Happy Birthday to Tommy!

Tommy's first year absolutely flew by. August 9, 2008, seemed like just yesterday by the time August 9, 2009, arrived. And there we were, throwing his 1st birthday party. Well, to be fair, it was more of a celebration for us as parents, complete with champagne, cake, snacks, and as many friends and family members as we could pack into our place on 10th Street. It was a hot, crowded, whirlwind of an affair, but it was so much fun to have all the folks who have played a large part in our lives with us to celebrate our little boy's 1st year of life. And our 1st year as parents. There was a lot of love in the house that day, that's for sure.

EZ puts the finishing touches on the traditional German chocolate cake. Interesting tidbit about German chocolate cake courtesy of Marianne - it's not German at all! Here I was thinking it was some Zwicker family tradition brought over from Deutschland to Ohio and passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. Turns out some American dude by the last name of German came up with the recipe. Wherever it came from, I think EZ perfected it this day. And to add to its lore (for those that don't know), Ginny, Alison and Nidhi baked one helluva German chocolate cake in the dark, early morning hours of 8/9/08, while Elizabeth labored and Chris assisted upstairs. So, it holds a special place in our hearts...and bellies.

Tommy plays with his balloons before the party. These were part of the first batch we bought the day before that lost their air. Tito Rick and I went to get them replaced in the nick of time.


Lola and Tommy view the video of clips from Year One, spliced together on the laptop for the party. It's really amazing how much he changed from Day 1 to Day 365.

Tommy and Pop share a moment before the crowd arrives.

Tommy and a pic of himself on the day he was born. The idea is to get a picture of him holding the picture of himself from the previous year, and then to continue that on every birthday, so that there's a picture of him holding a picture of himself from the previous year, holding a picture of himself from the previous year, etc., etc. He didn't quite cooperate the way we envisioned, but you get the picture (ha!).

We're so happy Tita Liz could make it, even just for a drop-in before the party started. She brought with her a red miniature piano for Tommy. It's a wonderful gift. Gotta get those lessons started early in life!

The calm before the storm...

The Carlton family photo.

Tommy making beautiful eyes while we sing Happy Birthday to him.

Since he was still not having dairy yet, we got him a vegan cupcake from Sticky Fingers in Columbia Heights. He sampled it a bit, but we didn't do the facial cake-mashing. Not to fear, he made a mess of it later on.

What's he gonna be when he grows up? To determine his destiny, we laid out a hammer, a coin, and a pencil to see which one(s) he chose. He picked the coin first and then the pencil, which means he'll be a rich (coin) scholar (pencil). Did someone say, "Early Retirement for CC and EZ?" Cha-ching!

Tito John is too funny in this picture. Just had to throw it in there.

Heraldo family photo.

Zwicker family photo.

After the party was over, we tried again for the picture in the picture thing. It was semi-successful.

And we tried to see if he wanted more of the cupcake. He wanted it. On his face.

A toast to us. We survived the first year. Tommy survived the first year. And we all thrived.

Last Man Standing. Just like his pal Louis in London did after his birthday party (see prior post), Tommy gets into the beer stash at the end of the night. Before anyone goes calling social services, the bottle is not open, although not for lack of trying on his part...

Love this expression, but hopefully we won't see it again until he's of legal age. Or at least 15, as JJ once said.

The Carlton Zwicker family photo.

Whew! That was one heck of a party!

As this post marks Tommy's first year, I want to mention how fun and meaningful this blog has been for me, and hopefully for those of you who have been following it. It's been an incredible ride since we began this journey back in November when we found out we were having a baby. While we knew having a child would change and enrich our lives forever, we could not know that we would be so lucky to have Tommy as that child. He is delightful and happy, and he amazes us everyday with every new thing he learns and does. He is such a bright kid, so quick to smile, as tough as nails, and as sweet as can be. He has us in stitches one minute and at our wit's end the next. It's a beautiful thing, and we could not imagine our lives without him.