I can’t believe that Rafi is one year old!! How has this year flown by?! I never would have imagined a year ago that we would be here in Dublin living and celebrating his first birthday! These milestones of course always lend themselves to reflecting, so I find myself thinking back on the past year and how much Rafi (and Isaac too!) has grown and changed. Going from a newborn to a standing (not quite walking), babbling (not quite talking) one year old is a big leap! He’s such a sweet, smiley, social, curious boy and adores his big brother (despite taking more than a few beatings from him!). It’s just so fun to watch him explore and play and discover, and I can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about both my grandmas, Rita and Harriet, for whom Rafi Henry is named. They were both such incredible women, and both very brave in their own ways, which is inspiring me now while I’m in a new place far from home. In her 80s, Grandma Rita moved from her small hometown in Pennsylvania where she had lived her whole life to Seattle, completely starting over a new life. And Grandma Harriet, after living for about 15 years in Phoenix, also moved back to Seattle and started a new chapter of her life there. So as I’ve been trying to settle in here and make a new (albeit temporary) life, I keep thinking of them and how they adjusted, acclimated, and made new friendships. If they could do it, maybe I can too!

But back to Rafi…I really wanted to do something fun that he would enjoy too on his birthday 🙂 Since he’s not walking yet, he doesn’t get to do much at parks, except for go on the swings. So I figured if we went to the children’s museum here, where they have a few dedicated “baby” areas for crawling around, that he would have a fun time doing that. And that Isaac would love it too!

Imaginosity, the Dublin children’s museum, is really cool! It’s one of the best children’s museums I think I’ve been to, at least for my boys’ ages. It was a bit of a shlep to get there, so I’m not sure we will go that often, but for a special outing, it was really great. There was so much to do there — vehicles galore: a car, boat, submarine, rocket ship, and Isaac’s favorite: a construction zone with big blocks for building and a real working mechanized crane. My phone had run out of battery before I could take pictures of it, but it was super cool. Rafi really liked the baby areas too! We stayed for over 3 hours and I think the boys would have wanted to stay for longer, but we had to get home for dinner!

For Rafi’s celebratory dinner, we went to one of our favorite pizza places near where we are staying. We’ve gotten takeout from there a few times, but decided to eat in this time. It’s a really yummy wood-fire pizza place, called Paulie’s, and is super popular and crowded. It kind of reminds me of Tutta Bella or Via Tribunali in Seattle. Rafi devoured the pizza (we all did) and then we had a delicious brownie a la mode for dessert (with a #1 candle in it). All in all, a great first birthday! Just wish we were with our family and friends to celebrate too.

P.S. Sorry for all the pictures, but I wanted to capture all the Rafi moments eating his cake 🙂

And some more pictures…