Mattox's Very Special Day

So almost three weeks ago, our littlest man had his very first birthday.  It was such a big day for us all.  I had been looking forward to this special day to celebrate the miracle of our beautiful rainbow baby for a very long time.  His birthday fell on a Thursday this year so I knew we would spend his actual birthday with just our little family.  I wanted the whole day to be about him.  Evan had school that day, but Daddy took off the whole day to spend with us.  Here's the schedule of the day:

1.  First Pancake Breakfast

Mommy made you your first pancakes complete with a candle.  You clapped for them. 

Yay for pancakes!  I put some on your tray for you to feed yourself, but you would just play with most of it or drop it on the floor so I prefer to help feed you.  That is just more my style to insure my kids actually get the food in their mouths.  

You actually loved wearing your birthday hat and didn't ever try to take it off.  I am glad I ordered it along with the matching shirt.  Your larger head size doesn't always make hats comfortable for you, but this soft cloth hat was just perfect. 

Sweet little face.  I put a few blueberries in your pancakes, and you seemed to like them. 

2.  Grocery Shopping

After breakfast, you had some shopping to do.  You love playing upstairs in the playroom, and you love pushing the grocery cart around.  It makes a great walker for you.  

3.  Lunch with Daddy, Mommy & Brody

We headed up to Raleigh to do some birthday errands and to eat lunch.  You enjoyed some Chick-fil-a grilled chicken nuggets and applesauce while we ate barbecue at Red Hot & Blue.  We also picked up your birthday balloons from the party store and picked up some of our favorite Whole Foods cupcakes for your birthday dinner. 

4.  A Special Gift from Big Brothers

After we picked big brother up from school, we went to the mall so the boys could make you a very special present.  I have wanted them to make you a special teddy bear since before you were born, but I am now glad we waited for your birthday so your bear could have the same birthday as you.  You loved watching big brothers make your bear.  They put a special message in it for you too. 

They both hugged your bear to make sure it was nice and soft and then put special hearts full of love, wishes and kisses inside. 

They washed, brushed, and dressed your bear.  There were many outfits to choose from, but we decided on a little hoodie that said "Bear Hugs" on it.  You will get lots of bear hugs from your teddy bear. 

Then, the boys named your bear after you.  We hope you love your Mattox Bear as much as Brody has loved his Brody Bear. 

If these pictures are any indication, I think you will. 

5.  Birthday Dinner & Cake

We left the mall to head to one of our favorite pizza places, Brixx Woodfired Pizza, and you enjoyed a whole plate of yummy pasta.  

These boys love this pizza so much that the kid size pizza is really not big enough for them anymore.  You get individual pizzas at this restaurant. The bottom picture is my favorite, the Rustica.  It has prosciutto, mozzarella, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and roasted garlic and has olive oil instead of tomato sauce.  

These blue cupcakes from Whole Foods were perfect.  Since they don't use artificial dye in their cupcakes, the icing had a hint of blueberry taste from the natural blue dye.  You seemed to approve although you wouldn't pick it up yourself.  Big brother Evan really set the bar too high for kids and first birthday cake.  I know we will not likely ever have another kid who will tackle his first birthday cake like that again.  That boy was a mess!  

You were sweet and did seem to enjoy getting your hands in the frosting.  

You definitely wanted someone to feed it to you. 

Your brothers love these cupcakes too, and they don't love all cupcakes.  Look at those silly faces! 

Dear Mattox,

How can I even put into words how much you mean to me?  After losing your big sister Mattie almost three years ago, I didn't know if my heart could ever know such joy again.  When we finally learned of your coming, I allowed myself to hope a little that we would get to hold you in our arms and watch you grow up.  Finally, the day arrived when we were scheduled to meet you, but we still had a little bit of a wait.  After over 24 hours trying to get you here safely, you finally shot into the world, and we could not have been more in love.  Since that wonderful day just over one year ago, you have truly brought unspeakable joy into our home.  Your brothers really do adore you.  Evan loves that you look and act so much like he did as a baby.  You become more and more like your daddy every day.  I just love your cute little face and your spunky little personality.  You have had a wonderful first year filled with lots of fun memories with your family, and I can't wait to make many more through the years.  You have accomplished so many milestones and have continued to be a little firecracker always on the move and ready for action.  You hate sitting still and love to explore.  We did a lot of exploring this past week, and you have proven to be an excellent traveling baby.  You have been feeling a little under the weather this week while we were on vacation and have run a fever for several days.  At first, you seemed fine after a little Motrin so we thought it was because you had just had your 12 month shots and that you were cutting two teeth.  After a couple of days, you spiked some much higher temperatures, and the Motrin wasn't working as well.  You were so pitiful, especially at night.  We made you as comfortable as we could until we could get back home from our travels.  We took you to the doctor this morning, and you tested negative for all common infections including the flu, RSV, and ear infection.  You haven't been coughing, and your only other symptom besides the very high fever and a high white blood count is a little nasal drainage and congestion.  Your physician wanted to send you to the Children's Emergency Department for further testing so we had to sit in the ER with you for additional testing.  They even did a chest x-ray to make sure you didn't have pneumonia even though your lungs sounded clear.  No sign of pneumonia either.  I think you have inherited my tendency toward getting colds that lead to sinus infections, but they wouldn't prescribe any antibiotics so we are back at home hoping that some rest will clear this up.  You haven't been sick at all this year so it is just baffling that you would get sick after your first birthday.  Of course, our crazy Spring weather is probably the culprit as well as our tiring travels this week.  We hope you are back to your usual happy and busy self very soon.  We love you to the moon and back, precious boy!  

Love always,
Mommy