Car days

This little guy spent way too much time in the car from March 31 - April 17. Even though he refused to take a nap longer than 25 minutes (correction: he slept 40 minutes once!) in the car, he still hung in there and managed to be in good spirits most of the time.

Car Wash

Here begins a line of catch-up blog posts with some of my favorite Nathanael pictures.

Mid March, we had a couple crazy warm days and took advantage of them by washing our car. Nathanael joined in on the fun, kind of.

Watching from the grass

My Boys at Baylor

I cannot believe it took five and half years of marriage (and a baby!) to finally bring Gregory to Baylor. We only spent about an hour on campus, but it was still completely surreal.

Notice Pat Neff Hall in the background

Running around in the Quad in front of Draper

I still love my Green & Gold!

Picture with Gimple Grandparents

We took advantage of being together on Nathanael's birthday and took a family picture - Nathanael with Dad & Mom and Grandpa & Grandma Gimple.

Dear Nathanael (12 Months)

My dearest Nathanael,

Happy first birthday, son! One year ago, we wondrously and joyfully welcomed you into our family; no one could have adequately described how blessed we would be by your presence in our family. We celebrate your life today and the incredible gift of God that you are to us. We rejoice in the Lord over you, Alim.

You are measuring somewhere around the 30th percentile for both weight and height, about 29 inches and 21.5 pounds. We are constantly amazed with how much you can eat. This past week has been exciting as we've introduced you to whole milk and egg whites. You loved eating your very own slice of veggie, bacon, and cheese frittata! A couple other (not so healthy) food highlights were pepperoni pizza and Texas Roadhouse rolls (without the honey cinnamon butter, unfortunately). And we can't forget to mention the birthday cake! To our surprise, you quickly spit out your first bite of banana applesauce cake; hopefully when you're older, you'll appreciate the cake's resemblance to Mr. Bear. :) We introduced you to a straw this month, and you love drinking your water out of a straw cup. Though you seem to go through days where all you want to do is chew on everything, you have made it to age one without any teeth!

With visits in Kansas and then travels through Oklahoma and Texas, you have seen so many new and old friends this past month that it would be impossible to list them all! We can suffice it to say that you have been thoroughly loved and cherished and prayed over by many people dear to our family. Despite your inability to sleep well in the car, you were a great traveler (for the most part) and showed incredible adaptability with our hectic travel and meeting schedule. A couple family highlights for Mom were introducing you and Dad to Baylor and a family hike in Cameron Park.

This is such an exciting age as you are taking in everything around you. You loved visiting families on our travels, closely observing and imitating all of the other kids (and dogs). You began sharing (handing objects) with other people and kids, and you also transitioned from only taking things apart to actually piling and stacking items now. One of our favorite developments in this way is how you choose a book and bring it to one of us to read to you. It's adorable, and we will stop almost anything we're doing to sit down and read to you when you do this. You love to tackle us when we're on the ground, usually smothering us with kisses and zerberts.

You say "MahMaw" for Grandma (which you know she loves), and you pointed to a baby in a book the other day and clearly said, "baby". You are beginning to respond appropriately when we ask you to point to a nose or eyes, and you are pointing at everything for us to identify many new words and objects each day. You recently brought Mom our family photos and asked her to identify all of your grandparents and uncles and aunts. You have a loud, boisterous, two syllable laugh now (haHA) which makes everyone around you laugh. You sometimes seem to be practicing consonants, "s" and "th" being the most noticeable ones. You growl at your big bear. You try to imitate Mom's fish face and the elephant noise.

Nathanael Alim, we love you, son! What a joy it has been to watch you grow this first year. Happy birthday!

Lovingly,
your daddy and mommy

Nathanael Alim - constantly in motion 12 month old

And a few outtakes:
Crazy fearless kid...
"Why are you holding me, Dad?"
Carrying Mr. Bear around by his ears

Compare these to his 11 month pictures here.

Birthday Celebration

Grandpa was home today, so we took advantage of the rare family time and celebrated Nathanael's birthday a day early!

What could be more appropriate than a Mr. Bear cake?!

He wasn't really into the sweetness of it. Can you tell?

But he had fun squishing it between his hands!

And he gladly offered it to the rest of us.

He enjoyed opening a few special gifts and cards as well.

And lastly, we created a homemade hand impression to remember Nathanael's one-year-old hands for years and years to come. (Getting the imprint from Nathanael was way more difficult than I imagined!)
A special day indeed...