Lark's Little Party

Lark dismantled the title of Baby Of The Family when he was born, weighing a solid 12 pounds. Hours after he was born, John was googling gigantism. During my pregnancy, I would ask my friend if I was going to have another 10 pound baby, to which she always jokingly said, "no-he's going to be 12 pounds." We would laugh because we thought it wasn't possible. 

And here we are. One year later we have a big, happy boy. On Saturday we had a little brunch with our family to celebrate him and to give him cake. He liked the attention and received it well. 

He had one little overwhelming moment when we gathered in a semi-circle around him. (Just like Burl did at his first birthday.) He hid his face in John's neck, but came right back out when he saw his cake with candle. 

He dug into his cake and enjoyed it to the max. 

Then, we opened gifts. By WE, I mean WE. He had a lot of help opening and playing with his toys, and he loved them almost as much as his cake:

We could all tell a little bit of difference with him. He new that he was getting some special attention and he responded with open-mouth, tongue-twirled smiles. We tried to get a family picture, and how poignant that with four children, this is the best we got...

It was a sweet morning for our sweet boy-we all know what it is to love a child, and celebrating them comes easy. 

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Lark Is 1!

Our sweet baby is one today! I'm ending my night by staring at pictures at him from today and from a year ago. What a trip! I'm about to head into his room and hold him. First, I'm going to post pictures from our simple family celebrations today. 

Before school we went for doughnuts. It was Burl's idea because he's almost 8 years into this family and he knows how we like to celebrate. Sweets-adventures-mama won't say no policy. 

And more doughnuts after school drop off. Duh.

We had a few simple gifts for him that we gave to him past his bedtime. 

Hopefully we will get to play with them more fully tomorrow. The rocker is going back to the store if he doesn't giddy up already. 

Fortunately/Unfortunately the popcorn popper is here to stay. He got the hang of it very quickly!

We gave him some ice cream and sang happy birthday while he smiled at each of us. Tomorrow we will have a family brunch for him. For tonight, John and I are hugging and high-5ing because we made it with four babies this year! Lark-attack, we adore him!

One Year Ago Today

One year and 70 pounds ago, I took this picture. It was the day before Lark was born and the peak of my discomfort. No one knew that the next day would bring forth a 12 pound baby, justifying all the pain. He was worth all of it and I remember that day with so much joy, but it sure is nice to run/get things off the floor/and pee less than 12 times a day!

Lark's 1st Haircut

Lark is getting so much attention lately. He's doing new things faster than we can see, and it's his birthday week! We can't stop talking and gushing over our little baby. (The older kids are OBSESSED!) Saturday, I took all four kids to a kids hair salon place (a new experience for me) and didn't yell at anyone as we all worked to keep Lark distracted during his first haircut. 

Before:

While I shoved goldfish in his mouth, Burl and Fern took pictures. They were so sweet. 

During:

Ridge was there but I have no idea what he was doing (probably eating hair and bumping into people). Here is Lark after:

The haircut plus the polo shirt paint an accurate picture. Lark is growing up at a faster rate than the older three, but I guess that is what happens when he has five people cheering on each new move.