Fletcher is ONE!

It's hard to believe this happened so quickly!  Fletcher has had such an adventurous first year, and he has given us so much joy!  Our fat little blob has turned into a sweet, silly, loving, little boy and words cannot express the love and laughter he has brought into our home.  We look forward every day to watching him play and giggle.

Fletcher's biggest milestones this year are probably his ability to cruise, eat spaghetti, "read" on his own, and snoop through every drawer he can find.  He's rarely grumpy and is always in the mood  for the hot dog dance. He's a world traveler, prefers cargo planes over passenger jets, and is learning Japanese from his babysitter.  He can say a handful of words and sign the necessities.  He is the coolest, most fun and easygoing kid I've ever known :)

Fletcher started his special day off by opening presents.  He had several priority packages to open and had a hard time deciding which was his favorite.  For breakfast, he enjoyed funfetti pancakes, sausage, eggs, and cheese (all of his favorites at once). We spent the afternoon at his favorite indoor play place because he loves it and Jesse had never been there before.  This was super special because it was a Monday and Jesse took the day off!  It was fun to see Jesse playing 'boy rough' with him and doing things that I wouldn't think to do.  Fletcher picked spaghetti and meatballs for his birthday dinner, concluding with funfetti cake with green icing.  I had a mom fail and waited until after dinner to give him his cake. We should have done it after lunch, before he got so tired. I'll remember that next year :) It was the most perfect day, ending the most perfect first year.

Safari Land

Day two of Fletcher's birthday weekend included an exciting adventure at Safari Land.  I was really nervous about the weather because it was supposed to rain all weekend.  Fortunately, we were spared.  Safari Land is pretty cool.  It took us about 90 minutes to get there so we rented a car again.  I think we broke even with the tolls, but it was nice being able to drive over 80kmh, which is where the Toppo just about tops out. 

Let me just say that Safari Land would definitely not fly in America, the land of safety and regulations.  Probably the only reason that it works in Japan is because the Japanese always just do what they're told and never question the rules.  We drove in and were greeted by a Japanese worker who gave us an English speaker to put on the dash. It explained the different parts of the park that we drove through.  We pulled Fletcher out of his car seat and put him on our laps so he could stand up and see out of the windows.  We had the option of riding in a bus and feeding the animals, but we opted to drive ourselves so we could go at our own pace.  The animals seemed really tame and would cross the street in front of our car or sometimes stop right outside of our windows.  It was pretty amazing.

At the end of the driving tour, we were able to walk around to some of the other animals and visit a petting zoo.   Fletcher LOVED the kangaroos and got really upset when we wouldn't let him crawl around with them.  He was actually pretty excited to see all of the animals and would bang on the windows and point.  I'm excited to take him back again when he's a little bit older.