Part III: A new home, and a new little boy.

OK, let's forget about the new digs for a while and just focus on the fact that my baby boy turned 1.  Because it happened just a couple of weeks after moving in, the documentation has gotten a little buried under other things.  But you only turn 1 once!! and he is way cuter than any pictures of our house, so here I go.

My goal was to have our home set up and comfortable enough by his birthday to host the Sunday family dinner that week.  I have moved way too many times to let moving in and feeling settled take forever.  I just can't stand it so I have adopted a few strategies and tricks for getting settled fast - one of them is just being a little stressed and sleep deprived.  The others include unpacking boxes and getting those boxes out out out.  At a certain point though you just have to stop with the boxes, get the stuff into it's place, put the other boxes aside and hang some pictures and curtains.  Those curtains can make all the difference.  We have had fun customizing our home in a way that we haven't been able to in the rentals along the way and it is feeling like ours.  We love it.
But back to the not-so-baby boy.  The family joined us for dinner, a little present opening and a little cake.  The boy, who is quite accustomed to lots of people clapping and cheering for him spontaneously on a regular basis, quite liked it.  (Remind me to teach Haley how to sit more "lady like" while wearing a skirt.)

Poor little guy goes to bed so early that by then end of dinner he was done but we made him open presents and then get back in his high chair again for cake.  He took care of that thing in 5 minutes flat and we had him off to bath and bed.

 He didn't care what was underneath and spent most of his time devouring the frosting by the fistful.

Clark finally cut it open so he could dig in further, and that's when the older kids descended with their forks.  He didn't seem to mind all that much - he would spontaneously break into tears but we weren't sure if it was more from the vultures eating his birthday cake or him being overly tired.  But he made it to the end and attacked it with a satisfying amount of enthusiasm.

This boy is truly a joy to everyone in the family.  The have loved him from the moment they met him.

The feeling appears to be mutual.

He got his very own little backpack for his birthday.  I love this little face and that wide mouthed smile that is pretty much his reaction to everything.
He started taking a step here and there leading up to his birthday and just two weeks ago decided that walking was the way to go - hasn't crawled since.  I also need to note that he went from crawling to running.  He is still as wobbly as a new walker, but goes at a speed unparalleled to my other babies.  Just a month ago Jonah was still a fairly calm, sweet, still baby that loved sitting on laps and being quiet.  Overnight he has morphed into the loud, fast, busy little boy that everyone warned me he would become.  I'm glad I have four other people at home with me during the day right now to keep up with him.

I know he could hardly care a bit but I wanted his birthday to be kind of fun, so we did what we do almost every other day, and went to the pool.  Jonah really prefers the mulch to the water but at least we felt like we were doing something kind of special.

I wasn't organized enough to give this a try with any of the other kids so at least as number 5 he will have something uniquely special to his life's documentation - I give you, his monthly portrait.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONAH CLARK, you sweet little thing!!!