...Happy Birthday...

So. My son is officially a year old. When and how did this happen? It was only a minute ago that I was holding his little body in my arms for the first time- analyzing everything about him...his lil swollen nose, his beady eyes, his sweet kissable lips. And now... I have this BOY who blows me kisses and says "HIIIII!" when I wake up in the mornin... who hides "treasures" (which usually consists of the remote or a cellphone or my hair ties) in the cabinet or the trunk of his new car. I mean. I knew it was coming...I blog about each and every month! But. For some reason... I didn't think it would actually come...so soon anyway.

This past month, Jude has truly grown from lil bebe to a pretoddler! His personality is coming out more and more and more- and Derrick and I cannot complain one bit b/c Jude is just such a fantastic baby (I don't care how old he is...he'll always be my baby!) Derrick and I have discovered that Jude is VERY musical!!! He LOVES the piano at my parents house...and I am constantly chasing him into Derrick's "music" room where the guitars are. And homeboy can dance...he shakes that lil booty anytime a song comes on. It's pretty adorable! My favorite thing that he does is give kisses...and when I get him out of the crib from his nap, he always leans his head into my lips... so sweet.

For as long as I live- I will never forget these moments of our first year together-
* Holding you for the first time...
* Watching your daddy give you bottles...
* All the newborn noises you made...
* Hours of holding you on my knees and cooing at each other...
* Your soft curly hair...
* When you would shake your head SUPERfast!...
* And when that hair fell out into a nice old man mullet...
* Your smiles and your giggle...
* The way your eyes light up whenever daddy comes home...
* My mom. (there's not much more we need to say, right Jude???)
* Countless "oohs and aahhhs" from people on our various outings...
* Our first baseball game together...* Our first plane ride together...
* Your sweet smell...
* Your not so sweet smell!...
* The way you would flap your arms and kick your legs...
* Snuggles...
* Yelling "MAMAMAMA" in the monitor...
* Kisskiss...
* Your sweet spirit...

Wow. I'm just ...speechlessly blessed. God is good, isn't He?























Jude-
Mommy doesn't even know what to say. I can only imagine that time will seem to speed up from now until YOU have a child... and while that makes me super sad...I'm also excited to see the boy you will become and into the man you will be. Daddy and I love you very very much. We know that you are going to do some awesome things...and we're blessed to be the ones to raise you.
Love forever-
Mommy