Of Birthdays and Missing Socks

Levi's first birthday was fun for us, and underwhelming for him. We started the day with a birthday song for him while he waited in his crib...rather miserably, I must say.

"Birth-what? I don't care. Pick me up!"

"Why are you still singing? Please pick me up!"

"MAMA AND DADDY, I HATE YOUR SONG! QUIT SINGING AND PICK ME UP!"

YiaYia, Sandy and Sophia came to help us celebrate. Sophia tried to tell Levi about all the other things to see in his picture book, but he's still stuck on "cat!".

Sandy tried to make some headway, too, but in vain. "Cat!"

It's fun to see Sophia in Colorado because she loves snow so much. On her first day here, she made a snowman with Uncle Rob. Sophia might love Uncle Rob more than snow, but it's a close race.

This is the birthday boy at his party, a bit distracted, and in spite of all the friends, balloons, and presents, underwhelmed.

He liked pizza...

...but did not like his cake. It appears that he doesn't care for sticky hands, but it was also an hour past his naptime.


Sophia enjoyed the party in its entirety, especially her short lecture to the guys in on all things related to the Disney princesses.

It was a good first birthday weekend, and I'm thankful for friends and family who came to celebrate with us.

In closing, I want to share one of Levi's emerging quirks...it appears that he loves to 'hide' or put items in odd places. Straightening his room recently, I found three missing socks in a shopping bag. What gets me is the purposeful placement of these socks...they were all worn on different days, and he evidently had a ritual of discarding one of the pair in the shopping bag at some point during the day. A few days ago, Rob spied some puzzle pieces in the crock pot that was waiting to be stowed in the living room storage space, and last night as we talked to Rob's parents on the phone, Levi was putting Cheerios in his daddy's shoe. Rob has learned to shake out his shoes before putting them on, to avoid the odd sock or random toy that Levi has stowed there. Anyway, it's just a funny little thing Levi does. With dogs' propensity for carrying off its family's personal items, it raises the question we've asked ourselves before: "Are we raising a puppy, or a boy?"

Lynda