Happy 1st B-day Logan! (you were warned!)

Yes, I have been in reflection mode ALL day...Ok, really for several weeks now. Leading up to Logan's birthday, remembering how great with child I was, I have definitely taken a walk down memory lane. It is always funny to me that some things I can remember like it happened yesterday & others were so surreal that I can't put my finger on the details. Inman humors me & even watched the video of Logan's first few minutes of life tonight. I think he gets a kick out of moms taking the yearly walk. Thankfully his mom prepared him a little bit by always recounting his day, the time he was born & would sometimes make that phone call right around the time of his birth. Nothing could have prepared him for "birthday mode" though. Whatever you think of the recent Jon & Kate recent scandal, I think Kate Gosselin said it so well recently while celebrating her kids' birthdays..."it is so much more than the party..I will always make a big deal out of their birthday." I think there is something about their first birthday too:)

These moments were priceless! One year ago today, my boys began their very special bond. Jacob loved his brother from the moment he saw him. It is so cute to see their little relationship developing & changing. Even when Logan gets under foot or requires more attention than he would like, Jacob loves his brother SO much or as Logan calls him, "BroBro."

We had a great day celebrating today! Even if Logan doesn't know it is his birthday we still wanted to celebrate his day. I think he knew he was getting the TLC treatment:)

(& that would be different than every other day of his life how?)

I guess it is a tradition. I have done some sort of banner for the kids' birthdays. This is Logan's 1st b-day banner.

Jacob helped make pancakes for Logan's breakfast. Logan took a little morning nap & Mema came over. She got some pics with her new camera that I will have to download. We went to a puppet show at the library & went out to lunch with Mema. Daddy was home all day with us (yea!)

Even though we will have family over for cake & ice cream on Saturday, we had to let Logan have cake on his real birthday. He thought this was a great idea!

He has started "singing" anytime we do & joined in with the singing.

I would say this was a hit!

Brother helped with the cleanup.

And loved helping with a couple of presents!

Logan enjoyed doing a few of his other favorite things....

putting any and everything in his mouth......

.....tearing up whatever he could get a hold of....

.....a little adventure.....

Did I mention that Batman makes regular appearances at our parties now? (Pics from Dad's b-day last week to follow)

I really relived every minute of the late afternoon & evening hours leading up to Logan's birth time. I gave regular updates of what we were doing this time last year....(Inman only rolled his eyes a couple of times & even chimed in a couple of times!)

approx 1:00...."the hospital finally called us & told us to come on in for our induction (we had just eaten firehouse subs)".....

approx 3:00 "This is when the fun was really beginning...they started the pitocin about right now."

 approx 5:45 "This is when Mom, Dad & Steph went to the cafeteria to grab dinner thinking we had plenty of time."

6:00 pm "This is when the epidural was started, it all went downhill from here...."

6:35pm "OH! This was about when they brought back your food & things had started heading south, no time for dinner!"

5 cm

"This was not a good point in the evening. No one could figure out why the epidural was NOT working. Nurse & doctors were buzzing all over the room, the pump? the epidural catheter? had it come out?"

7:00pm "Dr Williams lifts up the blanket & announces 'the reason the epidural is not working is because you are ready to have a baby. We are going to move fast April, not because we are panicked but because the only way you will get out of pain is to have the baby.'

I did not use bad language at this point but was putting two & two together that I was about to deliver with only my right leg numb!"

7:05pm "Night shift nurse at bedside. (cool story, we are now friends outside of the hospital) The nurse in me tells the dayshift nurse to go ahead & go, I hate for her to stay late because of me. She assures me she is not mixing this birth & it will be SOON!"

7:23 pm LOGAN MARSHALL HOUSTON is here, all 9 pounds, 9 ounces of him!

As I watched the video & relived those first few moments, it was so different from Jacob's birth. (Besides being fast!)

Jacob's birth was so neat because he was my first. Even being a nurse & knowing things could go wrong, I still had such an innocence. The birth was very lighthearted. My dr allowed me to pull Jacob up myself & place him on my chest. We declared "It's a boy!"

Watching Logan's birth again, I noticed right away that innocence was gone. I had to say goodbye to a baby in between Jacob & Logan & I guess you never see it the same again. We had some complications with Logan before even getting out of the 1st trimester & all this showed in my eyes, in my face. Those tears that fell were different. No more or less love, just different...such a relief that he was here! So thankful!

God has blessed us so much this last year! We can't imagine our lives without this little guy.

So, don't say I didn't warn you! This is the short version if you can believe it?! And our partying is not over yet!:)

Do you think the "birthday enthusiasm" will carry on?