Joergen is One!

Without a doubt the fastest year of our lives... how is it possible that baby Joergen is already one?! 

He had his 12-month checkup this morning-- even though it's already 2 weeks after the fact!-- and other than being slightly anemic (which a vitamin with iron should take care of), he is a growing and healthy boy.  He came in at 22 lbs 14 oz and 30 inches long, which puts him right smack in the middle of the chart. 

Joergen isn't walking yet, but he pulls himself up on absolutely everything-- his latest favorite spot being my pant leg as I'm trying to cook dinner!  He cruises around the furniture and is enjoying "walking" while holding onto our hands.  His crawl had evolved into this funny half-bear crawl, manuevering around on one knee and one foot.  He is still sucking his thumb, and as soon as that thumb goes into his mouth, he searches for the nearest piece of fabric to hold in his other hand.  Some recent choices that have made me laugh: his socks (yanked off his foot for this very purpose), my pant leg (see above), and my ponytail.  It's really cute!

Joergen has gotten pretty chatty over the past few weeks.  He says hi, bye, and "uh oh!" when he drops something-- which is frequently.  We have even heard him singing his own version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while he plays.  He is all about pointing... which is actually pretty helpful, because he can now communicate what he wants when he wants it.  And believe me, he lets you know when he wants something!  He has a real thing for ceiling fans and will point them out to me with a big grin on his face whenever he sees one.

We celebrated Joergen's first birthday on Sunday the 25th and were excited to have Nana, Grandpa, GG, Aunt Jayne, Aunt Jackie, Colin, Uncle Andrew, and Aunt Beth all there to join in the festivities.  Aunt Jackie also brought her sister Jennifer, and Marc, Cathleen, and Julianne stopped by too!  In preparation for the big day, Liam and I made vegan chocolate cupcakes for Joergen's cake... and they were awesome.  They were a recipe from Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, and we could definitely see why they won!

Joergen just loves balloons, so that was the theme of his party. He had so much fun chasing them around the house!

Joergen especially loved playing catch with his cousin and buddy Colin.  They were surprisingly good at it! 

Joergen's "cake" was a bunch of balloons-- color coded so we knew which ones had the vegan frosting and which ones were good old buttercream :)

"Happy Birthday dear Joergen, Happy Birthday to you!!"

As soon as he made a wish and blew out his candle (with help from Liam of course), he dove right into that cupcake.

And before we knew it, in true Joergen fashion, he had created a total disaster zone!  There was chocolate cake everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere!

Liam dislikes his cupcake so much that he just had to have another one!

Dad and Aunt Beth looking rather festive:

GG brought Liam a pretty cool bubble machine to play with, so he and Grandpa had some fun chasing bubbles on the deck:

Inside, Joergen got all cleaned up and had some fun playing with his pal Julianne. 

And then it was present time!  Joergen got some great new clothes for spring, including a handsome Easter outfit from GG:

Ever Mr. Helpful, Liam was sure to lend a hand with opening presents (and playing with Joergen's new toys):

Joer loved his xylophone from Nana and Grandpa!

After presents, we wanted to get a shot of Liam, Joergen, and Julianne together.  Who knew this would be mission impossible?  This sequence of photos says it all...

*Finally* we have the three of them sitting still (for a split second anyway) and looking in the general direction of a camera.  It's not a great pic by any means, but it was clearly the best of the bunch!

Joergen's birthday celebration continued the next day, so more to follow!