First Birthday: Let the Games Begin!

*I had a lot of help pulling together this party weekend, from friends and professionals

alike. All vendors, etc., are listed at the bottom of this post. 

They all do wonderful work; I did not receive any freebies in 

exchange for posting this info. I just wanted to share, because people

 often ask"Who is your go-to person for _____?". 

Email me if you have other questions.

The Opening Ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was Friday, February 7, kicking off two weeks of Olympic (and TV) fabulousness. If you know me, you know that I'm an Olympics junkie--and we even have an Olympian in the family (hi Non!). I might slightly prefer the summer games, but I don't discriminate, and BA is definitely a winter sports guy. I also reeeeaaalllly love a theme party, so this was just too perfect. I figure I only get a couple years before he wants to dictate his own birthday party wishes (Elmo train ball pit bouncy house?) (How long can you go before they know about Chuck E. Cheese oh God I have anxiety just thinking about it), so I grabbed on to this one and went with it. 

(NO, he does not know the "words" to the Olympic song yet, and I'm holding off as long as I can. Just give me this one thing, people.)

We had a wonderful weekend of non-stop partying (on the party level of a one-year old), and it was really, really great. I know that he won't really remember it, and it's probably overkill, but I decided to embrace the fact that it's really just for the adults. I also strongly believe that it is worth celebrating the fact that everyone made it through that first year, so party we did. Cheers to all who celebrated with us, in person and in spirit. Your well wishes will be remembered warmly. 

Let the games begin!

*photos are by Sara (the good ones) and

me (the less-good ones)

Have thumb, will party.

BALLOONS ("bboooos!"). Honestly, probably his favorite thing about the whole weekend. 

Flags: second only to the balloons. Watch him watching the flags during the Parade of Nations here...

Cocktails + SATCo. Ain't much better. 

I was just in love with this cake. I told them I wanted something simple without a lot of color (I didn't want everything--including the baby--dyed blue or something) but otherwise left it up to them. I sent them a copy of the invitation and let them have at it. I was so pleased AND it tasted good, which isn't always necessarily the case.

Oh, did you want a classic First Birthday Smash Cake Face photo? Too bad.

Happy again after those terrible people tried to feed me cake. 

This push toy from Nana and Pops was definitely the top present. Wild man.

On to Sunday...we had some friends over to play and eat snacks.

(Allow me to just note that 6 toddlers feels like 46 people. I think my dad still has PTSD.)

Kid food. The adults had chili (not shown).

Again, cocktails necessary.

Favor bags had these gorgeous cookies, winter hats, and commemorative cups (C's fave).

The ones for kiddos also had Winter Olympic rubber duckies.

Yes. Those are a thing you can buy.

Yes, we took the push toy with us to the party.

Happy birthday, little Olympian. We just love you.

invitations + swag * nico and lala / custom bib + hat * Dainty Couture on Etsy / balloons * Shingdigs + Celebrations / flags, banners, winter sport duckies * Oriental Trading Co. / cake + smash cake * Dulce / some food * SATCo / photo marshmallows * boomf / decorated sugar cookies * Dozen Nashville

I'll take my toast to go, please.

Learns Something New Every Day

For example, how to remove his own pants. 

12 Months

Well. We made it. The baby is a year old and also, I suppose, a toddler now. I will save the reflections for the birthday post and just do pretty much another monthly update here.

However...I haven't done a photo shoot yet and am still sorting through the birthday pics, so you'll just have to slog through words here. I'll add photos later but wanted to get this up as it has been 49 years since my last post.

Eating is more or less unchanged. You eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus or minus a snack later on the day depending on timing. People always ask if you're a "good eater"...while I'm not exactly sure what that means, I always say that you are. You definitely have preferences, but they change frequently--things fall in and out of favor. We just make sure we offer choices and there's pretty much always something you'll go for (even if there was a three-day stretch where it was just Goldfish...). You seem to eat enough, and just let us know when you're finished. You're neither picky nor piggy.

Now sleep...sleep is a different story. I knew our good groove at 11 months was too sweet to last. In a twist, the challenge lately has been nap time. First (as posted), there was a general nap strike. That was terrible and we'll just leave it at that. I adjusted the interval between naps to about 3 hours before first nap and 3.5 hours between the naps. With a little time, this seems to have helped, but is tricky. If you sleep in ("sleep in") or otherwise stretch the interval, there isn't enough time in the day to get the second nap in without it getting too close to bedtime--and I am not about to mess with nighttime sleep. So, these days, sometimes the second nap happens but sometimes it doesn't. A lot of people ask whether you need to move to one nap, but I think it's not time yet--your one nap isn't long enough and still needs to be too early in the day. Plus, I really do not want to go to one nap yet. I do see some up side to it, but I also really like the two-nap deal.

Bottom line: naps get messed up at this point and apparently it's common (Google 12 month sleep regression). HOWEVVVERRRRR...one night, the weekend of your birthday, you slept straight through until 6:50am. And then did it again the next night. The day after that, at your 12-month checkup, the pediatrician said if it happened three nights in a row, then it was the new normal and to stick with it. You did, so a big HUGE gold medal to you! Depending on if I am good and go to bed at a decent hour, I can now get a normal, human-caliber stretch of sleep. You usually start stirring around 6 and wake up at 6:30 or later. The flip side to this development is that you're then usually up for the day, but I'll take it. I know there will be hiccups in the future (just with general development, teething, illness, etc.) but I know they are temporary and we really don't go backwards from here. So...we made it. Some of your little friends have been doing this for a while, but some aren't there yet, so it's really individual depending on baby, your needs, your setup, and so on. Do not despair, friends. It will happen for you, too. Champagne all around.

Likes:

• dogs
• balloons (I mean, like...LOVES)
• Goodnight Moon. Although I have a sneaking suspicion it's because a balloon is featured prominently
• flags
• push toys

• the vacuum and the dustbuster

Dislikes:

• changing diapers or clothes. Rolls around like a greased pig and screams.
• really anything if I don't figure out the problem fast enough (e.g., a few days ago, the cereal bar was too hard. Waterworks.)
• not being allowed to play with the iPhone

Milestones:

reliably signs "more" -- though he kind of expands it just to mean "give me that"

this.

• says "dog" and "balloon." Of course. If I'm being honest, though, they'd really only be understood by me and BA, so I'm not sure when things count as first words. 

Stats:

• Weight: at least 20lbs. He freaked out on the scale at the doctor's office and that was the best we could get. I think he weighs more. 
• Height: 28 inches. About 85th percentile or higher, if I am remembering correctly. 
• Diapers: size 4
• Clothing: 12 month

King of Winter

It's somebody's birthday week!

Perched on his throne (an early birthday present) with a scepter of wrapping paper.