We spent Saturday celebrating our lasts: our last day with a baby, Griff’s last pitcher of mixed formula (won’t miss that!), last full baby hold snuggle with a willing (mostly) participant…it felt weird! This year flew by, and Dave and I are both kind of shocked to be standing here in a house full of toddlers and up.

Griff was oblivious. He speed crawled around like he always does, did his “grunt Marco polo” routine, clambered up to standing on every glass door he could get to followed by Tarzan yelling at whoever was on the other side. He tried to take Lilou’s plate, joyfully gummed his food, left his broccoli woefully untouched. A normal day. But Dave and I were a bit quieter than normal, as the day was bittersweet. How weird, that our baby is almost walking and talking!

The kids were excited about a birthday, as always. They couldn’t wait for cake and presents on Sunday. We had out of town friends over for breakfast and dinner, so Griff’s actual birthday was a flurry of watching the kids play while cooking up a storm. Thank god for family and quasi family! They all helped us get the food out, the dog walked, and Sassy and Poppi stayed to help us clean up.

The day started with what’s becoming our family tradition, though. We all gathered around Griff’s crib to sing happy birthday first thing in the morning. Tess and Remy are big fans and sang boisterously; Lilou jumped along to the tune, giggling and making faces at Griffin through the bars of the crib. He looked dumbfounded.

Hang on, little man! In a year or two, you too will realize what this song represents.

Griffin loves noodles, so we had that for dinner with a side of meat, his other favorite. He started eating after his nap and worked his way through quite a haul by the end of dinner! We made him a big, chocolate birthday cake, topped with star sprinkles and an airplane. He looked mad we wouldn’t let him touch the fire, until he got a whiff of cocoa. We blew out the candle together, and moved right into the era of littles instead of littlest.

We love birthdays, not just to celebrate the kids, but to watch them celebrate each other. They amaze us in their ability to show love and be happy about another kid’s presents. Griffin has some pretty awesome role models, and we can’t miss his babyhood too much when we know he’ll be growing into burgeoning empathy and hilarity.