One Year and One Month!

And what a busy month it has been!! Between a fun birthday party, doctor appointments, school assignments/final projects/exams (Adam -made an A in both classes, btw!!!), LOTS of school work, plans, PEPs, testing (that's all me, ofcourse), sicknesses (everyone I know, just about!!!)....whew....it's taken a holiday weekend for me to finally sit down and write in my blog! So, where to start? Let's start with Paul's birthday party!

For Paul's party, Terry made an absolutely YUMMY yellow cake with chocolate frosting for guests, and a special personal cake for Paul Daniel to dive into. And dive he did!! (More on that later) We decorated the house with balloons all over the floor for Paul to play with, and he loved (and still does) grabbing them and would giggle when you put a whole lot of balloons near him. We also bought a birthday banner for people who attended the party to sign.

The people who came to share this special day with Paul were Angela, Mom, Beth, Laura, Kai, Adam's Mom and Tom, Angela, Reggie, Nancy, Johanna, Joseph & Arielle. He received lots of nice toys and clothes, and everyone had a great time spending time with each other. We also had a great time watching Paul get his first REAL taste of chocolate and MAJOR sugar!!!

At first, he was a little tentative....not really sure what was happening or what this was in front of him....but then he dove in!!!
As you can see, he was getting a little sleepy....once he finished and we cleaned him up, he went right to dreamland with hardly a whimper!

Paul had his year checkup the next Monday, and he is doing very well. They wanted us to start him on 2% milk, since he has been gaining quite a bit of weight. He's leveled off quite a bit this month - hasn't gained much more weight as in past months. He is getting to the point where he wants to stand and can pull up on certain things - he has yet to realize that when he bumps his head it's going to hurt! He is still army crawling when he is crawling - he can walk with someone holding both of his hands and gets a kick out of it. We are also teaching the word NO to him - he loves the Wii which is on the bottom shelf of the entertainment center, and it's amazing how he just manages to migrate in that direction. When we say no, he'll look at us and hesitate. Sometimes he gets the picture and moves on to something else, other times he keeps going towards the Wii and he gets a little pat on the bottom. Not enough to hurt him, but he does realize that it's a no-no!!

On May 18 I took him to an ENT in Garner to get another opinion about his ears/hearing. They did the same type of tests there and said that he is within the normal ranges and they didn't recommend tubes at that point. I'm supposed to go back in June, but they said to cancel that appointment and reschedule for July. He has had one VERY minor ear infection, which accompanied his first bout of pink eye. The antibiotics cured him of both, but now he's got a cough/cold. No fever, though. Grandma Harper has back spasms and had to stay out of commission the last week and will be out this week, as well. We have had to take him to day care an extra day - Beth came up last week and is coming up another day this week to watch him. It's so nice to have family close by to help out!!!

Well, school ends for the students on June 10 and then I'll be working probably through the 17th...so only about 3 more weeks and then I'll be free for the summer!!! I am so looking forward to watching Paul and having some down time....one of the main things I plan to do is sticking to a consistent schedule with him and carrying it through in the fall. We bought a little swimming pool, and I'm also going to be looking into taking some swimming classes with Paul....also a beach trip is in the works for July....trips to Asheboro and spending time with friends and family.....life is good!!