It's the Big One!

Joseph turned one today! Yay! He survived! It's a good thing he's so cute.

Trouble indeed.

Ahhhh, full belly. Life is good.

Mm, first birthday cake! With chocolate icing, of course.

Oh, the carnage!

Since his birthday happily fell on a Saturday this year, we invited some friends over to celebrate his big day.

The Brat Pack. :) Joseph is blessed to have several boys born within a year of him, both older and younger. In a couple years, they will be A Force To Be Reckoned With! I need to start nailing things down.

Aw, but how could anyone with this adorable face EVER get in trouble?

I can't believe he's one already. My little man is growing up!

A friend once told me that mothers have different relationships with their sons than with their daughters. Another mom told me she feels differently towards her baby boy, because she knows one day he'll grow up and away from her. I haven't really felt either of these things -- intellectually I know them, but the reality hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe I'm in denial that my precious little baby will ever grow away from me. What does wake me up at night in a cold sweat is the idea that I'm responsible for raising a man. There are a lot of forces in the world conspiring against him, and it's up to me and his father to strengthen him against them. It's thoughts like this that make me realize there's no way I can do it on my own power -- we need Divine assistance to help him grow to be the person he was created to be. But for now, I'm just loving him as much as I can while I have him.