Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Last Shall Be First

Or maybe I should say: "[Our] Last Shall [Have His] First (birthday)" or "The Last Shall Be [One]".

Because Spencer's turning one year old.

I cannot believe it. I almost DO not believe it, but then I sometimes see this little boy in my house crawling around, babbling, and dumping olive oil all over the kitchen floor and I think, "Wait. Do newborns do this? Who is this child?" and, after some internal deliberation, I am forced to believe.

I guess it all makes sense when you actually total up all the minutes he's spent doing things. I mean, he spent:
314,521 minutes sleeping

and about that long hanging out in his carseat
115,306 minutes spending quality time with siblings

3,238 minutes disregarding clearly defined rules such as no fingers in the VCR
and no draining out all the drinking water
5,645 minutes having his cheeks squished, kissed, patted or wiped
40 minutes being mistaken for a doll
216,357 minutes figuring things out
like a mirror
or a glove
and 156,284 minutes shocking his mom with the blueness of his eyes and sweetness of his features


So I guess when you add that all up, and account for (a lot of) overlap you have a total of 525,600 minutes, which is. . . one year. And numbers don't lie. Or so I hear.

There is nothing I could say about this past year that wouldn't sound completely cliche. My heart can hardly hold the love I have for this boy or the joy I feel when I see the happiness he brings to his siblings.

I love how he drops what he's doing at the first sound of laughter so he can stare, smile and then squeal at the laugher. I love how he has just started to give hugs spontaneously. I love, love love the sound of his "da da da", the "d" sound of which I am completely unable to reproduce myself, and the way he sways back and forth at the knees and twists at the waist when he dances.

On his birthday we brought him along as we attended a Christmas party in the mission home, partly because it was his birthday and he deserved a party and partly because he is still nursing and I couldn't leave him with the other kids at their grandparent's house. This picture was taken by the mission president and shows Spencer's handsomeness rather well:
The next day we had a party at the grandparents' house where Greg's sister coached Spence in the blowing out of the candle.
So basically this is all pretty much just to say that after a year we've decided: We'll keep him.

22 comments:

Melanie Jacobson said...

Oh, how I love me some babies! He's cute! (I'm sort of an expert on cute babies.)

Anonymous said...

Oh, he's a keeper all right. You'd be silly to let him go. ;)

Happy 1st Birthday, cute boy! You've brought your mom & dad so much joy!

Ella said...

He is adorable! Those are some seriously blue eyes.

Jillybean said...

That last comment was from me, my darling daughter was signed in and I didn't know it.
She has brown eyes.

Lara Neves said...

I don't believe it either! But, I do believe the bit about him being totally adorable and having some killer blue eyes!

Nancy said...

It goes by SO FAST! My baby is about to turn 3 which is not at all a baby, and definitely not a newborn.

Liz said...

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!! Can't believe he is one.

Heidi said...

Love it! He is truly very very cute. A very amusing post when it wasn't being totally sweet. Have a very Merry Christmas, Lisa. I am so happy to count you among my friends. : )

Barbaloot said...

I can't believe he's not still a newborn! I swear I was reading the brand-new-baby posts just last month!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful blog about your baby! And he's so cute and growing up so fast. You are such a sweet mommy. : )

Annette Lyon said...

A year already? Wow!

LOVE those blue, blue eyes.

Happy birthday, little guy!

Andi Kate, Children's Author said...

I can't believe it's been so long since you've had to wear that awful hose! :) Hurray for everyone! (And seriously, you look HOT in that party pic!) :) And mostly, hurray for that adorable little boy. Wow. Other people's babies do grow up SO fast! And don't tell Chris (if you do, I will deny it), but that sweet pic with Evie made me miss a newborn just a little bit!

Andi Kate, Children's Author said...

And speaking of that party pic, my boys have that exact same shirt! Soul sistahs!

MelancholySmile said...

Good thing you're keeping him, 'cause shipping him to my house would get expensive. Expensive but totally WORTH IT! Wow, he's a cutie. And I love your write-up. :)

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I'm just in awe of the sweetness of those pictures, and of this post in general. What a lovely tribute! Happy Birthday not-so-little one!

Nathan said...

Hi Lisa! Greg and his youngest are looking trim and fit. Congrats to your boys on a successful year!

Stephanie said...

Yay! Happy Birthday, cute Spencer.

Kazzy said...

Those blue eyes just kill me. A foreign thing around here, except for my husband.

Shah said...

CUTE KIDS UR GOT THR :)

Susan said...

between all your words, and a picture saying a thousand words, this is a great snapshot of my darling nephew! Happy Birthday to Spencer!

Erin said...

Wow, what a neat post for Spencer's first birthday! I love his blue eyes.

I will have a child disregarding rules like not sticking fingers in the VCR soon enough. Yikes.

Anne said...

I CANNOT believe it! He looks sodifferent from everyone else in the family. When do I get to see him????