How Wesley Spent His First Birthday

Wesley started the morning with diarrhea, which promptly leaked onto his last clean pajamas.  (Note: first article of clothing changed)  This diarrhea would continue through the day, although it's over now.

Then a tumble down the front steps resulted in a nice face scrape.

It didn't seem to bother him too much once the shock was over, and, strangely, the scrape on his nose was the only mark on him.

Then, at lunch, he poured an entire bowl of water on himself.  I wish I could say this was a unique experience, but the boy is fascinated with water, and we have to lock the kitchen to keep him from drinking dirty dish water (which leads to diarrhea).  His shirt came off at that point to dry. (Note: second article of clothing changed)

After lunch Innocent and Wesley played together in my bedroom while I mixed up a birthday cake, or as Innocent calls it: Wesley's Happy Birthday.  First I made six cupcakes, and while they were baking, I filled a small glass baking pan with the rest of the batter to make the cake.  Then I made my major error: I turned my back to start washing dishes.  Like a ninja, Wesley came from the bedroom, went straight to the table where the cake pan was waiting, and pulled it down on top on himself.  He was not harmed at all...very much the opposite, in fact:

I had to fight my initial urge to shout and yank him out of the mess and cry a little bit.  Instead I thought "I should take a picture."  The benefit of this camera-crazy age is that things are much funnier when you've taken the moment to get out your phone (or grapefruit...Mike Birbiglia fans?) and take a picture.  Please note the batter all over his feet.  He was dipping his hands in the batter and using it to give himself a foot rub.  Innocent helped me remove his shorts with minimal transfer of mess (Third article of clothing changed), and while I bathed Wesley, Innocent mopped the floor like the very good little helper he is.  Fortunately all that excitement plum wore out the birthday boy, so he went down for a nap.  Innocent watched him sleep for a moment and said "Wesley's not a baby anymore, he's a monkey!"  I couldn't have said it better myself.

When he woke up, things were pretty calm for a while, aside from a small incident in which he screamed bloody murder because I took dirt out of his mouth.  Then we had another blowout diarrhea diaper, leading to a change of trousers (fourth article changed) and the combination of smeared dinner and sweat led Daddy to take his shirt off (fifth article of clothing changed).  Thus, when the time came for Wesley's "Happy Birthday", he was sleepy and shirtless.

By the time he was bathed and put to sleep, he was wearing only a onesie, having somehow made filthy the last pair of trousers (sixth article of clothing changed).  They couldn't have gotten that dirty in two hours because my house is dirty, right?  That couldn't possibly be it.

So, all in all, Wesley celebrated his birthday by proving to us that a) he is a boy with all the dirt and bugs and mischief that entails, b) he shouldn't drink dish water, c) he is active and strong and ready to take on the world, and d) almost every surface in our house is within his reach now.  Happy 1st Birthday, little man!

Wesley on the banks of Lake Victoria with the ferry in the background