Baby Schwartz 2011: Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby!

The last year has gone by so quickly. And at the same time, it's been the longest year of my life. It's been so hard, so exciting, so exhausting, so fun. It's been everything I expected and more. Yet, it's been absolutely nothing like I expected.

The first few months were very hard. Between lack of sleep, almost constant nursing and having no idea what the hell we were doing, I wondered if I could really do this parenthood thing. Going back to work part time at 4 weeks and full time at 8 weeks did not help matters. Trying to be a functioning employee while still only getting 3 hours of sleep at a time was crazy-hard. There were days at work that were completely wasted-- reading the same line of a report over, and over, and over or spending a whole morning composing one email. At the same time, work was my sanctuary from the crying and the constant nursing [insert crude joke about my coworkers here].

As the six month mark rolled around, Evan became much more interesting. He was sleeping better (mostly) and we were all in our groove. Newborns are nice, but they're sorta boring and after 6 months, Evan became much more exciting. He was learning new things every day. One day, he couldn't sit up and then the next day, he could. I was told to enjoy that short time when he was sitting but not moving. I should've listened because it wasn't long before he was army crawling. In fact, he really got the hang of that in Germany.

As he got closer to a year, he started pulling up and walking along things and crawling like it's his job. He became so much more aware of his surroundings and wanted to get into everything. He's so social-- waving and smiling at everyone, yet so clingy to David and most of all, to me. He's moody beyond belief. There are days when I can barely stand to send him to daycare because he's so fun and I just want to hang out with him all day. And then there are days, weekend days, that I think suffering death by PowerPoint at work would be a much better option. Luckily, there are far more awesome days.

Momma's Boy [August 2011]

Momma's Boy [July 2012]

And then, my baby turned one. He had a rough day at daycare on his birthday-- crying and not eating and he had some sores in/around his mouth. I'm pretty sure he had hand, foot and mouth... again. He got his birthday present from us that evening (a wagon) and had his favorite dinner (spaghetti), which he ate enough of to make up for the non-eating at daycare.

Birthday Boy

Evan is ONE

Why must he do this with the balloons?! I had the
living room filled with 30 balloons for him.

Taking a couple birthday steps. He can take 4 or so on his own now.

Loves, loves, loves the wagon!

On Saturday, Grandma Barbi, Grandpa Ed and Uncle Randy came to visit. David smoked some pork and we had a delicious lunch. I'm glad David will teach Evan to cook one day because he sure isn't going to learn from me. I think we're both pretty excited about teaching him math and science through cooking... and, he'll make someone a good husband one day.

Eggos and coffee with Daddy before the fun begins
(Ack! I love these two!)

Hanging with Grandma and Grandpa

Chillin' with Uncle Randy

We FaceTimed with Grandma Janet and Cousin Michaela while Evan had his cake. After not eating any lunch, he was very slow and methodical about the cake eating. Like, "I wasn't planning on eating anything for lunch, but since you sat this cake in front of me, I suppose I'll eat it." And so, it was slow handful after slow handful of bright blue and green icing into his mouth. But then his eyes needed rubbed and before we knew it he was covered.

Adorable cake... that wasn't all that tasty.

"You can go ahead and scoot that on over here."

And it begins...

"Ok, I'm tired of this. Next?"

He went directly into the bathtub and then opened some presents. Then he napped and opened some more presents. As destructive as he is, I thought he'd get into the present opening, but he didn't. He got toys for right now, toys for later, clothes and college.

This is about as good as the interest in gifts gets.

"Sweet! Another dog to abuse!"
[Notice Laika to the left, jealous of IKEA dog.]

I think he had a great birthday. I also think (know) he has no idea that it was his birthday... or what a birthday is. But, at least we have the pictures to prove to him how much fun he had.