A Wild Rumpus

Happy Birthday, Merrick Wilder! Yesterday was our little man's 1st birthday. It was such a fun day...kinda bittersweet, but so much fun. I remember waking up at 3:30 am thinking "this time last year I was in the recovery room after my crazy labor/emergency c-section". Merrick was completely worth it, and I'd do it all again. He's such a precious gift, and this last year with him has been the most amazing of our lives. He's grown so much, and taught us so much in the process. We had a great day with him, and with so many of our friends and family, who were able to come to his birthday party! We threw him a "wild rumpus" as we called it...after the theme of the book "Where the Wild Things are". When I was pregnant with Merrick, Billy started calling the two of us The Wild Things. (Merrick was a VERY active baby, and Billy had been calling me "Wild Woman Austin-Lea Girl" since we were in high school...so it seemed fitting.) We had a blast, opening presents, eating pizza and cake, and trying to avoid the inevitable 1-year-old over-stimulated and over-tired meltdown. :) He did great, considering he chose his birthday to NOT get very good naps. Go figure. I begged and pleaded with God to MAKE this child nap...some things are just not meant to be. :) (If there is anything I've learned over the last year...it's that children LOVE to do exactly what you would rather them not...) Seriously, though, we are so grateful to everyone who came and celebrated with us, and are thrilled to have each of you be a part of our lives. We are looking forward to what this next year holds for us as a family! Hope that each of you had a great Halloween. I commented to Billy this afternoon that this Halloween is the first of Merrick's second holidays...I'm sure that each one of these holidays will be just as wild and blessed as the first. :)