how do you measure a year?

so birthdays are a pretty big thing in the montgomery household, a tradition that comes to us mostly through annie, whose family does not only take a day to celebrate each person, but an entire month. as early as a few days at the end of the pre-birthday month, cards will start showing up in your mailbox, ones you can tell are from hallmark b/c they are bright red and say hallmark on the back. full of kind notes and occasionally cash, these cards serve to extend the celebration of the individual who lays claim to that month. august is isaac's month, and as you might imagine, he has had plenty of attention this month, especially this past thursday when he turned one.

annie and i thought it would be fun to surprise him in the morning, greeting him with hats and loud party favors. turns out that was not such a happy start to the day:



the day got a bit better from there, as we spent the morning at starbucks,





and the afternoon at the pool.





dinner was good, isaac got his favorite, mashed potatoes, and the rest of us got bbq. the whole birthday song didn't go over so well though:



in fact, the whole day was a little rough, mostly b/c of three factors:


1) teething. a pretty constant thing in our life right now, but it seemed especially rough on thursday. if his hand wasn't in his mouth, a new shirt was.

2) falling. he got two new bumps to add to his collection, one rug burn, and one just plain bump.

3) constipation. by far the worst culprit of the day, it culminated with him screaming in pain at about 8:30 at night, and two words you never want to hear in reference to your child: "anal fissure". essentially it means he has a crack in his butt, aside from the one that is usually there separating the cheeks. he is fine, but when you take off your child's diaper and there is blood in it, things tend to get a little tense.

it is pretty insane to be celebrating his one year birthday already, to have witnessed the absolute transformation that has happened over the past 369 days or so. he is a little boy, full of life, energy, and spirit. as ryder's birth is a little over four months away, it is hard for me to imagine what it will be like to be the father of another boy, of any boy other than isaac. i am excited to meet him though, and to continue to celebrate the son that has brought us so much in this past year.