Hugh's First Birthday!

These are all in opposite order, so scroll from bottom to top if you want to see them that way.

Hugh had a marvelous first birthday! I was so happy to be around family since we normally wouldn't have anyone near us. It was a laid back day with presents, lots of treats and a candlelit cupcake with Hugh's first time eating chocolate!

The following 3 are of him post-cupcake. He was a total mess and absolutely loved getting rinsed off in the utility room sink. It was super cute how much he splashed and giggled!

The happy family! I love his hand usage here. It's like, "Ta-da! I'm awesome!"

Mmmm...chocolattttte!

Sugar high!

He was please with somehow getting a strawberry on his shoulder.

Overall, it was very low-key, but we wouldn't have had it any different. When we all sang Happy Birthday to him he got very wide eyed and a little nervous, but it was fine after that. One of the little boys asked if he could have the candle so we gave it to him, only to find him literally EATING the big, fat, "1" candle a few minutes later. Gross.

Anyway, typical I-can't-believe-it's-been-a-year paragraph here, but seriously. I can't believe it's been a year. It's been eventful and enjoyable and exhausting. But we love our little monkey and are so proud of him.

Some of his favorite things to do right now:
-Open and close any cupboards and drawers as hard as he can and pull everything out that is in the respective cupboard or drawer.
-Headbutt anything when he gets mad.
-The throw all my food everywhere game.
-Climbing up and down our bed all by himself. He picked this up SO fast. We showed him how to do it twice and he had it mastered! Just today he figured out that going down backwards works on the stairs too.
-Take about 4 steps and then collapse laughing into Mommy's lap

He's not as fussy as he was when we left for England and I am SO grateful for this. He's turning into a pretty pleasant little boy (with a big, fat temper when he chooses). We're excited to see what this 2nd year of life will bring!