One Year

I don’t know if you noticed, but someone got a whole year older almost overnight:

 

 

I know it goes quickly; this ain’t my first rodeo, and I knew that the year would move fast with a baby, and the added bonus of an also-growing older baby (big kid!), but I didn’t know that it would move at light speed.

 

 

Oh, Jamie.  So different from his brother.  He still kicks and goes absolutely bananas when he sees someone he loves.  Especially Tony and Buster.  It’s like his whole body convulses with joy.  He’s amazingly gentle with the dog, and the dog loves him so much.  Jamie has mastered the art of waiting until our heads our turned before reaching down to Buster from the high chair with a tasty morsel to share in his hand.  Jamie didn’t always express much displeasure at his surroundings, but he’s started to throw little tantrums whenever I take away a “toy” that is not a toy or remove him from an object he’s not allowed to play with.  The kid seems to have a magnetic attraction to electrical outlets, the dishwasher, the dog dishes, knives, and the concrete steps.  He can race up stairs faster than you can say, “That kid is back on the escalator!” and he knows when he has something he’s not supposed to have: he grins and turns to waddle the other way as fast as his 12-month-old legs will carry him.

 

 

I love him so much.  His little boy smell, his cute little hands.  His crooked teeth.  The way he sits and plays with a toy so intently, moving pieces around, picking up other toys to put inside a boat or a truck.

 

And his brother.  Oh, does he love Charles.  And Charles loves Jamie.

 

 

He’s a thumb-sucker.  He’s a snuggler.  He doesn’t fight sleep (not much, anyway).  He might never stop nursing.  He’s in 18-month clothing, but not because he is so large round the middle like Charles was; rather, he is long.  His hair is so soft.  He kneads my arm as he falls asleep. 

 

 

I went a bit all-out for Jamie’s birthday.  I wanted to have a nice barbeque with friends, especially since we hadn’t seen some of our friends in quite a long time (travelling to France, a surprise party for my mom – more on that later – and some other weekends away).  I made a deluxe cake and real, cooked buttercream frosting from scratch (ah-may-zing), and I did chicken shish-kebabs and strawberry shortcake and cleaned the house and the yard… we had a great time.  And I think Jamie liked the cake all right.