Gates is One!

This is me. I'm one. I woke up on my birthday to find my family in my bedroom singing Happy Birthday and taking my picture - luckily I had on cool moose pajamas. As a first-timer with birthdays, I don't have a lot of experience to pull from, but I can definitely say that anything involving cake, parties, and presents is a good thing.

The doctor says I'm 24 pounds and 31 inches tall with a 19" head. That means I'm 85% weight, 65% height, and 95% head! Lots of people say Bodie and I look alike. Personally, I think his head looked kinda like a bowling ball when he was one, but if I'm lucky enough to turn out like my big brother, that would be cool.Here's the post from when he turned one  http://piantanidafamily.blogspot.com/2010/11/1-year-4x-size.html.

Having a big brother is a bonus on birthdays because he helped me open my gifts, show me how they work, explained the importance of cake in our diet, demonstrated how to blow out a candle, made me a card with my name on it, and was pretty much awesome. While I was in Heaven, Bodie prayed a lot for me. He would ask God every night for a baby until finally, God agreed to send me. I think he was a key reason I got to come o Earth and have a birthday. I thought I'd celebrate him on my birthday. Here's the card and gift I gave him for getting me to Earth.

And here he is showing me how to use some of my awesome new toys.

And now for the party. My mom made a 2 1/2 foot long alligator cake - because a lot of people call me Gater. My dad lit the candle, everyone sang, and then I attempted to put out the fire with my hand. This is not the preferred method at birthday parties, so Bodie came to my rescue and blew the fire out.

 
We also had a "toss the rings on the gator" game. My dad was victorious with three of six of his rings landing on the gator's nose or tail. I stunk at the game so I decided it was more fun to chew of the rings and tackle the gator. I was the winner at that game.

Lastly, here's a picture of my buddy Gus and me. Not the prettiest photo of us, but we sure look like we're having fun (and where did my pants go!?!?!)