Annual Report

"Happy Birthday Dear Will, Happy Birthday to you!!"

WOW! It has been one year since Little Mr. Swenson joined our family. All those typical questions have been asked; "do you remember life with out him?" or "did you ever think you would love someone so much?" Yes and no, respectively. I am really thankful that Zach and I had lots of "grown-up" time and I have scrapbooks filled with photos to remind me of those years. But with that being said, this new chapter has been nothing short of amazing...and of course I have way more scrapbook pages from just the last year than of all 15 years previous of just the two of us! It has been such a joy becoming parents and loving up our kid! No, we had no idea how much our hearts would overflow with happiness, concern and worry, love, pride, and contentment. It is a love we have certainly never experienced, and we are just like all other parents that want everyone to experience Will in hopes that they "feel the love" as well! :)

We had a whirlwind weekend/week celebrating Will's birthday. On Saturday April 24th we picked up cake and balloons for a party on Sunday. Since we had so many great props we also made an appointment for his 1 year portraits at Penneys. Much like his 9 month shots, he was not in the mood to just sit in one spot since there was so much to explore. I think we were a little over zealous with the cake, balloons, outfit changes and his wagon that he got from Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Doug. I was sweating in that little room trying to get him to look at us and stay still AND smile! Uff Da! There will not be 18 month professional shots that's for sure! It'll be October, more shots with pumpkins in the yard are fine with me! I do not want to do that again for another year!

The next day we celebrated with my mom, Jim, my Grandma Hugger, Zach's mom and Doug, his Grandpa Holter as well as Zach's cousin Eric, his girls and the Meyers. We waited until after naptime for the festivities to begin. The cake was a big hit and Will enjoyed the freedom to chow down on some birthday cake without manners or mama trying to keep him clean! He had a little cake topper that was about the size of a cupcake smothered in butter cream frosting. He ate the whole thing!

My dad flew in from WA to be with his grandson so on Wednesday we had him, my grandma Iverson, Aunt Karen, Paul and Ryan up for dinner and DQ birthday cake. I had to work that day, but was feeling like it should have been a national holiday! I was watching the clock and at 12:34pm, right when Will was born, I called Zach and told him "happy baby day" and was even a little choked up that I wasn't at home snuggling with my little buddy. It was a nice afternoon for the end of April so everyone was outside. After dinner and more singing Will experienced his first ice cream head ache. I gave him a little sliver of cake and Will stuffed his mouth with great enthusiasm. About 3 minutes in his face cringed in sheer panic, he started to cry so hard and could barely breathe. I did not know at first what was wrong with him, but with a mouthful of chocolate ice cream I realized what was happening...poor baby. So I scooped everything out of his mouth and within a few seconds he was ready for more! Atta boy!

So what are some of the little tricks this one year old can do you may ask? Well...first of all, he isn't walking yet. He can stand for a few seconds on his own but lacks the confidence to do it without being tricked into doing it. He walks along furniture but doesn't really like it when we try to have him walk between us with us holding onto his hands. I think Will finds that crawling is much faster...so why bother. We still aren't encouraging it too much, he'll go when he's ready. He already climbs up high on so many things (i.e. trying to get over the baby gates) so really, we can wait on the walking (er...running). He knows "dog" and "more" in sign language. When I say "dog" or he sees Blaze he will sign it. Those ones he will do, but I think he understands even more. He understands bird, cat, shoes, go and drink but doesn't sign them back yet. He says dog but his D's sound like deep G's so 'dog' and 'dada' sound like 'gog' and 'gaga'. He says 'mama' 'apple' (when he wants to) and he will say 'Ga Ga Pa" which is 'great grandpa'! He will repeat words back to me every once in a while but than it's tough to get him to say it again to verify if that's what he was really saying, like 'cat' and 'ball'.

He is eating regular people food but we still give him jarred foods too just to maintain his fruit and veggie intake as well as volume since it is hard controlling that with the food that ends up on the floor or in the bib. He's got 6 teeth with numbers 7 & 8 coming in shortly. He dances and plays and claps his hands whenever a commercial or TV show plays music (think Final Jeopardy theme song and car commercials). He loves going for walks in his stroller and crawling in the grass. Daddy puts him in his swing in the yard almost everyday and they both hang out in the hammock as much as possible. He is fascinated with other kids and loves watching them play. He is incredibly social in a comfortable setting and will go to almost anyone. He sleeps for 11-12 hours at night and takes one long nap in the late morning for 2-3 hours. He laughs hysterically when you tickle him and he loves to kiss me when he is extra slobbery! I don't mind though, I'll take all of the kisses I can get!
What a blessed year we have had...we take it one day at a time and really try to enjoy all of parenting. I know the tough stuff is coming...I know we will be challenged, but Zach can handle all of that stuff! LOL! He already has to be in charge of the runaway when it's diaper changing time because Will and I just fight. He will not stay put for me and this, right now, is our only major battle...drives me nuts!! But if that is the only thing that's tough...then we are doin' pretty darn good! We have had a year with no emergency room visits, no doc visits except for check-ups, no illnesses, accidents or major messes. Will has been a text book baby in almost every way. We are just following the rules...and his orders! Zach and I appreciate each other more, we rely on each other more and we sure like hanging out together even if that means we are hanging out doing nothing as long as the 3 of us are doing nothing together!
Thanks for all of your birthday wishes...we had so much fun!