the day you turned one...

my darling blake,

the day you turned one....

... you woke up a big boy. i nursed you one last time, sat you down and sang you a birthday song while you blew party poppers at us. we'd been practicing it all month. and it was the cutest. but i want you to remember its was just us three. on your special birthday morning. 

then we wanted to take you for a fancypants birthday brunch by the park. but it started to drizzle and the lines were looooong. so we changed our plans and took you to a fuss-free (but well-reviewed) diner. it was nice and cosy and served the yummiest breakfast melt. you ate off our plates, polished an entire grilled chicken strip and a bit more fruit and it was the most leisurely breakfast we had in ages!

oh maybe this is a good time to apologize for not throwing you a party. especially since we throw parties all the time for no reason. we wanted you all to ourselves. we thought about what it meant to throw you a big party. it would be filled with our friends (who by the way, love you to death), we'd be busy chatting with people, i would most definitely be stressed about having the perfect theme to pay attention to you.. and more importantly, you won't remember it. so we love you but we decided to keep you all to ourselves this year. next year, i promise you'll get to pick your friends and have a nice little do.

we thought long and hard about how you'd like to spend your day. and kept reminding ourselves that it was really about you. not us. after brunch, we took a long walk. you love walks because you like chatting, pointing our things to us, stopping to stare at something completely random but interesting. and this morning, we walked to lake michigan and marveled at how a lake could be soooo huge you don't see the other side. we walked and walked and then miracles of ALL miracles... you fell asleep!!!

you've never done that! ever!! 

so we got a coffee and sat in this beautiful indoor palm court and watched you snooze. you're indeed the most beautiful little thing in our life. and we don't get to enjoy the peaceful blake very often. so that was special! 

when you woke up to beautiful indoor fountains and little ponds, you were so pleased! you're really such an easy to please bunny!! you spent some time absolutely mesmerized by the shooting fountains. such a cheesy feature, i thought but brought you so much joy. and undoubtedly, you were the center of our world. 

we also knew how much you enjoyed the children's museum and missed out on the pet's exhibition! so we went back and spent some time there...

because it's really all about you. and no one else had fun... :) 

you had such a great time play-pretending.

and met a little friend who took a liking for you! he followed us around all morning from exhibit to exhibit! his nanny kept apologizing but we didn't mind at all! we hope that you'll make friends easily in life because it can get lonely being the only little munchkin in the house, huh? 

munchkin... when you play, you go ALL OUT! you kept going until you were stumbling around and rubbing your eyes. that's silly you exploring the world in your own way! you've developed a liking for coming down the slide head-first. that's you, buddy! always diving into everything in your own special way!! a few bump and bruises can't hold you back!

oh bubba, look at the pride in your papa's eyes!!

then we brought you to a big kid restaurant where you fell asleep and missed out most of the fun. but woke up in time to polish half of mama's pasta!! and mind you, the portions were MASSIVE! and because we'd told them earlier it was your birthday, a whole troop of over-enthusiastic servers sang you a birthday song! you were a little overwhelmed but couldn't stop staring at your massive strawberry shortcake!!

we all shared it but barely made a dent in it. ahhh good ole american portions! :)

while we had you all to ourselves on that day, we want to remind you that you had so many lovely treats waiting for you back home. you even had a surprise party thrown in your honor in japan, many playdates and many generous gifts from your little friends. and was spoilt silly nevertheless. so never for a moment doubt this. when you turned one, you were very loved by everyone. so it's up to you to keep that going, buddy!

ok! big boy, before this gets too long, and your old mama gets all gooey eyed typing this out more than a month late...  thanks for hanging out with us this one year! sorry if we don't always treat you like you deserve - a glorified spoilt single child. but we love you more than you'll ever know and hope that you'll grow up always knowing that!

happy birthday, honeybunch.
love you!

xx