AND by the end of the day, he had already learned how to push that 4-wheeler button as well.