Big Day

Well, I don't know what you were doing this time a year ago, but I wasn't getting any sleep. That's because this time last year, Elliott was almost two weeks old! It's incredible to me that a year has already passed since he entered our lives on August 19, 2009. Happy birthday, sweet boy!

We were lucky enough to have my parents down for a visit, so they got to share in the special occasion with us. Since they were here to celebrate, we decided not to have a big party -- a small family ordeal suited us just perfectly, and we think Elliott probably had a better time that way, too. When he gets friends of his own, then we'll throw him a party. :) (He does have little friends here, and they do enjoy playing together, but they don't really understand the difference between a birthday and a regular day yet.) It worked well that way, because between naps and mealtimes and the amount of time it took him to work his way through each of his gifts, his "birthday" actually lasted three days! We had fun swimming in the pool at my parents' hotel, playing with his new toys, and eating out!

So, without further ado: Images of Elliott's first birthday.



E had a hard time opening his gifts. He just didn't get into the whole wrapping paper thing. We wrapped most of them originally, but eventually unwrapped them later and just put all of his gifts in gift bags. It was much easier and more fun for him that way. But he did like the bows on the original wrapping.



Scout wants to open presents!




Elliott's new bath toys became his favorite teethers for the day.



One of Elliott's absolute favorite gifts was a little musical/learning table my parents bought for him while I was up in Indiana over the 4th of July. He loved it then, and he still loves it a month and a half later! (I had to leave it up there since I was flying, so my parents brought it down with them and it was as if it was all new to Elliott!) He's started dancing to music lately, so he dances all the time while the music on the table plays.



We gave Elliott a few things as "presents" that were really just things we needed to buy for him anyway -- like spoons, forks and insulated sippy cups for the milk he can drink now. The spoons were oddly a huge hit, and he carried them around with him for days until I finally washed them and put them away. The package came with so many, I really should just leave a few out for him to play with since he loved them so much.



Elliott can say "ball" now (sort of; it's more like "bah!"), and will go get one if we ask him to. He was excited to get two new ones for his birthday!



It's a long story (maybe I'll blog about it later), but we recently needed to replace Elliott's copy of Goodnight, Moon, so my parents got him a new one for his birthday. Elliott LOVES story time with Grandma.



Elliott also got his first set of blocks! He loves to stack them...and apparently he likes the box they came in almost as much as the blocks themselves. Truth be told, I'm not sure who likes the blocks more -- Kelly or Elliott. :)



Kelly's mom has always called Elliott her little Tweety Bird, even before he was born. So the gift from Kelly's parents came with a Tweety Bird card.



A great birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Hinkle!

And now, a photo montage and video of Elliott eating his first "sweet" -- his birthday cupcake. :)





Sorry for the terrible singing. We Hinkles are not known for our ability to carry a tune, and to make matters worse, we actually had to stop in the middle of the song and start over for some reason I don't remember now, which got us all confused.

Elliott is a funny kid when it comes to food. He's a great eater, but he's really picky about textures. He likes to touch and feel new food before he's willing to eat it, and if it feels funny on his hands, he's often unwilling to put it in his mouth. He's his mother's kid I guess -- very sensitive to what I like to call "texture violations." Here, you can see him testing out the icing and the cupcake, not quite sure whether or not it's something he wants to eat.



Obviously, he couldn't resist:





Yes, that is a highlighter in his hand. I'm starting to think Elliott might be a lot like our cats -- you can buy him all the toys in the world, but the junk that's laying around the house will be still be his favorite.