Parrrtay!

Happy First Birthday Solei!!

Her first little family birthday party was quite the event. I learned a few things about the do's and don'ts of the baby's first cake rampage, which I will share at the end of the post. A few pictures for the fans:

Celebrating with Nana and Papa

The happy family (although mommy is seriously mad that she looks pregnant in this picture - and NOOO I am not!!)
I got one of these for my very fist birthday too!!
Tunnel thanks to Nana and Papa - we loves it!!

And well... you'll just have to experience the cake rampage...

Things I learned about baby's first cake:
* Super moist cake (3 eggs, 1/2 cup oil) turns into pure pudding very quickly when mashed around by an excited birthday girl.
* Not-too-moist cake is way easier to hose off a baby. Pudding?? Oh man, you're just lucky we didn't tape the cleaning "wrath of baby" aftermath.
* A cupcake size is juuuust fine. if your brain says "I could make this bigger for dramatic effect" - whack it, fast! You want to clean up 10 cups of pudding?? Neither did we. (Thanks Nana, Papa and Scooba!!)

After all this, she's still speaking to us. Well - screaming mostly. We still love her lots though!!

Lucky guy...

So- My little girl turns one year old tomorrow. That means that I've been a father for one whole year. It's been an amazing change. It really has been a change. I never guessed that I could love as much as I do now. I have an amazing wife who loves me more than I thought anyone would. I've seen her grow and change so much in the last year. It's been inspiring to watch her bloom as a mother.

Our daughter has been the light of our life. Her mom called her sunshine from the beginning. She is the light of our life and the sunshine in our day. She is such a happy baby and has loved everyone from day one. She definitely gets her outgoingness from her mommy.

I love being a father. I have no idea what on earth I am doing. Unfortunately there is no class for being one. Never would I have imagined that I'd love a child the way I love her. She's loud and smells like a child, but she's mine and I love her like crazy. She has such her own little personality. She wants so much to be like us already. She plays in the dishwasher, eats pork rinds, "talks" on her phone (even though she just babbles), she talks to anything she sees, she is so curious and SO persistent. She loves exploring and figuring things out.

In the last few weeks she's learned how to hug back when we hug her. What a treat to have the little girl you love so much wrap her arms around your neck and squeeze. I do miss her wanting to cuddle me as she falls asleep. She's into putting her self to sleep now.

My heart hurts every time I leave for work in the morning. Leaving my two favorite girls for the day makes me wish that I could find some job where I never had to leave them and could spend all day with them. Suddenly I don't care at all about money, job title or anything. I just wish that I could just retire today and spend the rest of my life with them.

I'm so glad that my wife was willing to have our daughter and be her mother. I'm amazed by the amount of love she has for her and how seriously she takes her responsibility as a mother.

I am one lucky guy...

Photoshoot

What happens when the best mommy friend a mommy can have hijacks your kid and your camera? Best. Photoshoot. Ever. (what I want to know is how in the world did she get that bow in her hair?? AND IT STAYED for 3 hours!!!!)

"Silly paparazzi, no pictures, please!"

"You want attitude?? I've gives you some attitude!"

"You wanna piece of me??"

this one is just too cute, I can't even caption it!!

This is the face I expect her to be making at me when she's a teenager.

Such a money shot...

This is right out of a loungewear ad...

"Kiss ma grits!!"

She's almost a year old... and she looks like she's going on 13 already!!