Tommy is ONE!

Daddy baked a cake, went shopping for presents--and the big sisters even got presents too!  A first birthday, from Tommy's perspective.

Wow, this ladybug kitchen timer is really neat.  I sure like to play with it.  Why is everyone singing?  It's really distracting me.

Daddy took my toy away.  This sucks.  What's this thing in front of me?  It's awfully squishy.  Maybe I should just smear it around for a little while.  Hey, this is kind of fun.  Is it paint?  Am I drawing?  I should put some in my mouth maybe.

This paint stuff's pretty tasty.  But it's more fun to smear all over.  Thanks Daddy!

Little Dude is one today.  My last baby, isn't really a baby anymore.  He's running full-on into toddlerhood.  I swear, it can't be a year already...I just brought him home from the hospital.

He's our inquisitive little guy.  He never stops making noise, but really only says "da da".  He loves his sisters and they love making him laugh.  He can shake hands, and Tori almost taught him how to high five tonight.  He's almost as big as she is, and is just absolutely enamored with her.  While he's a bit slow in the talking department, he's got amazing dexterity.  He has never held his own bottle--despite the fact that he is a complete chow hound.  He refuses to hold it and will wail in anger until you acquiese and feed him.  He's great about playing on his own, unless he wants your attention, in which case, you must drop everything to pick him up, feed him or play with him.  He's so LOUD--screeches of happy and wails of frustration.  I often wonder what people walking by must think--I am guessing they refer to our house as the crying baby house.  Tori's in the 2 year old "I did not get my way so I will sit down and scream at the top of my lungs" phase.  So it seems like someone is always screaming in this house--and if it's not angry babies, it is the back and forth happy shrieking that kids do for no apparent reason, other than to torture their mommy.

As I unpacked some 2T clothes for the little dude tonight, it hit me.  He's the last one.  No more babies, just little people starting to grow up here.  I'm not packing things up anymore, but bagging and boxing them to pass on to another mom, because we won't need them ever again.  No more bouncer, or walker, or exersaucer.  Pretty soon, we'll say goodbye to the high chair, as Tommy will have a place at the dinner table.  I thought as I contemplated these things, I would be wistful and nostalgic, but truly, I'm not.  I'm excited about the promise in little Tommy (and Tori, and Dani) about the people they are becoming and their next "first".  I can't wait until he can talk back to me, and say "mommy".  It's going to be a great year, for Tommy, and for all of us.