HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NATE!!!

And what a great day! Our little guy turned 1 and had a blast celebrating his birthday. Despite the looming storm clouds, they turned out to be a blessing because it really cooled down the day for us. My parents came over from Georgia on Friday and are spending the week with us, getting to know their new grandson. We loaded up the family and headed out for Jerry Bobs for breakfast. Nate woke up late this morning and by the time we got there, he was starving so we went ahead and fed him. We had a big day ahead of us.

After breakfast we went to the Tucson Zoo to kick off his birthday. The weather was awesome and although several of the animals were snoozing after their morning meal, we still had a great time. Nate has been watching his Baby Einstine Animals dvd so it was fun to show him all the animals in real life. However, I think he was really more interested in the fact that he's discovered how to push all the buttons on his Jeep stroller.

For lunch we braved the crowd at the newly opened In-N-Out Burger near the zoo. We managed to secure a table inside and the couple next to us happened to have 3 grandchildren all adopted from China! In fact, one of their granddaughters was adopted the same month as Nate. We were probably all in China at the same time, although I think she might have been in a different province. They were heading to D.C. to visit them at Thanksgiving and it was great hearing about their children's experiences.

After keeping Nate awake on the ride home, he crashed for a good 2 hour nap. Then it was birthday time! He got a bunch of cool presents and enjoyed every one of them. I think the squishy sports balls were his favorites. Grandma Ramos made him an elephant blanket that he would stuff in his mouth and drag around the living room like Harvard does with his blanket. ha! I made him an airplane cake (chocolate of course) and we put him in his chair and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He looked at us like we were crazy, not understanding what was going on. Then Don lit his candle and he laughed and tried to touch the flame, like I think every 1-year old tries to do.

We put a piece of birthday cake on his tray and gave him free license to "go to town" eating it. The funny thing is, we've trained him so well to use a spork, that it took him a few moments to realize he could eat it with his fingers! Even then, he would carefully scoop a little bit of icing with his finger and eat it. I've never seen a kid be so "clean" about eating cake! There was hardly anything to clean up. ha!

After the celebration, the sugar rush kicked in. He was going...going...going...like the Energizer bunny..just having a good 'ol time until we finally put him to bed (a 1/2 hour late). He must have been tired because he fell asleep without a fuss. Check out the new photo album called "Nate's 1st Birthday Month". I've added a ton of photos to it and many more to come. Will also upload new videos soon. Nate is very active now and verbalizing more every day. He talks constantly (and loudly) at home...not so much at church. He's still very leery and hesitant around all the curious people and opens up much more at home. He's learned to climb, stand and take several steps on his own. He's figuring out more and more things every day.

Sweet dreams to our little 1-year old "hotpot"!