I Just Love it When He Laughs Like This

Pretty much my favorite sound!

Also, we are fairly certain that Roan is left-handed. He primarily eats (and does everything else) with his left hand now, whereas he used to switch between the two. If he tries to use his right hand, it's not for very long.

It will be interesting to see if it stays that way!

Roan's Wild Rumpus!

Roan's birthday party was a huge success!

I literally could not have done it without my parents. Thank you, mom and dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also, thank you to Miss Karen (Roan's daycare lady) for helping set up! We did not have enough hands and she was a big help.

Finally, again, thank you to everyone who came out! There were lots of kids (as my dad put it: "You have very fertile friends."), yummy food, and fellowship. I wish we could have invited more people!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures...or had someone else do it...but here are a few:

This is seriously the messiest he got!

Now he can play like dadda! Sort of.

Like a true wild thing...

Papa reading to Roan and his cousin, Jayson.

This took entirely too much time for me to make. Worth it? I think so.

He loves this! Thanks, Miss Karen!

In mamma and dadda news: I'm taking an indefinite break from photography. I explained why in my photography blog. I will still take pictures for personal reasons :)

Turnover is starting soon for Sean. I'm dreading it. Although, the sooner it starts, the sooner it will be over. I'm not looking forward to him working 12/13+ hour days. But the income is sorely needed. I will need and welcome play dates when I'm not watching Quin (Wednesdays and weekends)! Or people are more than welcome to come here...once I get the house more organized. It's kinda driving me crazy.

I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief now that Roan's party is over. I just feel like I can relax more: no more monthly photo shoots...more documenting the daily details. No more thinking about the birthday party, making sure we have a, b, and c and that we have enough. Phew! His next big party will be graduation, haha. Birthday parties will be more intimate from now on, haha.

I'm going to go eat a celebratory cupcake while I can (Quin is napping)! They're "healthier", too, so I don't feel as much guilt about eating them.

A Year Old!

Wow, Roan is a year old!

We didn't really do anything special today. Sean still had to work and I had Quin. Most of the celebrating will happen this weekend, though.

I'm going to try to post fewer pictures to Facebook and more on this blog. Sometimes I feel like pictures of Roan are probably just flooding people's news feed...I'm sure people have blocked me out of annoyance. I also don't really have time to spend on Facebook uploading pictures. Blog posts are even more time consuming, so I can't guarantee a lot of posts, either. But for the sake of long-distance family, I will try. I won't do a monthly photoshoot now that he's a year old...I just don't feel the need to take so many pictures.

I feel like I've become one of *those* people who only ever talks about their kid...like Roan's identity has become mine in a sense. At first, I could care less if people were "bothered" by the pictures and posts about Roan (I still mostly feel that way). After all, he's my kid. Is it wrong for me to love my kid that much (so long as God is still #1)? Such a hard balance to find as a parent...to feel torn about slowly losing friendships, yet also not ever wanting to neglect your own flesh and blood for the sake of said friendships (sorry, but it's true). I feel like I have no social life and perhaps the endless pictures and posts about Roan is to blame? Insecurity rears it's ugly head.

Anyway, moving on.

Here's my 1 year old boy...no longer a baby.

I love him so very much. So, so, so very much. God is good...and Roan is proof of that. Words cannot express...they simply can't.

First Parade

I'm writing this post at midnight because...well...the oh-so-lovely 4th of July fireworks keep waking Roan up. And I'm the kind of person who can't sleep if I'm anticipating something...if I'm anticipating people to stop talking, for instance. Tonight, I'm anticipating more people setting off fireworks, causing Roan to wake up. So I won't be able to sleep unless no fireworks have gone off nearby for at least an hour.

Since Roan goes to bed at 8pm, we didn't go see any fireworks. He probably would have liked them, but it's not worth keeping him up that late past his bedtime. It's not like he'll remember seeing fireworks when he was (almost) one.  And we didn't care enough to get a babysitter.

We did go to the Eaton Rapids parade, though! He did watch parts of it, but other than that, he was trying to walk and climb everywhere...and I was pouring water on him to try to keep him cool.

We took him for short walks down the sidewalk to keep him busy.

He failed to notice the nice Shrine-er man waving at him.

For most of the parade, we were in the shade. I don't know why I thought parades weren't that long, haha. I mean, I was in one - as Pocahontas...in moccasins that were at least a size too small. Not my proudest moment. 

Anyway, as the parade went on...and on...the sun gradually started to creep on us. I stripped Roan down to his onesie to help keep him cool. He spit up a little before the parade...he NEVER spits up. So I was worried about him. He seemed ok after it happened...I think it was either because I tried giving him a little bit of cows milk (organic) with his formula (I did 1 part cows milk, 3 parts formula) with snack before we left. Or something else? All the excitement? I watched him like a hawk to make sure he wasn't showing signs of heat stroke. And I kept giving him water. Towards the end of the parade, I just stood under a building with him so we were in the shade. He kind of seemed like he was getting lethargic, but I think he was just actually interested in the parade.

By the time we got to the car, he was fine. I fed him his lunch on the way home and he was talking and back to himself. He napped from 1:15-3:30ish; Sean and I napped on the couch, which felt great. 

We're not trying cows milk again at least until July 10th. I'm not 100% sure if that's what made him spit up, but I don't want to take any chances. I know people who introduced it before their kid turned one, but I think I'm gonna wait...5 more days, haha.

All-in-all, even though it was hot, we had fun. I am excited to do more stuff like that with Roan and re-live parts of my childhood!