Charlie's 1st Birthday

I can't believe Charlie is a year old. A year ago was the hardest and happiest few days EVER, with a 5 day stay in the NICU. But what a joy Charlie is to have! He's so personable, and happy most of the time. He has a fantastic laugh:)


We started Charlie's birthday in a great way- his 1 year pediatrician appointment, complete with shots. *twirls finger* Don't get me started about this new pediatrician... I miss Utah Valley Pediatrics and Dr. Cornish TREMENDOUSLY. Anyways, after all of that, we just hung out at home the three of us. Charlie opened all his presents from Grandma Rowland.

He got some outfits, some sing-a-long cds (including a veggie tale one that is SO cute. We sing to it in the car all the time), and lots of TOYS. Blocks, trucks, Little People, etc. He has had a blast in his playroom with all these new additions from everyone!

The funniest thing is... he loves all of his birthday cards. They are all in the playroom with the other toys. He "reads" them like we practice with books--he opens them up and shuts them. He also drags them around with him as he crawls. So thanks everyone who sent a card!

Then we did the traditional eating cake while wearing nothing but a diaper.

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At first he didn't know what to do with it. *poke*

He eventually got the hang of it. He likes the frosting way better than the cake part.

Then on Saturday, we had some friends from church over for a real party. We had spaghetti for dinner (which is one of the few "grown up" foods Charlie really likes. He can eat a TON of it! That and cottage cheese...). All the kids played with Charlie's new toys. Then we had these cute monkey cupcakes I made. The kids had fun, the grown ups had fun (especially the guys watching BYU win their football game), the spaghetti didn't get all over the carpet, Charlie loved all his presents, especially the tissue paper that came with the gift bags, so I figure it was an all around success.

In other updates, Charlie likes the taste of whole milk, but his tummy seems to have a hard time with it. We're back to formula for the time being, with instructions to start small amounts of milk in a few days. He stood for a long time during library time today, and even took a step on his own! We're also headed back to Seattle for another procedure in a couple of weeks... hopefully the last one. We are thankful for the awesome doctors at Seattle Children's hospital, and the awesome family members that let us crash at their house for days at a time. And we are so grateful to have Charlie in our lives!