William's First Birthday!

No food or soundtracks today because it's our boy's blog post to shine!  I never thought this day would come.  Our little William is now a big boy and on November 5, 2013, he turned 1 year old!!  How did that happen??!

Daddy and William snuggle moment.

"Oh!  You spotted us!"

I live with some pretty goofy, but lovable guys.

Awww.  Just precious :)

I love that our boys have such expressive eyebrows.  :)

Our (wiggly) 12 month old with Joseph!
Statistics:
Weight:  25 lbs.
Height:  *I have to look back at my records, but he's the same exact height that Alex
was at 1 year old.  Pretty cool, huh?
Abilities:  William could wave "Hi" and "good bye."  He could blow kisses
and say "Mommy,""daddy," and "milk."  He loves to eat any type of meat,
bread, and absolutely loves fruit (especially bananas, clementines, and apples).
He enjoys playing with cars and trucks and loves to laugh with his human
brother and his dog brother. 

Our boys, playing piano together (more like banging on the keys
and fighting over who gets to bang which specific keys.)

Even though it wasn't a big party (it was a few days later), we always blow out candles
on our birthdays.  Here's William, getting ready to blow out his
birthday candle in a chocolate cookie (he loves sweets).

Big brother Alex was poised and ready to help out.  :)

Here's William wearing his birthday crown
that his teachers made for him at school.

"Heyyyyyyy there ladies!"

"Yeah....I'm pretty much a big deal around here."

Here's William at his school during his birthday party
where he and his friends dined on fruit cups, juice boxes,
and munchkins from Dunkin' Donuts.

"Awwww shucks, you guys!  You shouldn't have!"  

William and his friends digging into their special snacks.

William and his friends.  I wonder what 1 and 2 year-olds
chat about during lunch time?  :)

That evening, we went to a local diner
and ordered William his first meal at a
restaurant.  He got chicken fingers and fries
and gobbled about half of the plate up!
He loved it!

As we were getting ready for bed,
I found Alex had stolen William's
birthday crown and was proudly wearing
it as he was reading some books to himself.
What a ham!

That following Saturday, we had a small party for William to celebrate this momentous occasion.
As always, my sister and her fiance Pete got the birthday cake.  Since we call William our little "Kung Fu Panda," we asked them to get him a panda cake.

Happy 1st birthday, William!  Thanks Kristen and Pete!

Here's the top of the delicious red velvet cake.  Yummy!

They made a small cupcake "smash cake" to give to William so that
he could destroy it and eat it in his own way.

While we were getting the cake ready, the birthday boy was getting
a little antsy so Joseph had to entertain him with some cantaloupe.

This little panda loooooooves fruit!

Mommy and Alex, getting ready to help William blow out his birthday
candles.

Little man was still way into his fruit.

We're singing "Happy birthday!"

Alex, with his chef glove, was very proud to help William blow out his candle.

Ok....so he missed the mark.  Mommy had to step in and help out,
otherwise the cake would be covered in Alex's spit.

Here's William with his panda smash cake.

At first he was just staring at everyone singing, so Joseph decided
to feed him a little bit of the cake to get the ball rolling.

There we go!!

I think our little "jub jub" liked it!

He loooooves to get messy when he eats.

Oh yeah!  There's the money shot.
What a silly guy!

Our little man in action!  Smash cake time!

I can't get enough of these pictures!

William was DONE with the crown, so he
ripped it off.  Hats, socks, and shoes
rarely stay on William for more than 5 minutes.

Our mischievous little guy giving someone
the "side eye."

Happy birthday, little one!

We tried getting the crown on for a little bit longer.  :)

Uncle Pete, William, and Tita Kristen enjoying some smash cake.

William and Tita Kristen having fun.

The party scene.

Me, delivering a gigantic cake slice to a lucky customer.

William wanted to help Joseph hold his beer.
Classy...really classy.  ;-)

Arvind and Ashwin, some of Joseph's fellow classmates. 
*Apologies for not getting pictures of our other guests.  I always
get caught up with entertaining that I forget to take pictures of
our wonderful friends and family that came to celebrate with us.*

Since I had taken a picture once a month for the first 12 months of William's
life, I decided to make a garland of all of the pictures.  My sister
Kristen helped me to hang up these great memories.  :)

Sorry the quality isn't that great, but here's months 1-3.

Months 4 and 5.

Months 6 and 7

Months 8 and 9.

Months 10 and 11.

Months 11 and 12!

After the party, we were all pretty pooped, so we decided to take a nap.  That evening, we enjoyed some leftovers and opened presents.

William and Oscar checking out the present we got Will for his birthday.

A wooden busy box!  (Oscar always wants to be a part of gift unwrapping.
He likes to tear the wrapping paper apart.)

William enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as his big brother Alex.
William was much more interested in the box that it came in and the
wrapping paper.

There we go!  He's in a stage now where he likes to put small objects
 into bigger objects.  He likes to take them out, then put them in, and
take them out.....and put them in....again and again and again.

Mommy and William snuggle time!

We had such a great day celebrating this happy little guy!

This past year has been full of happy, sleep-deprived, and sometimes frustrating moments, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world.  It's been a lot of fun to see our boy develop from a little baby blob into the sweet, often mischievous, but overall happy and laughing toddler.  It has been our absolute pleasure to be the proud parents of yet another beautiful boy.  We love you, our blue-eyed little cherub!  We can't wait to see what you'll be capable of doing in this coming year.

Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki