IAN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

We had a great time at Ian's birthday party at school today. Apparently, Ian does like cupcakes. I am going to put together an album of the party pictures and send that out, but in the meantime, here is Ian enjoying his cupcakes (and that's plural because he had two of them). Ian wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcake at first and just touched it with a finger.
Then he got more comfortable and stuck his hands into it...Then he realized that it tasted pretty good and shoved big pieces into his mouth...
And somehow wound up with cupcake all the way up to his elbows...

You can see Javier in the background enjoying his cupcake as well. When he finished his, he reached over and grabbed Jason's off of his plate. Jason was keeping quite tidy and didn't seem interested in the cupcake. Instead, he was wiping icing off the table with his napkin. Schuyler and Leo also stayed relatively clean. Leo did enjoy eating the cupcake, though.

After Ian demolished two cupcakes (I'm not sure how much actually got into his mouth), he proceeded to work on all of the snacks the teachers had prepared for the holiday party -- apples, dried blueberries and pizzelle cookies. All the other kids were getting antsy. Jason cleaned up his food and handed the plate to the teachers. Schuyler scrunched up his napkin and threw it on his plate, then proceeded to "clear the table" by sweeping his hands back and forth in front of him. Ian just kept on eating his apples and cookie.

When he was finally finished, Jeff and I had to carry him to the sink to rinse him off because the cupcake and icing had hardened on his hands and face and I could not wipe it off. Then the boys played for a while. It's a rough world in preschool. Leo pushed Jason out of his way, Schuyler took a toy away from Ian (but gave him another one to replace it). Ian did his fake pathetic crying routine to try to get sympathy. Jason had a tantrum when Leo took his ball. Javier's mom was there as well. The boys also seemed to like the puppets and the animal visors (I'm wearing a tiger visor in the picture). The infants in the Purple Room really seemed fascinated by the visors.

The teachers helped all of the boys make Christmas presents for their parents, so we have a gift from Ian to open on Christmas! They also gave each of the boys a book. Ian got "Where's Baby's Belly Button?"

Ian got lovely cards from "Grand Coach" (Xiao-Wei's dad), "Magister Emeritus" (Mr. Gravino, my junior high Latin teacher) and Sylvia (my assistant). Sylvia also gave him two gifts, one for his birthday and one for Christmas (we're saving them both for Christmas). We had a voice message from Alex and Hilary in Geneva, emails from Wai-Po (who also called my office this morning), Aunt Cindy & Uncle Dennis, as well as Aunt Sunhee, Uncle Laird, Julian and Claire. Uncle Alan and Aunt Xiao-Wei called to wish Ian a happy birthday, but he had passed out from all the excitement on the way home, so he couldn't receive the phone call in person. Everyone at my office wished him a happy birthday and they can't believe a year has already flown by!

I think I can safely say, despite all the stress and the sleepless nights, Jeff and I have had the best year ever this year!