Dear Thomas,
Mommy is very sorry that for the first year of your life you had no pictures or decorations in your room. Mommy was six months pregnant when we moved into this house, and I spent my end days of pregnancy enjoying the holidays and over indulging in food. There was just little time and energy left over for decorating. Then, I spent the first ten months of your life taking care of you around the clock! Once you started walking around ten months, I knew you officially “needed” me to finish unpacking everything so that you could get all of your toys out of my living room floor because I was tired of looking and tripping over them have your “playroom”…aka, our sunroom/Bible study room/previous storage room. It serves multi-purposes in this household. Anyways, once I got that unpacked and we moved all of your toys into the new playroom, I was on a roll and decided to keep going. So, when you were around 11 months old, I went down to Bob Shapiro’s studio and ordered your newborn photos….yes, I said newborn photos. I bet they thought I was a quack taking almost a year to order photos..who does that!? Moving forward now.
The winter months are long and hard on your Daddy. You see, he is a rambling man. He needs wide open spaces and grease beneath his finger nails to feel alive. He starts going a little stir crazy during the winter months. So, I put him to work to keep him busy and me sane. I saw these gutter shelves on my friend, Britt’s, blog. You should totally go check her blog out. She is beyond crafty and has the most decorative eye I’ve ever seen. She is frugal and modern. Most importantly, she is the mother to two sweet little babies in Ethiopia that she is going to meet for the first time very, very soon. I hope she lets me pinch their little cheeks when they all get back. These gutter shelves are in their nursery, too. Anyways, Daniel and I went to work creating, hanging, and decorating your room, sweet one-year-old-baby-boy-of-mine-you’re-growing-up-too-fast-Thomas!!!! Here are a few of our finishing touches:
Aunt Katie gave me the two frames on the outside. I love them. They are so “baby-ish” and “nursery-ish” to me.
This is a wall decal I ordered off of etsy.
And to all of the Moms out there, does your child eat his crib, too? We have the little gummy protectors on parts of it, but they don’t stick very well. The way Thomas’s crib is curved makes it hard to stick anything to it. My child just sits in there and eats away at the wood. Come to think of it, Lady loves eating wood, too. What is up with my children!?
One final thought before we move on to the Big Birthday Weekend…I love this little stool. Daniel had one with his name on it when he was little, and now Thomas has one, too. It’s such a classic item. I can’t wait to see him stand on it to wash his hands and brush his teeth.
And now I’m going to talk about one of the most important days of my life since Thomas was born: his first birthday. I was surprised at how sentimental I felt on that day. It was such a day of reflection and rejoicing over the past year and of just life and health in general! In my heart I felt a lot of gratitude and thanksgiving to the Lord as I recounted all of the ways that He had provided for our family over the past year…spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We have been tried and tested, and weary and burdened at times, but the Lord has never left us. We have been rescued and redeemed! He is the Good Provider. Thomas’s first birthday just brought up an appreciation for everything God had done in our lives this past year and all of the ways that He is growing and changing us.
We had only family and “like family” at Thomas’s birthday party. I wanted the day to be very relaxed and intimate with our friends and family. I didn’t want to be so busy running in a hundred different directions trying to put together the perfect birthday party that I didn’t have time to truly celebrate with my little man. We had pizza, wings, salad, cake, and ice cream! We had a frog theme since Thomas loves, loves, loves his little Frog and sleeps with it underneath his arm every night.
We were blessed to have my entire family come up for the whole weekend! It was so fun to watch the cousins play together
My little family!
Aunt Francie got Thomas this little fire engine car for his birthday, and he loves it! We actually kind of “hide” it from him sometimes by putting it in another room and closing the door because we get so worn out from pushing him in it! Our legs and backs need a break! I bet we’ve been around the living room a hundred times in it. We are such awful parents, aren’t we!?
It came with a little fireman hat that Thomas was of course adorable in! We would put it on him…
And he would take it right back off and hand it back to us!
Thanks for the ride, Aunt Francie!!
Thomas loved it so much, he cried when we took him off it! It was time for the party to begin though….
Thomas was thrilled that I tied balloons to his high chair.
Biggest. Distraction. Ever.
Mary Frances had just had her birthday party a few months ago, so she knew all about opening presents!
She also is a little beggar when it comes to food. Once she realized everyone had a bowl of cake and ice cream, the begging was on!…
….even from people she didn’t really know, like Aunt Heather!…who has recently and affectionately been named Aunt Ha Ha.
In other news from February, we celebrated Valentine’s Day with our small group from church. We all got sitters and had an adult dinner and played a couples game afterwards. We had a very tasty Italian dinner and great conversations. Thomas stayed home with Aunt Summer, Uncle Scott, and his little buddy Kennedy.
Thomas picked me some fresh flowers the other day. He and his Grandmama T had been out and came back with these….I hope it’s just the first of many fresh flowers Thomas picks for the women he loves!
Daniel, Thomas, and I ventured out one Saturday to spend the lovely afternoon in Piedmont Park having a picnic with some friends of ours, Jen and Alex. It was sunny and just what a soul needed after a long, cold month of playing inside. She talks all about it on her blog.
We are having an easy day around the house today. Daniel sprayed his wheat this morning. I went for a run. Daniel and Thomas went to the church BBQ, and Thomas came back with a balloon tied to his overalls. It was adorable. He had his first taste of stew and loved it. I don’t know what goes on with my child when I’m not around. I do know that it’s 3:30pm, and he still isn’t asleep. We’re going to a birthday cookout tonight at James and Leigh’s so he really needs this last nap! Looks like I’ve got some work to do
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