The Sweet-Toothed Wife: *happy birthday!*

Our sweet baby boy turned ONE YEAR OLD a week ago. I have lots of blog posts to write about his birthday, his party and the fun things he has been up to this past month. I have been pretty nostalgic and reminiscing about what our lives were like a year ago and thinking about all the things that have happened in this past year. I went back {for better or worse) and read through his birth story and looked at all the pictures of this past year. His first day, first bath, first time rolling over, etc. It has been such a fun year! I am so incredibly thankful to the Lord for our sweet boy. He is truly one of the best presents that I have ever received in my entire life. He is irreplaceable. Zach brings so much joy into our lives. Yes, it has been a challenging year navigating parenthood and all that entails, but it is so worth it.

Our little family of three had a wonderful day celebrating Zach's birthday. I made Zach pancakes for breakfast, one of his favorites. I decided to get a little festive and added sprinkles and made his in the shape of the number 1. I think this may become a new tradition for Zach and any other future kiddos for their birthdays. He gobbled the whole thing right down! He had his regular morning routine of playing, napping, playing some more and then lunch. We woke Dad up and headed out to the Children's Museum. Our family has season passes to the museum and we thought it would be a fun way for Zach to celebrate his birthday, something completely dedicated to him having fun. Well, it turns out the Children's Museum is closed every Wednesday. Big flop and big bummer. We were trying to figure out what to do. Go to the zoo? Go to the park? The Georgia Aquarium is right next door and so Justin suggested that we take him there. Zach had never been to the aquarium before and we knew he would love it.

And he did LOVE it! When we were in line to hand our tickets over and enter, there are two large tanks of fish swimming back and forth. When Zach saw them he kept pointing and loudly talking in eager excitement. We could have stayed all day at those two tanks and he would have been completely happy. Zach was so mesmerized by everything he saw: all the fish, sharks, ginormous whale sharks, sting rays, beluga whales, sea horses, crabs, penguins, jellyfish, and so much more. It was so cute to see him so excited and babbling and he pointed to the glass and tried to tell us what he saw.

After a couple hours at the aquarium, he stopped by Sprinkles cupcakes and picked up some cupcakes for his birthday celebration. We had dinner at home, put a candle in his cupcake and sang him happy birthday. He clapped when we said, "Yay! Happy Birthday!" It was so fun and such a memorable experience to watch him eat his first cupcake. He poked his finger in a few times and then the light bulb went on and you could see he knew it was good. It was both hands in, legs kicking, frosting and cake all over the place and lots of 'Mmmmm's'. He loved the cake and was a big mess. It was straight into the bathtub, and dad cleaning the kitchen for 40 mins!

It was such a fun and memorable day that we had together as a family celebrating our sweet boy turning one!

And.... lots of pictures :)