Daniel is 1 Year Old!

I can't believe it. Time really goes too quickly sometimes. Watching a baby grow leaps and bounds in such a short time is amazing. Just 12 months ago we were in the hospital trying to overcome the difficulties of our last night as one, holding each other closely, learning what to do with each other, and -- well - sleeping. Now I can hardly hold on to Daniel for a few seconds before he is off and running.

Daniel is a mischievous little stinker. He likes to grab on to things he knows he shouldn't have and run. His laugh is easy and frequent and fills the room with sunshine. He has four teeth and four on the way. He eats anything he can feed to himself. There are several noises he can make - meow, moo, and a siren wail are what come to mind now. He knows how to ask for milk in sign language and has many other physical ways of telling us what he wants (pointing and grunting mostly). Daniel is very curious about everyone and everything. All items within reach must be handled and tasted. Reading books is still his activity of choice but I can see he is starting to loose some interest in them and favoring his expeditions.

His annual check up is this Wednesday - I'm a bit worried that he is still small but he has never been sick and is a happy little man so it can't be that bad.

Everyday I thank the Lord for choosing me to be the mother of this precious angel. I can't help but think there was a mistake - I don't deserve Daniel and there is no way I can ever be good enough for him. I just pray that the Lord will give me wisdom and that I will never fall short of love. I guess that is all I can do.


Brunch at Ken and Kathleen's - Daniel and Grant
His Birthday party with the Marquiss Family

Moments of Joy

Daniel fills every moment with joy. He has the most wonderful smile and silly personality. I relish every short moment I have with him and just can't give him enough kisses.
His favorite thing recently is books. We read dozens of books a day (or a couple books a dozen times). Before every nap and at bedtime he has to read every book he can get his hands on.

Lock Ridge Park

The daughter of a co-worker took some pictures for me at this really cool park in Alburtis. Daniel was too interested in eating dirt and rocks most of the time to smile for the camera, but he had a great time exploring and we got some neat pictures.

Tulips and Terrorizing

Last year Jason planted two beds of tulips for me, one in the front yard and one in the back. The early spring beautiful, bold colors are such a welcome change from our horrible drab and grey Pennsylvania winters. Daniel seems to like the tulips too - he always points at them and when given the chance, he eats them. Daniel discovered that there is a drawer beneath the stove and that he can pull out all the lids, pots, and pans. He scatters them all over the kitchen, carrying some into the living room, puts the lids on Roxy's dishes, and sits in the pots. This keeps him busy for a long time. Last Wednesday I let him work at this while I was working. I looked up when the banging stopped and saw that the drawer had become a play pen for crawling in and out of!

Friends

Thursday Jason and I met some friends at a park in Bethlehem. Jason and Greg played tennis while Carrie and I ran after our little boys and enjoyed catching up. I left feeling refreshed and blessed to have a friend like Carrie. Tyler and Daniel seemed to have a good time too. Tyler is almost exactly one year older than Daniel so Daniel thought it was cool to follow Tyler everywhere. They swung and played on the climbing/sliding equipment and Daniel ate mulch and dirt. We played until dark and Daniel slept great that night!

Sleepy Heads

Daniel is always on the move; playing and terrorizing things. He looks like such an angel when he sleeps.

Easter Weekend

Kat's parents couldn't hold out on some birthday presents so Daniel has a new fire truck to push and a tool bench complete with a hammer to stick in his mouth. He found the fire truck right away Friday night and played with it all weekend.


Daniel is of course too young to have any idea what is going on at Easter so we didn't do real Eastery things other than going to church Sunday morning. We did however have a wonderful time with family. Saturday we spent the day with Jason's parents and grandparents. Daniel got his first Easter Basket from his grammy complete with chocolate (which he did not eat) and a bath toy. We enjoyed lunch together and then tried to get some nice professional family pictures (Daniel however was grumpy from not napping all day and things didn't go very well). I haven't even see the end result yet. This is the only picture I have from Saturday!

Sunday we all got dressed up and went to Church. It was a beautiful day and Daniel was so cute in his Easter outfit that his grammy bough him so we took a bunch of pictures. The little man never stops moving so most of the pictures we have are a blur but here are some cute ones.