Simon Turns 1

This time last year Simon came out of me. I can't believe it's been a whole year!

Just look at that thing! Was he stinkin' cute or what? And he only got cuter. I couldn't imagine how much I would love him, how much he'd make me laugh and cry (well, I think the crying part is mostly postpartum and new pregnancy hormones, but it's love, too!). Chase and I can't remember what we did before Simon was here. We think it was sit around and watch a lot of TV, but we're not really sure. Now we sit around and watch Si... and chase him and cuddle him and play with him.


I don't know that I ever shared the whole birth story here (don't worry, nothing graphic), so in celebration of his first birthday, here it goes:

On Monday, April 28, 2009, we had dinner with our friend Aaron. He had written a song for Simon and we listened to it when he left. We had had only been living in our new place for a couple weeks (if that long) and had gotten into the nightly ritual of Chase playing Zelda games while I watched and looked up guides online to give him hints if he got stuck.

It was after midnight when we went to bed and we talked for a little bit. Chase fell asleep and I decided to get up to go to the bathroom one last time hoping I could sleep for a couple hours before I'd have to go again. I was just thinking about getting up when my water broke. I must have flinched or something and that woke Chase up. I told him my water broke. He asked if I was sure and I told him yes, showed him the sheets and said I'm not peeing. It was 12:45 a.m.

Chase called the hospital to let them know we'd be coming and I went to the bathroom to make 100% sure that my water had broken and that I really wasn't peeing my pants. I went to the bathroom and knew that my water had definitely broken when my bladder was empty yet stuff kept coming out.

We went to the hospital, got checked in and all that and were put in a room. From the time my water broke until Simon was born, it was just about 8 hours. I was pushing for about 45 minutes and he came out at 8:42 a.m.. I didn't have an epidural (a big needle in the back freaked me out more than the pain), but I did have some kind of pain medication in my IV twice so that I could sleep a little between contractions. When Simon came out, Chase got to "catch" him and cut the cord.



Here's Simon's very first video footage:


Some of Simon's favorite things at 1 year old:
playing outside
taking all the books off his shelf
eating fruit
eating whatever's on Mommy or Daddy's plate
being naked
riding high (up on Daddy's shoulders)
his sign language DVD
Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune
watching older kids play
swinging at the park
wrestling with stuffed animals or pillows
climbing all over Mommy
snuggling when sleepy

And here is his first year in pictures: