Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Pie!

It's been one year of the Moo. Manny came roaring into the world in somewhat dramatic (traumatic, for Mama) fashion one year ago today. The time has flown by. In fact, it really hasn't sunk in for me that my little clone is ONE; I'm sure that it will before too long and I'll burst into tears or something. In contrast to any future drama, though, we had a nice, fairly low-key day today. For Jonah's 1st birthday, we had a big party with friends and relatives in Michigan. Manny, on the other hand, spent the day with Mama and big brother and with Dada in the evening. However, it was nice, and I plan to file this day away in my box of happy memories.

Jonah and I made chocolate chip cookies during Manny's morning nap (Jonah LOVES to make cookies, though the time that they spend in the oven is always a bit challenging). Here's Manny, enjoying his birthday cookie. And he took his first two steps today, lunging from the table to me in pursuit of his cookie! Granted, they were the "I'm going to topple forward if nobody catches me" steps, but he definitely let go of the table and stepped towards me! Very exciting. He is our textbook baby.Jonah was nice enough to clean Manny up afterwards (unprompted -- we don't call him "Helpful J" for nothing!).

Before lunch, we went to the park. We were house-bound yesterday, as Manny had a pretty bad cold. Mama can only take so much indoor-time, though, so the park was on the agenda NO MATTER WHAT. Manny attempted the steep stairs -- he's way too daring.
Manny also spent some time in the swing. Doesn't he look sad? His tummy was bothering him, as he showed later by spitting up/having a small vomit all over the climbing equipment. I'm trying to figure out if it's the dairy or the chocolate in the cookies that irritating him (this happened a week ago as well). Wow, I hope it's neither! What a desolate diet, with no dairy or chocolate!
Jonah and Manny enjoy each other's company.

Manny attempted to get Jonah's afternoon cookie. As you can see, Jonah was having NONE of it. Not even on Manny's "birthday time", which is what Jonah went around calling it all day.

Jonah was nice enough, however, to share his apple with Baby. Again, unprompted; he's just that sweet.Unfortunately, I think Manny was holding a grudge about Jonah not sharing that cookie. He bit the hand that fed him! Jonah needs to be a little quicker on the withdrawal. (This photo is priceless. This is my best work, folks.) Not surprisingly, given my hectic schedule as of late, I didn't remember that I needed to wrap Manny's gifts until about 4:30 p.m. (One of the gifts was picked up at CVS last night -- is that lame?) However, Jonah was kind enough to "ease" my burden ("Helpful J" to the rescue!) and give me a hand. Here he's putting Manny's new pup -- a duplicate of one my mom gave him as a baby -- into the bag he picked out. This gift was definitely the hit of the later gift-opening party.

Manny with his haul of gifts. Not too bad for a boy whose family is far away! (And, yes, I know that I need new jeans, Dad.)

Manny was as excited about his birthday gifts as any one year-old I've ever seen; I was impressed. These are his stackable alphabet blocks. In the lower left, you can see Jonah completely absorbed in the books that Grandma Camille sent for Manny. The books were about Clifford the Big Red Dog and a train -- who can expect Jonah NOT to steal them away?

Fun with Dada. Manny loves his Dada. It's like watching a sweet, dutiful puppy follow his master around. Except that this puppy is a little pink pig.

This was supposed to be a picture of Manny being partied-out, but he managed to recover good enough spirits to stop crying and look at the camera. What a tough little buddy. We love you, Manny Moo!