Someone turned ONE...can you guess who?

If you guessed this guy (see adorably handsome one-year-old below) then you are RIGHT!

Just to warn you, besides the awesome pictures taken by Susie, these pictures are going to be pretty craptacular, due to our dying camera.

Adam turned one on Thanksgiving, but we celebrated on Saturday the 28th with his family and a few of his neighborhood friends. Thank you, everyone, for making it a very special day for Adam!

Adam loves Elmo, so we naturally had an Elmo party for him. Most of my planning energy and excitement went into the cake, so that's what a lot of this post is going to be about. (Isn't the first birthday party really about the parents anyway? I mean, Adam won't remember it, right?)

Here is the cake just after it came out of the oven. This guy needs some color, don't you think?

Aunt Jessie didn't want the bottom of the cake that I cut off to go to waste!

I was so glad that Adam's two aunts were here to help me with the cake - what a great team! We had so much fun with this cake...maybe a little too much fun.

Jess and I wanted to get his fur just right.

I was very pleased with how it turned out! Adam loved seeing his house transformed into Elmo's World. We got an Elmo balloon and a giant poster of Elmo for the pin-the-nose on Elmo game for the older boys.

Here's another of his one-year shots from Susie. How cool is this little plane??? He was loving it.

The decorating committee hard at work...

The finished product.

Here are a couple of videos to share. They are a little long, so I'm sure Adam will understand if you fast forward a little bit :) Grace took these videos, by the way...
This one is us singing "Happy Birthday."

The second video was too long (5 minutes) to put on here, but YOU CAN CLICK HERE to see it on youtube. It's pretty awesome - Adam digging into his first birthday cake. Excellent! We pretty much fired up the car wash when he was finished, and Mama is SERIOUSLY reconsidering the future use of red frosting.

Facts about our one-year-old:
1. At his check-up, he weighed 21 lbs. 10 ozs. Hard to believe he was only 8 lbs. a year ago!
2. He has started to dance by stepping back and forth and bobbing his head back and forth. Sometimes he bends his knees, too.
3. He's really started to understand language and follows simple instructions like "get your ball." He also loves to point at things. He has learned "Christmas tree" since we put ours up a couple days ago.
4. He also loves waving at people or things he identifies. He waves to his Elmo ornament on the tree before going to bed.
5. He is loving table foods, and ate a full Thanksgiving dinner. He eats a little bit (often times a lot) of whatever Phil and I are eating every day. His favorite snack is yogurt. He still nurses once a day, though, and STILL a couple of times a night. Yep, STILL working on the sleeping! He is much improved, however.
6. He really enjoys riding facing forward in the car.
7. He has 8 teeth - 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.
8. He absolutely loves his books. He will bring them to Phil or me to read to him or just sit and flip through them himself. He is getting really good at finding the mouse in Goodnight Moon.

Dear Adam,
I can't believe you are one! What a year we have had! I have such sweet memories of your birth and the start of your life. It has been amazing for us to watch you grow and learn. It is so fun to take you to new places and watch your face light up. You are so curious about everything and you really keep us on our toes!
You are so cute and you have a lot of fans around these parts - lots of friends to play with. You are so loved, especially by your dad and me. Thank you for changing our lives and filling our days with so much fun.

We love you!
Mama and Daddy

P.S. Could you please just sleep a little bit better at night? Thank you.