Keegen's First Birthday

Can I just say, HOLY COW! I can't believe Keegs is a one-year old. On the one hand it feels like he's been here forever, however, this year has flown by. I remember feeling that way about Bode--that he'd been here forever but i feel like i was able to savor more of his time since it was one-on-one...Anywho.

Crazy to think that on yesterday's date last year at 9PM i was on my way to the hospital to have him, thinking i wasn't really in labor, as i had been contracting since conception. But i was bleeding a ton--enough to be scared a wee bit. By the time we got to the hospital at 9:30 i was contracting every couple of minutes and by the time i was checked in and on the monitor i was contracting literally every minute. No breaks. No regroup-time between contractions. I assume I freaked the nurses out with the bleeding and clots because one commented that i "might be abrupting." Luckily i was not and luckily i had a very mellow OB who didn't rush to conclusions. By midnight the F-bombs were flying and i got an epidural at 8-9 cm, doc broke my water, pushed 15 minutes (with a little time spent freaking out flashing back to my previous experience) and at 12:48AM, Keegen was here. And screaming and fantastic. As far as deliveries go, it was great. I was really happy; healthy baby and all.

So now we're already at 12 months later. I've just started to feel like I'm functioning somewhat normally!

We went ahead and had a little birthday party for Keegen today. A good excuse to invite friends over to barbeque, right? It was a nice day--high 50's and sunny. Not too windy. Nice to get the patio furniture back out on the patio (hopefully it won't blow away this time). We made tons of food--pasta salad, baked beans, grilled chicken, salmon and hot dogs. We love our food in this household...

We are so blessed with great friends. I so dearly miss friends and family back in DC, but I just have to say how lucky and, well, blessed I/we are to have the friends we do. It's hard starting over! Angela came with her two oldest (Z and L were home with a stomach bug), Bradley came with his two kids (Emily was sick), Krista brought her two kids and hubby, Chris and Sterling came with B and Kristen came with Kate and Jack (Matt was on-call). It was wonderful and comfortable and easy. I didn't feel stressed. People were chatting and getting to know one another. The kids played and played and played. Krista commented to me something like, "This is so fun! I love that the kids are just playing and we can all hang out," sort of repeating my sentiments. Lovely. I sort of have to hold my breath as they might have to move. I always fear Angela will move back to be closer to family. People just don't stick around like in the old days! I'm used to being the one doing the moving and I know I will not like to be the one left behind!!

After chowing down the BBQ, we opened presents. Bode has been very excited for this part of the party--all day it was, "Keegen wants to open his presents." I think he's especially interested in the gift we got him--the Little People barn. My parents have it at their house and Bode's always liked playing with it. So, I told Bode "hopefully Keegen will share with you..." We didn't give it to him today. I'll save it for tomorrow. People were very generous and Bode got a couple gifts of his own.

Then on to cake. Oh, the cake! I made Keegen his own star-shaped cake. I learned from my mistake with Bode's first cake (my poor test subject!!). Bode was SO PURE when it came to food when he was a baby. No sugar, no salt, all natural, as organic as possible. Let's just say, not so much with Keegen. I'm definitely more lax in that area. Still natural and somewhat organic, but he's certainly had more, um, variety? than Bode was given (chips, ice cream, you get the picture). Bode had a carrot cake frosted with some sort of yogurt concoction. He was not interested in diving into that cake. I don't know if he would have with a more typical cake, we'll never know. Maybe he would have been suspicious regardless. So anyway, Keegen got a yellow cake with vanilla frosting. And oh my did he love it! Too funny. He went after it and got it everywhere. I wasn't smart enough to strip him down to his diaper (live and learn). He let me know he was done when i saw him throwing it and rubbing it into his hair.

He went straight to the tub after that! It was such a fun evening. Kristen and her kids stayed til after 7pm and i loved just chatting while the kids played like maniacs upstairs--Keegen was in bed by 6:30--it was a big day for him!