ONE!

Can you believe it's been a whole year since this freaking adorable picture was taken???

That picture was taken right before we left the hospital, and I love it. I really still am trying to accept the fact that my baby is ONE. Where did the last year go? It's been a great year, and I feel well-adjusted to having 3 kids. One of my good friends just had a baby, and I will admit, I do miss that sweet, snuggly, sleeping all the time (but only while being held) stage. However, on the other hand, Jake is learning so much and changing so much, and that makes him so much fun. It's just amazing to see his brain working and to see things click for him. For example, We have the book Oh, David by David Shannon, and on the page that says only, "P.U.," I always put my fingers on Jake's nose like I'm plugging it. So now when I get that book out to read, Jake immediately puts his hand up to his nasal region (he doesn't always get right on his nose). He also is starting to make animal noises. He likes to do a monkey (which involves a lot of leg-kicking, for some reason) and a cow. He's taken a few steps on a few different occasions, but isn't walking unassisted yet. Mike and I have a bet- I think it will happen by Dec. 27th, and Mike doesn't. We'll see who wins.

Jake's birthday was nice and low-key. He woke up in a happy mood.

He enjoyed feeding Mike some breakfast. One of Jake's latest tricks is getting into the pantry and getting out a small container of applesauce. Then he makes his "help me" noise until I put him in his seat, open the applesauce, and give him his own spoon. So far he's not very successful about actually getting any applesauce in his mouth, but he tries hard. He is definitely getting good at communicating what he wants, that's for sure.

Zach and Drew wanted me to make a candy-cane shaped cake for Jake that could also be a J. I wanted to make a snowman cake because it'd be easy, but I went with what the boys wanted. And I regretted it. It was a pain to frost. And then I realized that if we flipped it around, it'd be a backward J. Great. In the end it turned out ok, though it's not my best cake ever.

I made the shape by using a 9 inch round pan and a 9x13 inch pan and then cutting each in half and "pasting" them together, so there was enough to make a candy cane and a J. Whew! There was also enough batter left over for a few cupcakes. Considering we only had Mike's 2 sets of parents over for Jake's party, we had a lot of cake left over. I threw a huge chunk away today, actually.

Jake enjoyed trying to open a couple of presents, and Zach and Drew were incredibly good. They didn't take over or overstep their boundaries at all.

But he had to take a little break to take an important call on my cell phone.

Then it was cake time. He really loved us singing happy birthday to him, but I had the cake and Mike had the camera, so we didn't get the first rendition on video. Somehow he knew to blow out the candle, though he couldn't really do it. I was nervous he was going to try to grab the flame, so I helped him blow it out pretty quickly.

I gave Jake a big slab of cake. In hindsight, I know I should have done a couple of things differently. First, I would have stripped him down to his diaper, though I think he would have been cold. Second, I would not have used red frosting!

So here he is all nice and clean.

Checking things out...

Big brothers getting in on the action.

I cut the cake into some smaller pieces, and that helped to sort of get Jake more interested.

These next two really kind of crack me up.

Now he's got it figured out!

Want some cake?

All done and sooooooo big!

Somehow I managed to get him out of his high chair and into the bathtub without getting red frosting all over me. And I washed his clothes and don't even see stains! What a fun birthday!

I forgot to take his 12 month picture before giving him the cake, so I had to take it the next day in a different outfit (as opposed to the "Birthday Boy" onesie he was borrowing from cousin Myles).

What a great (and fast!) year it has been!!