Cupcakes and a Sad Mommy...

Finally Mommy Monday is back!

These past few weeks have been so crazy for us! My computer finally crashed and I wasn't surprised because it's had a lot of issues, and I've had it since I was in high school. Good news is I got to upgrade to a Macbook Pro, I'm excited to get to play around with it and figure it out. I haven't had much time to take a break and write either, and to be honest I really didn't want to. Levi turned 1 on the 19th and that's been pretty hard on me. My brain is still trying to register that my tiny baby is not so tiny anymore, and I have been wanting to spend as much time with him as I can. We did a little cupcake smashing on his real birthday with some of his cousins. 

This is definitely a priceless first birthday family picture haha!

He was actually not impressed with the cupcakes, I'm kinda grateful for that. I didn't really want him to be a big sweet eater. He loves his vegetables, which I'm thankful for. We also had to start transitioning from baby food to finger foods which was hard for both of us. We had his birthday party the following Sunday, which was a success. We decided to go with the theme of Coca Cola Polar Bears.

I don't know why some women get the "baby blues" when their child is first born, I feel like I'm getting it now that his infant stage is done... It's been so hard for me to realize that his first year is over. I can honestly say I've loved every second of having a baby, I feel so privileged to be able to say I'm a Mommy. I can't imagine my life without Levi. Definitely feel like I was born to be his Mommy.

On a lighter note, Matthew & I managed to make it out of our first year as parents alive! It was a crazy, and sometimes exhausting ride but we did it together. I know this next year will have so many more lovely toddler things in store for us, ha.

Levi is really starting to develop his personality, let me tell you... he loves to just sit in the floor and preach to us. Sometimes he'll stand but he loves talking with his hands, and since he's still wobbly standing on his own, most of the time he'll be up on his knees and he'll talk for days. It's not like regular baby talk though, it really sounds like he's preaching and has something he really needs you to hear. He also makes the cutest facial expressions, and he continues to amaze me with how smart he's getting. He's been turning off light switches since he was around 4 or 5 months, and I think that really got his brain development going. He also loves to pretend he's reading, if you give him a magazine or a book he will really try to make you think he knows what it says. Although he hasn't started walking completely just yet I think he'll be a very smart boy. He's finally been saying mama! Hallelujah! The majority of the time it's still all about dada but I'm just glad he's finally saying it. There are so many firsts that happen in a child's first year and it has been a wonderful ride watching Levi grow. 

I know a lot of experienced parents want to put in their two cents with advice about the toddler years and that's wonderful, advice is always great, but I feel like it's really all about their attitude and personality. When some people approach you with input it almost seems like they are wishing the worst on you, you know what I mean? Like do they secretly despise me or something? It's almost as if they want to tell you, "I'm going to make you wish you never had children." Thank you! That's so sweet of you! Seriously, if someone pregnant asked me what it's like in a baby's first year, I would tell them the truth. Yes it's hard, but honestly it goes by so fast and it's over in the blink of an eye. When their first birthday comes around, you're going to wish you could go back to those nights with no sleep, rocking your tiny baby in your arms, and nursing him to sleep. I'm not going to say, "Oh you better rest up now, you won't sleep for 18 years!" Not true. Levi sleeps 11 to 12 hours at night, trust me, sleep will come. In the meantime, enjoy your baby. Soak up every second you can. And the next person who tries to give you crazy advice or tries to scare you, ask them, "Then why did you keep having kids if it's that bad?" I got a lot of grief in Levi's first year about not taking him out more and being social. I'm not going to apologize for that. I loved being home with my baby 24/7. Every parent gets to choose the way they want to spend their time and raise their child. They got their turn and now it's mine.

There's so much that I haven't gotten to blog about these past few weeks with no computer, so in the next few days I'm going to try my hardest to catch up!

Have a great week everyone!
xoxo