Morgan’s 1st Birthday was Officially last thursday…but we held the party on Saturday as El Dorado Park. Family and friends from San Diego, Menifee and everywhere in between came to celebrate with us.

He has come along way: from 2 pounds to 20 pounds and from 15 inches to 30. He makes us smile everyday.

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I am 1

Morgan celebrated his 1st birthday at Daycare, dressed in a custom made ‘œIt’s my birthday’ onesie. I made ‘œHealthy Banana cupcakes for him, but as I have never baked healthy before I wasn’t sure if they come out right. They were quite solid and not at all light and airy. They tasted ok, but I was concerned about damage to the other children’s teeth and so I did not take them to daycare.

The day after his birthday was his One Year old Check up. His official height and weight are 30 inches tall and 9lbs 9ozs. The Dr proclaimed him to be in good health. Although his ears looked congested, she saw no need to treat them at this time. His development is as expected for his adjusted age of 9 months. He is belly crawling, pulling himself up and adding consonants other than D to his language repertoire. He is beginning to cruise a little. And in the time since his check up, he has started crawling on his knees, usually just a couple of steps when he gets near his desired goal, at which time, he grabs the goal object, pulls himself up onto his knees, shuffles on his knees a few steps closer and then pulls himself to a standing position.

Saturday was his birthday party, wow, what an undertaking! It wasn’t until we were on the way to the park that I realized how much help we needed. The problem is, there was just 2 of us and Morgan. So Don unloaded the car one load at a time while Morgan and I waited on the grass. Further complicating the situation was the fact that the tables and Easy Ups were on the bottom and back of the load respectively, so I couldn’t do any set up until those things were unloaded.

I was never so relieved when I saw Mike and Dia drive up at about 10 am! If it weren’t for them, and then my dad and Aunt Dot a few minutes later I don’t know what we would have done. After that the car was unloaded in record time, tables and easy ups were set up the final party prep could begin. Dia did a great (and fast) job of decorating, with the assistance of my Dad and Aunt Dot. And Jeff, Laurie, and Jaymes showed just in time to go get more ice so we could get the rest of the food set up. At 11:15ish people started to arrive and we were essentially ready for them.

Meanwhile, Don and Mike had been off getting the cake and balloons. The cake was perfect! But the balloons’¦. Well, let’s just say that if you are having a party requiring balloons, on a Saturday, you should order them ahead. There was a 1 ½ hour wait for balloons at Party City. SO, Don bought their balloon party pack which comes with a helium tank, and blew up the 4 Monkey balloons I had bought and we called it good.

By then, everyone was arriving, games were being played, parents and kids were trekking back and forth from the playground. And Morgan just took it all in. That day he was comfortable in everyone’s arms, and got lots of love. He also took a good nap before the party got into full swing.

Around 12, our guests made their way to the sandwich buffet, and made their own creations accompanied with potato salad, veggies, fruit and chips & dip. Everything was on ice and stayed fresh and tasty.

After lunch, Don rigged up the Monkey Pinata ‘“ of course he used a pulley and carabineer to rig up the piñata ‘“ because how else would Don do such a thing? I have to hand it to him, it was great, and the ups and downs were very smooth! Morgan took the first few hits, and after showing him a couple of times what to do, he was swinging the stck as hard as I was.

Next were presents. Don opened them all and did a quick job of it. Morgan got some very cute outfits and great toys!

The cake was the Piece de Resistance ‘“ note to parents planning birthday parties out there, put CANDLES on your prep list ‘“ I never did and we didn’t have one for the cake ‘“ oh well! We sang to Mo and he reveled in the attention. Next I chopped the head off of the Monkey, (First I warned small children to avert their eyes) and served the Monkey head to Morgan who was in his Bumbo on the grass. The cake pictures tell the whole story from his tentative first taste, to his head to toe blueness.

After that, all that was left was the clean-up. Our friend Sandy was a tremendous help! She jumped right in and took charge emptying serving dishes and bagging them in a large bag for washing later (thank you, thank you, thank you!). While we were cleaning up a homeless lady came and asked for some food for herself and her 3 children, so we gave her a Ziploc bag of roast beef, salami, and pepperoni. We also gave her some drinks and a big hunk of cake. I’™d like to think she and her family ate well that day, and am glad that we were able to share our joy with her family. So Sandy helped with the bulk of the clean up, with myself, Laurie, and Kelly helping too, and Don jumped in at the last minute and gave my back a rest; meanwhile Auntie Dia was rocking Morgan to sleep in his sugar coma. Then all the guys in the group had everything carried to and loaded into the car in an amazing amount of time, but the end of it, it was like we were never in the park. But it will always be the place where we held Morgan’s first birthday party. We could never have done it without all our friends and family helping!

We followed the party with a dip in our pool at home. Aunti Dia got Morgan a suit and floaty among other pool related items and we put them to good use. The day was hot and all 3 of us were over heated, so we had a relaxing soak in the pool (most of the blue washed off Morgan in the pool), and were thankful that it was only Saturday and we still had Sunday to recover from the birthday fun.

Thursday Day (May 1st) we took Morgan’s first plane trip. We went to Iowa to attend cousin Cohri’s college graduation from William Penn University! The entire Haas clan was there, plus Laurie’s mom (and Sandra joined us in our hearts and spirits). The trip was great, the graduation was nice, we spent lots of family time together and really had a good time. The college was really lovely, so beautiful and historic. What a change for her to be in small town Iowa after growing up in California, I think it was nice for her to get to experience the difference between the two, and she did her family proud. And we are excited that she will be back home in California, we missed her!

Morgan did well on the plane rides, very little fussing. He had a cold through out the trip, so lots of runny noses and coughing. He was also very clingy to me, and wouldn’t even go to Don, so it made for a long trip for me, I tried to encourage floor play and crawling as much as I could, with some success. If he got interested enough, he’™d crawl to other people and play with them for awhile. I am glad that he feels safe and loved with me; but I would also like him to feel safe and loved with the rest of his family, and especially with Daddy. I know it’s just a phase, but I want to make sure that he develops his confidence and is able to be secure with out me.

Next Dr’s visit for Morgan is at 15 months so we’™ll give another update then, unless something earth shattering happened between now and then.

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