Birthday Boy...

10.20.2007

Hello folks, its me again, Benjamin. Notice anything different about me? You guessed it, I am a year older! If I had a dollar (Canadian or American at this point would do) for every time I hear, "Has it been a year already?" or "Where has the time gone?"...and that's just my mom saying it!...I could pay my way through university.

This being my first birthday and all, I didn't know quite what to expect. And, as things go, I probably will have no clue what to expect next year either...don't have an account at the long-term memory bank yet...at least not for birthdays. This one turned out to be pretty fun, but pretty low-key, which, I am learning, is how things go around here.

It began with the dynamic duo bursting into my room and greeting me only slightly more zealously than usual. If it is only up to them, I will probably turn out with a great sense of self-esteem. What can I say? They love me. Balance that out with all the Barbie doll, princess dress-up clothes exposure that I suffer at their hands, and I may just turn out fine after all.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, bursting in. So in they came all smiles and clapping and singing. Now there is one thing you need to know about me. Some people say that yawning is contagious. I don't find this true for me. Mom and Dad can be yawning away, at say 10 pm, and I don't feel the slightest need to yawn. However, I do find another action both spontaneous and contagious...clapping. What can I say, I can't pass up on an opportunity to clap. I've been this way for awhile. Most of those baby milestones I tend to be on the lower end of the curve. Mom says I'm laid back, others use the word "lazy". Neither is really true. I just know a good thing when I see it...and letting the dynamic duo do most of my work for me is a pretty good thing. However, when it came to clapping I started early and I haven't lost any of my enthusiasm for it. So in they come clapping, and I start clapping and it turned into a giant clap fast...great start to the day!

Dynamic Duo posing in front of their handiwork

After my standard breakfast of oatmeal and applesauce, it was time for the presents. Mom tried to fore go the usual first birthday ritual of the baby liking the wrapping paper more than the gifts by letting the dynamic duo decorate a big packing box (about 97.5% big one, and 2.5% little one in effort), so all I had to do was crawl in and collect my toys. It was good fun!

Dynamic Duo supervising my present opening. Note the green ball. I was completely freaked out by it, but now, a week later, am coming to terms with it. Another one of those scarred for life moments.

However, mom should have known that a baby's desire for tissue paper will not be ignored. While the dynamic duo were playing with my toys, I sneakily snuck into Mom and Dad's room and got in their trash can, where there just happened to be, you guessed it, tissue paper! It was all golden until Mom caught me. When will parents figure out the mixed signals they send when they say "No" and then run to get their cameras to capture ones misdeeds on film? The clincher is that they say "Smile" in the midst of all the evidence. Yeah, I'll never get tissue out of the trash can again. Sure.

The tissue paper trail.

The rest of the day was much like any other: eat, nap, play, repeat. That is until the evening. It turns out my birthday was on a Sunday. This is really super because Sunday nights are house church nights, and a bunch of fun people come to our house. This meant that they got to celebrate with us. We ate pizza (which I love) and cake (which I endured) and laughed a whole lot. It makes me wish I could turn one all over again. Oh yeah, since I have already forgotten this whole event, I will get to do it all over again...same song, second verse. Maybe mom will just reissue this blog this time next year. Lucky you.

Cake's not so bad, but I'll take lasagna over it any day of the week!