Happy Birthday, Gabriel!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting my entry for Gabriel's birthday. My cable modem is still not working, so I suppose I'll just suck it up and do the dialup thing here at work. Well, as you all know, Gabriel celebrated his first birthday February 2nd. Since Gabriel was around 6 months old, I'd been excited about planning his very first birthday party. But now that it's finally here, I find myself scratching my head and wondering where the time has gone to. It's hard to believe that a year ago, I brought home a tiny little 7 lb'er and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Now, my baby is a year old, and I'm much more confident with caring for him. Hell, it's actually enjoyable now. Lolo asked me months ago to promise him the privelege of making his birthday cake. Of course, I was more than happy for him to do so. I decided to go with a Curious George theme for his party. My plan is to change his room to a classic children's theme when his crib converts to a toddler bed, and it only seemed appropriate to choose good 'ol George to grace his birthday party.
Auntie Panty Rachel drove from Florida to make it to the party, and showed up early along with his Auntie Jen to help decorate and prepare food. While blowing up his balloons on the helium tank, Jen even suffered a minor casualty of bleeding cuticles from tying off the balloon. Ahhhh, the labor of love...
Gabriel got a lot of really nice presents. He's been playing with all of his toys, which are still scattered about the living room. One of my favorite gifts he recieved, though, is a star in the constellation of Orion named after him, from his Aunt T. The other night after work, I looked up at the sky, and pointed out Orion to Gabriel. Kind of a neat gift to have a star registered in his name for eternity. Gabriel Shawn. He'll learn to appreciate that someday when he's a little older.
I think that this one is one of Gabriel's favorites. I found this Radio Flyer rocket long before his birthday, and knew right away this was what I wanted to get him for his first birthday. He was actually kind of scared of it when I first gave it to him, but after watching the other kids play with it, he quickly warmed up to the idea of having his first ride-on toy. Now, he sits on it, and waits for me to push him around the house. Maybe soon he'll figure out that he doesn't need me for the rocket to go.

Well, so this concludes my first year with my baby, who is now no longer considered a baby. I now have a little toddler, and am waiting to approach his terrible two's. I'm sure each year from here on out will fly by just as this one. But no matter how old he gets, I'll always think of him as my baby.