My BABY turns ONE

The day has arrived. My sweet little man turned one today. I can't believe how grown up he is all of a sudden. It may be because my cousin in law just brought her sweet 10 week old over to my house the other day. But he seems all toddler now and it makes me sad :( .
   *      Alex has recently learned if he screams and throws himself on the floor when Jayden takes away one of his toys, he'll get it back. This has created a lot of chaos in our home.
   *     Alex right now likes to walk, but still prefers to crawl. He is a show off for sure. Whenever new people come, he has to show off his walking skills and check everyone out for their reaction.
   *     He has a wonderful cheesy grin that I have yet to capture a picture of. But it melts my heart every.single.time. 
Confession of a bad mom: I turned his car seat around. I'm sure if the "recommendation" to keep children rear facing in their car seat until they turn 2 had come before I had kids I would be all for it. But Jayden survived. Therefore, I feel confident that Alex will be okay too. I know it's safer for him to be rear facing, but on our drive back from St. George I knew we wouldn't make it unless he had a change of scenery. I wish I had a camera for the first 30 minutes of Alex being forward facing. He was so excited. I had never seen him happier in my life. It was like I was bestowing the highest privilege upon him. He was laughing, kicking his feet and screaming in glee. It was glorious.
  Glorious because.. Alex is still a complainer. This boy likes to cry. And still doesn't sleep through the night. Someday, right? Luckily when he's happy, he's really happy. He gives great kisses and hugs. He loves his mama. I'm really grateful for this bond I have with my boys.
  *      Alex has learned to "Fake Laugh" ... and it is fantastic.
  *      His favorite things to do are: Play with doors.
                                                         Flush toilets
                                                         Turn lights on and off
                                                          Push things around (he got a lawn mower, and shopping cart for
                                                          his birthday!)

Today for Alex's birthday he took a 3.5 hour nap. When he woke up we went to the zoo, and he LOVED it.  It was 51 degrees, and hardly anyone was there. It seemed like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. Alex loved the monkey's, while Jayden insisted on visiting the tigers over and over again.

We came home for about 15 minutes and then decided to go out to eat. Bad idea. Tired kids+restaurant= bad combo. Luckily, it was just Denny's so we didn't fear getting kicked out. Haha. The little guys and I went into the car to watch 101 Dalmatians while Ryan finished his nachos.
  We came home and Alex opened a couple of presents and had his cake. I didn't get a picture of the cake BEFORE, but it was cute!
 Have I mentioned I really love this little man???

Happy Birthday Alexander! We sure love you !!!!