Zachary's First Birthday

I cannot believe that a year has gone by. I cannot believe that this time last year I was sitting at home, probably crying, because i did a lot of that just after I had Zach, stupid "baby blues", and trying to feed him and pump and bottle feed him because he wasn't getting enough milk. This time, one year ago, the public health nurse was just leaving my house, and I was phoning around to rent a breast pump, and cried my eyes out when Art made me go get it by myself because he had people over to watch football. Zach still hadn't had a real pee. He was dehydrated.

On this night, a year ago, I had to take my baby boy to the hosptial at midnight to find out why he was peeing red stuff (urinary crystals from extreme dehydration). He downed most of a bottle of formula, then puked it ALL back up on me. I had a change of clothes for him, but not for me. yay!

But I don't regret a minute of any of it (except maybe the hospital part, that wasn't fun, and while not my fault per se, was still my fault a little bit.)

On Saturday we had a small party for him. We did our best to keep it small becuase it's so close to Christmas. I heard through the grapevine that some people were upset that they didn't get an invite. Well, it wasn't because we didn't want you there, it was because we didn't want you thinking "gee, I'm practically broke from Christmas gift buying, and now I have to get a birthday gift too!" and I was thinking (because this is the way I think) that if people bought him a birthday gift, they may feel obligated to get him a Christmas gift too (maybe not, but I would, so I assume others would too.) And I just didn't want to add stress to anyone else's life. This is just how I felt, so that's how we dealt with it. Not to mention the financial stress on us to put on a big party in the middle of winter. It's not like Danica's birthday when we can kick everyone outside. We had everyone in and got h'ors d'ouvres. As it was, with just immediate family, Wade (who was there when Zach was born) Stacy Joy (who wasn't able to attend, but was invited becuse she was there when Zach was born and is one of his God Mom's) Jenn and family (jenn is his other God Mom) and Rob and Jerilynn (who are special to us, but mostly they came because Jerilynn really wanted to, and Zach just LOVES her, and Rob was going to a concert with Art that night.)

So, it wasn't like we didn't want anyone else there, it's just that we wanted to keep it small. I hope that's OK.

Big changes in the last year (first year!) of Zach's life:

-gained 21 lbs and grew nine inches
-learned to hold his head up, roll over, sit, pull up to standing, cruise along furnature and crawl
-learned to say Dada, and A-da (danica) (but not mama!!! ouch!)
-plays "soccer" (by hitting a ball with his hands and chasing it)
-feeding himself finger foods
-grew four teeth
-clap and wave bye-bye, and give a high five. :-)

Happy birthday baby boy!!!