Monkey Birthday Party

On Wednesday, August 7th last year, I finally managed to birth Andrew with the awesome help of family members and husband. After 26 laborious hours of intense arm-ripping contractions (Gary can explain the arm-ripping part), Andrew finally came into this world. I remember during my pregnancy, how unhappy I was about my changing body and the living thing that was inside me. Now, he's 1 and I'm as happy as can be. I know every mother thinks their child is the most wonderful child, and I can't help but to think that of him. It's hard to believe he's already walking, about to start saying "mommy" and getting all these new teeth, but you better believe it when they say that time flies.

On Saturday, August 8th, we celebrated Andrew's 1st birthday party at Moomie's house in Dublin. I made him custom monkey invitations, a monkey piñata, a monkey cake and Moomie stamped his cups with a monkey. We even had monkey masks. I had no idea that many people would show up and unfortunately almost ran out of food! (...it was me being a bad planner, gimme a break!)

Cute story: on August the 6th, (the day before he was born in 2008) I was holding Andrew in my arms and realized that I would be having a contraction, so I pretended to have one and he laughed out loud. Somehow he thought it was funny for Mom to suddenly stop and grunt. I'm glad I amuse him too because he makes me laugh on a daily basis...

He had his 1st year check-up (mandatory for Medicaid...tsk, tsk, tsk) and had his blood drawn. He has such a high tolerance for pain he didn't cry, but whined a little. At WIC, he didn't like his band-aid and spent 10 minutes figuring out how the heck to take it off his finger! He is growing healthy and strong and learning something new everyday. Today, he learned to "ta-ta" in the toilet with Mommy's help (starting early--heck yeah!) and how to get a june bug off his finger. He's got 5 teeth, a lot of peach fuzz, and thunder legs. He is a traveler, a whiner, a riot, he's a barrel of monkeys and the sweetest cuddler you'll ever meet.

To put it this way, Andrew makes my day, everyday.

Here are some pictures of him...