Kaleb's Birthday Eve

Kaleb will be one in about 21 hours. It's absolutely unbelievable. I was looking through all of the pictures we've taken of him and just thinking about how much he's changed. I've included two pictures of him. One is when he was just born and the other is a more recent one of him. We'll be heading to Jackson tomorrow to prepare for his birthday party at Happy and P-Daddy's. I've stolen and modified an idea from a blog I read. I've written a letter to Kaleb for his first birthday. I'm going to do this every year for him and his future siblings until I can no longer write. Well, technically, type. Here it is:

Dear One-Year-Old Kaleb,

I can't believe you are already a year old. I think back to when we first brought you home and those first few weeks when you were in our lives. You were so tiny and you slept all day. Nighttime was a different story though. I remember one night when Daddy was at an away football game and we were on our own. You were just crying and crying and I couldn't figure out why. I had fed you, rocked you, changed you, and done everything else I could think of. When nothing worked I started crying myself. For some reason when I started crying, you stopped. I will always cherish that night because it was the first time I realized that you were a little person with feelings just like mine.

Now that you're one, you're crawling around like crazy. You could be an Olympic crawling sprinter. I put you down at Books-A-Million and you were around the corner within two seconds. You walk around holding onto things and you'll take some steps holding my hand. It is the sweetest thing. You've taken a few solo steps in the past couple of days. I know that pretty soon I'll be chasing you around the house.

You eat baby food three times a day and have a LOT of snacks in between. You generally take four to five bottles a day. We've started weaning you off of your bottle and onto your sippy cup. You HATED your sippy cup the first time we used it. You just cried and cried, I got ears all over my shirt, and I eventually gave in and put your formula in a bottle. We've started giving you milk in a cup and it takes you all day to finish. You're also clapping your hands and saying several words: Mama, Dada, baba, bye bye, uh-oh, baby, and hey. The last few words are hit-or-miss. When you wave bye-bye to other people you use both hands and wave towards yourself. Everyone always loves that.

You're such a little flirt. You smile your adorable, scrunched up face with your four teeth whenever someone talks to you. We can't go anywhere with you without someone telling us how adorable and friendly you are. You are absolutely the best baby in the world. I can't believe how much I love you. There is so much love in my heart for you that I feel like I could power the world.

Mama