Peter Turns 1

Last week we celebrated Peter's first birthday!  It's hard to believe the lil' fella is already a year old.  He must have set some lofty goals for himself in his first year because he's been working hard the last few weeks to accomplish them before his birthday.  First he started crawling suddenly last month, then he started standing and "cruising" (walking while holding on to something), and just the other day, out of nowhere, he rocketed up the stairs.  It's his favorite thing to do now.  We'll get a video of it soon.

Since he's been motoring around so much, we decided to take him to the soft playroom in Alexandria for his birthday so he could do it in a softer environment.  It's a former racquetball court in one of our rec centers that's been converted to a kid's playroom.  Everything in the room is padded so it's nearly impossible to get hurt (I hope I didn't jinx our kids by saying that).

Peter had fun crawling around the room and playing in the ball pit, cruising around the big cushion blocks, and looking in the mirrors.  Watching him crawl is really funny.  He will look around, pick out a target, put his head down, and go as fast as he can -- arms and legs moving at a frantic pace while he makes little giggling noises.  Then he'll stop, lift his head up to look around, pick another target, and do it all again.  He's kept us from getting too comfortable when we're on the couch.  We've had to be ready to jump up and save him from going headfirst into something he shouldn't.

Katie had fun at the soft playroom too.  She alternated between playing with Peter and playing on her own.  Afterwards we ate a yummy lunch at Atlantis Pizza and then went home to open more presents.  All day Katie was eager to open Peter's presents, for his benefit of course.  She loved opening his presents more than he did.  We let her help Peter get started unwrapping a few presents but occasionally had to remind her to let him do most of it.  It seemed like she was already figuring out which presents she wanted to claim for herself.

After dinner we had chocolate chip cake and Peter, of course, made a mess in his high chair.  Then we opened more presents and called it a night.  Everyone had fun and we were pleasantly surprised that Katie handled it so well.  It's probably not easy watching your new sibling get all the presents.  Thanks to everyone for all the great wishes and gifts!


Peter made sure he would be well-rested for his birthday by falling asleep in his high-chair the night before.  He never dropped his spoon though.

The soft playroom.

Peter in the ball pit.


Playing with Katie in the ball pit.






Katie sometimes moves so fast that it creates some interesting effects on our slow camera phones.


"What am I supposed to do in here, Mom?"







Peter about to open some of his presents.  Katie isn't sure she wants to watch.


A box!


Katie was eager to help.






Sometimes Nancy had to help too.


Peter rides his new bee.


Not sure what happened to Katie's clothes as the day went on.


Video of Peter being serenaded.


Peter with his chocolate moustache.


Rusty knew exactly where to lay.




Happy Birthday Peter!


Video of Peter opening a present.


Video of Peter "eating" the cake.


Video of Peter after the cake.