Happy 1st Birthday Ben!

I have to preface this by saying that my entire life, I have been the kind that is always looking forward to things. I'm always anticipating the next adventure, never living in the present. But the day my son Ben was born, and Joe and I were pretty certain he was going to be our last, I stopped looking ahead and I just wanted time to stop. Here I had my husband and my four perfect children, two girls and two boys, and finally my life was absolutely complete and there was nothing more that I needed. And last night, as I kissed my baby for the last time, I got a little melancholy. Today he wasn't a baby anymore. He was 1 and he was toddling, and we have just moved onto a new phase. And tomorrow that is going to be exciting, but yesterday it was just a little sad!
But today, we celebrated!

Is that the cutest face ever?

1 day old!
Little Ben is a little joy!
He has a great sense of humor and laughs at the kids jokes, he likes to think he's on the inside.
He's a tad picky about his food and seems to have given up baby food along with everything else I've tried. Sometimes it has to do with the temperature, sometimes it is the utensil that I choose that is the problem. But he has taken to regular milk pretty well, so that's good.
He has lots of words, although they don't all sound quite right. There is a word for cracker and bottle and mama and dada and bye and all done, and he said "Sara" once too.
He sleeps 7:30 to 7:30 and takes two 1 1/2 hour naps a day.
He weighs about 22 1/2 lbs (which is about 2 1/2 pounds less than our Sara!)
He is a fast learner and we know he is going to be a good pal for Will as soon as he learns how to run (and he is already interested in basketball)!
It's been a good year!
Happy Birthday Ben!