Welcome to birthday week in House Holt! It all began today
with Ethan celebrating his first birthday and will continue tomorrow with
Bethany celebrating the big 3-2. I should probably be redacting the number when
referring to Bethany's birthday. Instead though, I've decided to wait and see
how long it takes her to say something to me. Odds are she won't say anything
but it's still a nice, little social experiment for me to take part in.
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| My all-time favorite birthday greeting to offer people. Thanks 'The Office'! |
It's actually unbelievably weird to think about Ethan
turning one. For one thing, it's gone so fast. You always hear people saying,
"Enjoy every last moment. It goes too fast," or something along those
lines. However, I really didn't think that those people knew what they were
talking about. After all, when Ellie was born, it felt like we had the time to
embrace every first and just enjoy ever second. Unfortunately for Ethan, with
him having an older sibling, it felt like we blinked and he had stopped being a
baby.
For example, with Ellie continually running around the house
like a crazy person, it was no surprise that Ethan wanted to tag along behind.
That's probably the reason why Ethan was crawling at five months, taking steps
at nine months, and climbing the stairs at 10 months. For comparison's sake,
Ellie was eight months old when she began crawling and 13 months when she began
walking. Crazy, right?
Even though it's gone super fast, I still think it's good to
ruminate for a few minutes on just how fun of a year it has been. I initially
though Ethan wouldn't be that much different of a baby than Ellie but I was
definitely wrong. While Ellie spent practically every last second screaming,
Ethan chooses to spend his time laughing and smiling. He's also the most
affectionate little guy I've ever seen. I can't even count how many sloppy, wet
"kisses" I get from him each day. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't
mention Ethan's complete and utter lack of social anxiety.
With today marking Ethan's actual birthday, it was only
fitting that we had big plans to celebrate. First and foremost was for the kids
and I to make the sojourn to DFA to have lunch with Bethany. Unfortunately for
us, the snow kind of got in the way of that trip and forced us to spend the day
at home. It wasn't all gloom and doom though. For one thing, Ethan got to start
off the morning by opening his very first birthday present from his mommy and
I; a toy television remote control. It was an absolute hit as Ethan spent most
of the day with it clutched in his hands, pressing one button after another,
and happily listening to the cavalcade of sounds emanating forth from its
plastic shell.
The gifting of the remote wouldn't be the only birthday-themed
part of the day. We ended our day with a dinner of hot dogs and macacroni &
cheese chosen specifically for Ethan's tastes. That wasn't all though. Once his
plate was cleaned, Ethan was presented with a strawberry-flavored cupcake,
complete with a lit candle. As we sang 'Happy Birthday' to our little man, he
sat there happily taking it all in until the second we removed the candle from
his cupcake. Then, he dug into the cupcake with reckless abandon, happily
stuffing it into his mouth and smashing it between his tiny fingers. By the
time he was done, it's no surprised to hear that he was happily covered in cake
and frosting.
As I write this, Ethan is fast asleep and has been for
several hours. Unfortunately that means he is missing out on the remaining time
left on this, the day of his birthday. Fortunately for Ethan, he'll have lots
more birthdays ahead, full of awesome memories to be made. I, for one, am
excited to see just what those birthdays have in store. However, let's also
hope that they don't come as quickly as this one did. After all, I want to
savor every last second of my time with my son and don't want to see it end too
soon. Makes sense, right? #DaddyWrite
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