Abel's First Birthday

My wiggly, rough, typical baby boy turned one year old last month. I'm a little behind documenting it.

We had a Super Hero themed party. I always do the kids' first birthday big and then scale it WAY down after that. Number 1 is just so exciting, I want to share it with everyone we know!

Abel is such a typical boy. He's incapable of being gentle, unless he's giving kisses. (Just ask the cats.) He climbs on EVERYTHING. Seriously, I cannot keep him down. And he's always so proud of himself when he successfully gets up on whatever it is he's climbing on. He isn't a big fan of "real" food yet. He prefers jarred baby food, but he's learning. And when he's hungry, you can't feed him fast enough. He isn't a good sleeper like Martha is. He still wakes up once a night about 85% of the time. After a year, you just get used to it. Give him some milk, put him back to bed. I'm slowly figuring out ways to keep him asleep though. I've added 2 more blankets in his crib and that has helped A LOT. Also, feeding him a banana right before bedtime works wonders. I guess he needs to be totally immersed in comfort to get a good night's rest. At this point (13 months old), he's almost walking. He can take about 5-8 steps on his own before he falls. His favorite foods are Cheerios, toast, yogurt melts, and crackers. He's above average on all growth scales. Height, weight, head circumference....he's a big boy. His first word was Mama, but if we're not counting that, then it was kitty. He can tell you what sound a kitty, dog, sheep, and owl make. And my dude is a DANCING MACHINE. Sometimes I can't even get him out of his car seat in the morning because he's dancing so hard to the radio. Kid's got some moves. He loves his big sister so much. Thinks she's the funniest person around. He called her Mama for a while and now he calls her Nana (pronounced Nah Nah). He yells for her when she's not in the room. Adorable. Love that guy.

This morning.

5:45 in the morning. I'm up and putting my makeup on at the vanity in the bathroom. I'm literally 3 feet from the bathroom window when I hear crunchy leaf footsteps. Two of them, then they stop. Then heavy breaths on the window. SOMEONE IS BREATHING ON MY WINDOW!!!

I freeze. Not moving a muscle, I don't think I've listened so hard in my whole life. A million thoughts are going through my head. What do I do?! I sit and listen for about 5 seconds, then realize I can't be so quiet because whoever the hell is try to look through my window is moments away from breaking it with me sitting feet away. I jump up, run and turn every inside and outside light on that I can find. Grab the mace out of my drawer. Run to the security system panel and hold my finger on the Police alert button. If I push the button the police will come. I'm now across the house from where I first heard the person, so I have no idea if they ran after seeing the lights come on or if they're still lurking.

I waited about 1 full minute there with my finger hovering that button. I knew all the doors were locked. Now every light was on. Surely this person isn't going to still be peeking through windows, but I was still too afraid to look. Imagine me pulling back the blinds to peek out and seeing a face. Terrifying. I went back to the bedroom where I mistakenly left my phone, grabbed it, then went back to the security panel.

I called Chris, who was already at work in Atlanta and told him what happened. He said "I'm coming home." Told me to keep my mace on me and if I heard anything, to push that button and/or call 911.

Martha woke up right at the end of my phone conversation with Chris, so I calmed myself down as much as I could and went to her bedroom to get her up and ready. She saw the mace in my hand and asked me why I was holding a keychain. I stuck it in my pocket when she asked if she could hold it. Told her it was a grown up keychain and had to stay in my pocket. I forced myself into fake, chipper, everything is ok mom mode while my heart is still racing.

Chris got home right before it was time for me to leave with the kids. He drove around the neighborhood and didn't see anything weird. Looked around our house and nothing looked strange. He's going to work from home today so he can go get some motion detected flood lights to put in on his lunch break. We're also going to finally put up our Security yard signs and window stickers, which we should have done weeks ago.

If someone broke in, the alarm would have gone off. So I'm thankful for that. But it's still unnerving to hear breaths on your window that early in the morning when it's dark outside and you're home with your two sleeping children. Good Lord.