What a WONDERFUL day!!!! We celebrated Ewan's first birthday with a small party in our home and it was great!! It is amazing to think back to a year ago (July 5th was my actual due date and Ewan was born on the 6th) and how I was DYING to meet our new little baby! In fact we didn't even know our baby's gender at this time last year. . . and I distinctly remember eating an entire pint of Haagen Dazs pomegranate chip ice cream in my "despair" over not having yet given birth to this little person who had been growing inside me. (And yes, I did happen to find the same flavor and plan on eating it tonight!!!) And now, here he is 1 year old and bringing us so much joy! What an amazing array of emotions we have experienced during Ewan's first year of life. I cannot believe this little person who started out like this:

. . .is now like this:

What an incredible gift from God. Psalm 139 quickly comes to mind as I think of the journey that has brought us to our little boy's first birthday. We are so grateful to our God.

The solution. . .for now at least!

As I have mentioned a couple times in other posts, Ewan seems to only be happy when mommy is holding him-which makes going for walks with the stroller a bit challenging. So, today, Denny and I decided to try this contraption for our "family walk". . . and Ewan LOVED it!!! He was giggling and smiling during the entire walk- no tears at all! Ewan saw LOTS of geese and ducks in the park and was fascinated by them. And daddy saw some bass in the stream which fascinated him!!! And I got a good work out carrying around a 20 pounder!

Roll Back

Not too thrilled at this moment

The Wal-Mart stickers

Wal-Mart. The first family outing- that's right-all 3 of us. Yes, we've been putting it off. We are well aware that Wal-Mart has a reputation for bringing out the worst in all of us. Actually, Ewan was just fine, although we are currently going through a phase where he will not sit in the stroller or cart without belting out rather louds wails- he wants to be in mama's arms whenever we are in a store. Of course, this makes for quite an interesting experience. But, Ewan did get TWO stickers (not sure if he knew this!) and mommy and daddy had to stop at Dunkin Donuts (that's right, we do indulge occasionally) on the way home where Ewan also had his first taste of a glazed donut hole, courtesy of Dunkin. We're not sure if he will agree to eat anything other than glazed donut holes based on the joy on his face after his first taste!