Here are some things Wesley did on his Last Day as a One Year Old.

He went outside to play.

He read books.

When the joy of functional play wore off he resorted to random destruction.

So I stuck him in front of the TV to give me some respite. Can I tell you how much I love Signing Time videos? Wes only recently developed an attention span for them, but he really seems to enjoy them. I’ve never seen him quite so entranced.

Today I made a cake for his birthday, which we will hopefully celebrate tomorrow along with another BYU Cougar win.

And how do I celebrate Wesley’s Last Day as a One Year Old? By remembering the painful contractions I was having exactly two years ago tonight and then rejoicing that I’m not in labor today! Instead of moaning through pain I’m listening to Zumba music, updating my blog, and eating ice cream. Happy Last Day!

Lately a few people in my Zumba classes have been asking how old I am. When I tell them they usually respond like this lady I taught on Friday (imagine Spanish accent): “Twenty-eight? You look like twenty. Or TEENager! No twenty-eight!”

But alas, it is true. Yesterday I turned 28. We didn’t have any candles except for the ones leftover from John’s 31st birthday, but John creatively made them do.

I admit I had low expectations for my birthday this year. I wasn’t terribly excited. But it turned out to be one of the happiest days I’ve had in a long time.

First off, John took me shopping on Saturday. At the mall. With Wesley. Who was Fussy. I mean, does this man love me, or what?

I didn’t know what he ended up buying until last night. I tried to argue that he didn’t have to buy me anything, but I lost that battle pretty fast. I ended up with two nice (and inexpensive) dresses. He also got me a shirt that has stripes because he says I don’t wear stripes enough. Problem solved.

As for the jeans… Long, long ago when I started trying to lose weight I told John my goal was to fit into the same brand and size of jeans I vaguely recall wearing in high school, which were Gap size 5. By the end of high school (after I started working nights at a cafeteria) I had gained weight and didn’t fit into those jeans anymore. And then I went to college and gained more weight. I know jean sizes vary greatly brand to brand, so sometimes the numbers are relative, but I think my biggest size was 11/12 in Juniors (which would be a 10 in Misses? Why are women’s sizes so complicated?). Anyway, after I lost a little weight I was a size 8 for a long time. Then I remember a couple years ago visiting Gap (I usually don’t shop there) and trying to squeeze into size 6 and ending up with baaaad muffin top, and I’m not sure I could even button them up. I probably blocked that memory. Since starting to teach Zumba my tummy has trimmed and toned up enough that I ended up with–Ta Da!–size 4 jeans. Now, it’s possible that Gap has done that size inflation thing that’s supposed to boost your self esteem (where they take a size 6 and rename it size 4). If they did, it worked. So this is how I ended up with two pair of Gap jeans for my birthday. Thank you, John.

The other thing he surprised me with was a box of hand-picked chocolates from See’s Candy. No one has ever given me a box of chocolates before. Ever. I know it’s a small thing, but it just made me feel kind of special. And, yes, that’s a bite taken out of the piece in the middle. Because it’s my own box and I can do that.

Plus my big brother sent me flowers. I don’t remember ever having flowers delivered on my birthday. Again, I felt kind of special.

Lastly, I made my own birthday cake (which is different from the one in the picture above). I made a yellow cake mix in two round cake pans, split each layer in half so I had four layers, and then layered the cake with ice cream and frosted it with whipped cream cheese frosting (store bought). The piece pictured has chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was dee-lish-ous.

John made me feel like his most valuable person in the world, I got lots of love from family and friends, and now I can say I’m 28.

Friday I took Wesley to his first parade. He is really into watching stuff that moves.

This is us at the start of the parade. Not really sure what Wes is doing here. Pulling his hair out in excitement?

The parade opened with a long line of emergency vehicles, all blaring their sirens. Why? Not really sure. Especially because it usually makes the little kids cry. I kept an eye on Wes, but he was fine. The only time his face puckered like he might cry was when a fire truck blew its horn RIGHT NEXT to us. Like, five feet away. Even I jumped. But no tears spilled from Wes.

Wes liked watching the cars and people move by. By the end he was tuckered out.

But I managed to get a clap from him anyway.

The next big milestone will be when he can appreciate all the candy that was thrown to him instead of me eating it all.

No, Wesley didn’t get beat up. He just found the canister of cocoa. I guess I’ll have to be more diligent about closing that pantry door.

Wes is at that age where he is into EVERYTHING. Like baskets.

And he’s like a little rocket, zipping from one exciting thing to the next without pausing. Therefore, our living room (and rest of the house) frequently resembles this:

It’s exhausting trying to keep the house in perfect order, so I save my energy for when I know we have company heading over.

This week we spent some time in Park City after one of John’s interviews and visited the Olympic Park. A few highlights.

Future bobsled driver?

We took a guided tour that included a handful of tourists who were obviously parents/grandparents based on how much attention they gave to Wesley. When they were taking photo ops at the bobsled, they insisted Wesley get in for a picture, offered to take the picture for us, and waved their hands wildly and made funny noises to catch his attention. I tell you, you can’t be inconspicuous with a baby. Especially with Wesley.

We also watched the aerial jumpers practice. In the summer they use a pool with bubbles (to pad the landing). Can you see the ski jumper in red pants doing a flip?

The tour took us to the top of the ski jump. I decided I’m too afraid of heights to be a ski jumper. Do you see how STEEP and HIGH and ON THE EDGE A MOUNTAIN this is? I’m just saying. Good thing that wasn’t one of my great life ambitions.

A family photo in the mountain heights.

Wesley’s new suit. It’s size 12 months. The shirt and vest fit OK, but the pants we had to roll up about three times to fit his short legs.

Wesley has learned how to play Peek-a-boo. At first, I would cover up my face with my hands, say “Where’s Mom?”, then pull away my hands and say “Peekaboo!” I’d do the same to him by covering up his face and saying, “Where’s Wesley?” He really liked that. But this week he figured out that he can do the same thing by pulling a blanket or burp cloth over his face. It’s really cute to watch and it’s rewarding to see that he’s getting it. Sometimes it seems like we work for so long on something, or a lot of things, and he just doesn’t get it. It gets frustrating to try to teach him something for months and months without any apparent progress, when you know other kids get it just like that. But then he surprises us by figuring out something on his own that we weren’t even trying to teach him, like how to play Peek-a-boo.

For Christmas Wes received a few new toys, courtesy of the grandparents. One of them is a Bounce & Spin Zebra that he can sit on and, well, bounce and spin on. The box says it’s for ages 12-36 months. Wes is 15 1/2 months, but I think we’ll have to put it aside for a few months until he gets tall enough that his feet can reach the floor while sitting on the toy. Right now we have to hold him on it and he’s kind of like, “What am I doing dangling here?”

Wes has to gain over three pounds before I can get him out of the backward-facing infant car seat and into the Big Boy front-facing seat. Whenever we take him into restaurants we always carry him in the car seat and we always specifically request a high chair. And the server always arrives with a sling for the car seat instead. When we ask for the high chair again, the server usually says, “Oh, sorry; people who want high chairs don’t come in with car seats.” I didn’t think it was that weird to carry Wes around in the car seat. Is it?

For Christmas John gave me the DVD of Anne of Green Gables. I finished watching it today. It is like a breath of fresh air. And now I’m dying because I don’t have the sequel to it. I might just have to go online and buy it as a belated Christmas present to myself…

And, speaking of movies, I saw Twilight for the second time this week. And it was so much better than the first time. I liked it OK the first time, but I could really get into it the second time around. How much better will it be the third time, I wonder? Has anyone else seen it twice?