Well, here we are again. Another year, another Birthday. This is a big one, FIVE! A whole hand's worth of fingers. Harry is very excited about that.

As I made the decision to stop his monthly pictures, I'm pretty sure this was the last birthday photo shoot for our little boy. So I thought bringing it full circle and recreating our first one would be fun. It's not exact (no idea where the original cake stand is, and I couldn't find stripped party hats for the life of me), but close enough I think. Also, I finally got actual studio lights! No more relying on natural light and the camera flash. They worked really well.


Anyways, back to the birthday boy. I've said it before, but gosh, he is so sweet. Of course he has his moments, but the last few months specifically he's been such a joy. I will miss the days when he no longer comes up to me and says things like, "mom, you're the best!"


As far as his interests, he'd much rather watch the iPad than the TV. He's obsessed with the YouTube channel Ryan's Toy Review. He talks about Ryan allllll the tiiiiime. He also found Paw Patrol through YouTube, which is probably his current favorite show. It's also his birthday cake theme.


Harry also loves going to the park and playing with basketballs. He can color and draw for hours on end. He's actually very good and puts a lot of details into his drawings. We love reading books together and he knows the sounds that most of the letters make. The other day he actually sounded out the words "ball" and "sun" all on his own. I was so impressed! He'll be reading in no time.


Happy birthday, Harry! This last year saw a lot of changes in our family and you handled them so well. The upcoming year will be full of even bigger changes and challenges, and I'm excited to see how everything falls in to place. We love you!