1st Birthday Party

Our little munchkin is 1 year old!  Can't believe it.  I've been doing a lot of reflecting back to this time last year when he came into our lives.  Seems like it just happened, but at the same time it seems like we've come so far and learned so much the past year.  And of course now we can't even imagine what life was like before our little one came along and brought so much joy to us.

On Nathan's birthday we went in to get him from sleeping by singing Happy Birthday.  He looked at us like we were very strange.  But quickly smiled and realized something must be special about the day!  We also had a fun afternoon because his school had a Mother's Day Tea celebration where we made a craft, ate some goodies, and hung out with the other kids and moms from his class.  Unfortunately we got home and Nathan was burning up with a 103 degree temp.  We instantly guessed that he was getting another ear infection because he had been congested all week.

Luckily Nathan is not one to miss out on a good time so he rallied on Saturday and we still hosted his birthday party.  The theme was Very Hungry Caterpillar since that is one of his favorite books.  We did a lunch with all the foods from the book.  The highlight of the meal was the incredible cake that Grampa Jay made.  We had sent him a photo idea from the web but his version was much better.  Thank you Grampa Jay for such an incredible cake (as Nathan thoroughly enjoyed which you'll see below).  Most of the family came except Aunt Jacky and Uncle Johnathin who unfortunately were sick (we missed you!).  As well as our friend Shannon and her son Leo.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time hanging out, eating, opening presents and of course stuffing ourselves with cake and ice cream.   Nathan impressed us with his first cake experience.  This boy is just like his mom and loves sugar!  He was a little timid at first, but the minute he tasted that chocolate, he was all about stuffing handfuls of cake in his mouth, on his face and in his hair.  When finished we literally lifted him up and put him in the bathtub with all his clothes on!  You know it's been a successful first birthday party when you're covered from head to toe in cake!

Happy birthday to our sweet boy!!! 

Presents!!!

Amazing cake made by Grampa Jay

Our yummy spread

Cute little signs I found on Etsy to put by each food item

A banner of monthly photos hanging on the mantel

Nathan got lots of summer toys including an inflatable pool, sand toys, a beach towel and these awesome sunglasses!

Of course his favorite part was getting in the gift boxes and being pushed around the room

"Mom you're embarassing me!  I'm trying to be a tough football player and find my Beast Mode!"

"You're really gonna make me wear this dorky hat?  Ok only if I can eat cake soon."

"I am gonna demolish that thing...."

Sugar coma

The boy loves his chocolate!

The aftermath in the bathtub.  What a fun day!!

Here are a couple more photos that James took from the party:

A more complete view of the amazing cake

Our Hungry Caterpillar made out of paper lanterns

Nathan enjoying his new Alphabet Train--his gift from us

 

Official 12 month photos and a recap of all the monthly photos to come soon!!

11 Months Old!

Wow I'm way behind on blogging.  Gonna do a little catching up here...

It seems like 11 months just came and went because already Nate is 1 year old!!  But I wanted to make sure to post some photos of what he looked like at 11 months.  This was by far the hardest monthly photo shoot because the kid is so wiggly!  Good luck getting him to sit still.  But we did our best and got a few photos.

Here are some things at 11 months we don't want to forget:

*Nathan can walk on his own pushing an empty box or a walker toy
*He has quite a bit of hair and got his first haircut a couple weeks ago
*Nathan now eats 3 meals a day with bottles in between
*5 teeth--2 on the bottom and 3 on the top
*Loves to get into everything around the house--especially the things he's not allowed to.  His favorite activities are playing in the tupperware cupboard, pulling out all the DVD bins, playing with the TV remotes, and strumming the guitar.  I'm not even sure why we have baby toys--we apparently don't need them!
*When Nate does play with toys his favorites are his firetruck, ring stacker, blocks and and CD player
*Still love reading books especially with flaps or pop-ups.  He's more into turning the pages than actually looking at the pictures or hearing the story.

Such a little ham!

We had to put a rubber bumper on the crib because he was chewing on the wood when teething! 

He looks like a little boy--crazy how fast time flies