Dear Everett,
You are now officially one-year-old and the time has surely flown by. If we ever doubted that we could be any happier than we were with one child, you have managed to quickly remove those doubts and have doubled that happiness and then some. We revel in watching our little baby boy claim his place in this world and grow each day and, with that growth, shed the title of ‘baby’ and simply become our little boy. Please don’t be mistaken, however; you will always be our baby.
The past few months (including the ones that your mother didn’t properly document) you have done a wonderful job growing and learning. Sitting up quickly transitioned into crawling, crawling has quickly transitioned to standing, and currently you are one fearless climber. You verbalize quite a lot and have found ‘duh’ to be your favorite sound. You have said ‘da-da’ and ‘ball’ and are just now warming up to saying ‘ma-ma’. No matter the words, it is fun to hear you imitate and communicate with us.
You and your sister have a definite love for one another and it is so rewarding for Mommy and Daddy to watch. You like to follow her around the house and often end up giggling and wrestling with one another. You watch Eisley all the time to see what she is up to and she will frequently entertain you with singing and silliness.
There is an absolute budding interest in music that we have witnessed and you start to move and dance as soon as you hear a tune. You seem to be able to keep a good rhythm when clapping along and you gravitate towards the musical toys in the house. It is incredibly fun to see you derive so much enjoyment from one particular thing.
You are quite an eater and manage to put away a decent amount of food on a regular basis. Your jowls have remained intact and you have the cutest rolls on your thighs and wrists. After taking you to your one-year checkup today, you are weighing in at 20 lbs 14 oz and are consistently measuring in the 90% percentile for length. Your teeth are coming in on a regular basis and you now have a total of six. It appears that your molars may be breaking through before too long and hopefully that doesn’t prove to be too difficult.
We had a fun birthday party for you this past weekend and you really enjoyed eating your little cake (Granna made you a little beetle cake to go with the bug theme!). You played with the other children there and you were showered with love and attention. You were so happy and it was fun to watch you enjoy your birthday celebration.
If there was one word that we could use to sum up this first year of your life it would undoubtedly be ‘happiness’. You have obviously brought a great deal of happiness to the lives of your mommy, daddy and your sister too, and a great deal of that happiness is created just by observing the pure joy you seem to have. Your smile is constantly being worn and you let out the cutest giggles. Numerous people have commented on what a happy baby you are and we couldn’t be more in agreement. Our hearts are simply bursting at the seams with the love and happiness we have for you, little one.
It was just one year ago when you arrived safely in this world, so small and so, SO sleepy. Your birth day happened a little earlier than expected but we are forever grateful because it has meant that much more time we’ve had the opportunity to know you, to love you and to wrap our arms around you.
We love you sweet boy. Happy, happy first birthday!
