Happy Birthday Koen

Okay, so I'm a little late on the birthday post, but summer is busy! Little man turned one on June 2nd, and it leaves me wondering where my baby has gone to. With a mouth full of pearly white teeth, sometimes he looks two and that makes me even crazier. The birthday bash was a complete success. I chose a Cheerios theme which included an AMAZING chocolate Cheerios cake his cousin made for him, chocolate dipped strawberries dusted in Cheerios powder, Cheerio marshmallow treats, Cheerio trail mix and party mix. Flowers were placed in a Cheerios box vase and mason jars were filled with all the different Cheerios flavors. I also made a banner out of Cheerios boxes. It was both inexpensive and great marketing for the Cheerios brand. You're welcome General Mills. My brother took amazing professional photos (accendoimages.com), which I will forever be grateful for. All in all it was a blast. Our little guy is changing in leaps and bounds and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. He started walking on June 5th, and then either lost his confidence in the following days, or decided it was taking way too long when he could just crun. Yes crun. This kid is so fast as a crawler, that he crawl-runs, therefore cruns. When we ask him to walk he will oblige - most of the time - but it's really like asking a smoker to switch to Camel Lights when he clearly prefers the originals. I've tried introducing whole cows milk and goats milk, but cows milk gives him a rash, and he's not a huge fan of goats milk. I don't blame him. He also is not doing egg whites and strawberries yet; for some reason his system is still intolerant to these guys. We'll try 'er again down the road. This month he started pointing at everything for its description. Here are a few items that he's got nicely lodged in his little memory: eyes, belly button, nose, light, diapers, antlers, fridge, microwave, truck, window, kitty, water, peaches, socks, books, "money tree" and "buddha" (a plant and figurine we have in the house). It's fun to watch him so focused looking for these things when we ask where they are. And it's nice to know what he wants now, for instance, pointing at the microwave means he's hungry. He chooses the book he'd like to read, chooses the color of his cloth diaper, points to foods that he would like to eat, etc, etc... and now I've bored all of you who don't have kids, or do and have been through this phase, to full on tears. At one he is also oozing a bit of baby testosterone. I was holding him in one of our local shops awhile back, and all of a sudden I hear what can only be described as a loud, womanizing cat call coming from my child; in one swift motion he had tucked his chin in and tilted his head, squinted his flirty eyes, revealed his huge toothy grin, arched his back and puffed out his chest... I look over my shoulder to see what would cause such a reaction in my boy and before me was this buxom blonde hottie that had clearly stolen my child's heart. She also was a bit taken back, and the look on her face told me she felt both flattery and violation at the same time. Boy am I in trouble with this one.