Dear Sawyer,

Today, you are one. How on earth did that happen?

One year ago, they cut you out of my belly and you came out screeching like a cat in the biggest fight of it’s life. You were a chubby ball of love, and then just like that, you lost all the chub and decided you didn’t want any of it back. Three weeks later, you were still not back up to your birth weight–but that’s a tricky thing to accomplish when you’re born over nine pounds.  I don’t remember much about those first few months that you were with us, but the one thing that I remember the most is your naps. Specifically, your lack of them. You were terrible right from the beginning. You slept for literally thirty minutes to the second, and very, very rarely went back to sleep. We tried everything known to man, but you were just a thirty minute napper and there was nothing to be done about it. I was miserable though. Literally. I sometimes wanted to scream that you wouldn’t sleep longer during the day than just those thirty minutes. That’s not much of a break, you know.

Other than the napping issue, you’re such a great baby. You’re happy most of the time. You can entertain yourself and you find that your brother’s toys are much more interesting than your own.

You only have two teeth, and have had them for quite some time. There are no other teeth in sight and you look like a little hamster with the two that you have.

You are a great eater. You’ll eat most of the things we give you and you like to mooch off of us if we are eating downstairs and within your reach. There a few things you won’t eat–potatoes, most vegetables (but you’ll still eat baby food veggies), and a few random other things. But truly, you’ll eat almost anything. And we love that. We hope you stay that way!

You are walking around now, but not that well. You’ll really only take four of five wobbly steps and plop back down to crawling. You are hilarious when you’re crawling on anything other than a rug. You seem to know that it would hurt your knees, so you crawl around like Mowgli from the Jungle Book, with just your hands and feet on the ground. It’s hilarious, and I love watching you. Makes me giggle (and other people too) 🙂

You haven’t hit stranger fear yet, so you’ll go to anyone without a peep. Every time we put you in the nursery at church they comment on how “active” you are. That must be code for, wow, your son is crazy and he really wore us out. Because, you really are kind of crazy. Climbing all over everything. Never slowing down. You’re like the energizer bunny, exploring the world with vigor, like you won’t have another tomorrow.

You’re a skinny minny and still in 12 month clothes. I can’t wait to see how much you weigh when we take you in this week. I sure hope you’ve gained a couple of pounds, and not the measly few ounces that you gained between 6 and 9 months. It doesn’t help that you never stop moving.

You love watching Baby Einstein Puppets, so youtube has a perfect “best of” the puppets show that we put on for you if we are traveling far in the car or if it’s close to your nap time and we’re out and trying to keep you awake. You smile and laugh and are mesmerized by the puppets. You aren’t interested in any of the other Baby Einstein videos. . . no spinning toys or squeaky penguins climbing stairs. Just the puppets. And that’s fine. They’re cute. Just like you.

You love your pacifiers. And your fuzzy blue whale blanket that I made for you when you were born. If we put it on the ground, you’ll crawl over to it and bury your face in it. You roll around with it. You squeal in delight.

You’ve been the perfect little addition to our family, and we’re so excited to watch you grow and see what kinds of exciting things you’re going to do with your little life. We are so very thankful for you, Sawyer James. Happy First Birthday!

Love, Mommy