The Narrowed Lens: Tales of *tiny* Ty: The Birthday Boy

March 25th, 2014, we got Ty. This is the first time I've thought of that all day, if you can believe it. How did he have a birthday without me even thinking about his birth? Oh, I know. I spent the day with the one year old version of Ty, whom I think might be more demanding than the newborn version, and certainly does not leave one with much opportunity for reminiscing ;)

I hope we did everything you're supposed to do on a first birthday. Goodness, I really have no idea. I tried to get a show-stopping birthday picture...didn't happen. This was one of those days when he wasn't interested in smiling. I know, you didn't think he had those. It made for a really blah photo shoot, but at least we got some documentation. I guess not every picture is going to be frameable, right?

Dinner was Papa John's (is it Ty's birthday or mine?) followed by some totally Pinterest-worthy cupcakes designed and executed by Todd. This afternoon. Both designed and executed this afternoon. A few weeks ago I decided we'd do red and blue-iced cupcakes representing Elmo and Cookie Monster, two characters Ty can identify when shown a picture. Slap on some icing and call those puppies done. It doesn't get much easier.

Well. Todd felt differently. Obviously. I thought he was setting the bar a bit too high. This is only Ty's first birthday. After this, Todd will have to do a decorated cake every year. There's no turning back.

The present of the night was most definitely a tiny, foam football from Ty's Aunt. He carried it around, threw it, chewed it, and panicked when he wasn't doing one of the above. It was probably the least expensive toy he received, which serves as a good reminder: don't spend a lot on toys. Kids are probably happier with cheap stuff.

It has been a wonderful, challenging, enlightening, sanctifying, and kind of disgusting year. We love you, buddy! We're so glad God gave you to us :)