Jack's 1st Birthday Party

Not gonna lie, I had a whole lot of fun planning this party.  I've been thinking about it for months and DIY-selfing it for weeks.  I went with a color scheme instead of a theme.  I figured that Jack wasn't really into anything in particular and I'd hate to waste a good theme, so blues and greens it is!  Here are some of the details:

Jack's little #1 cake:

 So fun to see these monthly photos strung together!  

Here are some of the party people:

Birthday boy eating some pizza:

We are beyond blessed by our family and friends:

So many fun toys!

Jack went to town on this drum... :)

Now for the part where we eat cake:  (the party hat lasted 30 seconds... and I probably spent the longest amount of time making it.  HA!  But, I predicted it and therefore was not disappointed by it.  Oh well, better luck next year...)

Jack wanted to touch the flame.  (Who can blame him?)  So Daddy held his little hands.  Then he cried because he didn't understand why we would put this delicious colorfulness in front of him and not let him touch it?!

It took a little convincing, but finally he felt like he was allowed to touch it.

...and so he dug in!

 finger-licking good

 all that cake makes you thirsty

It was a super-fun party!  

So wonderful to get to celebrate one whole year of having this sweet boy in our lives!

Happy Birthday Jack!

12 months | Jack

There is no way my baby is turning a year old!  So cliche, but this year went by so fast.  Babies change sooooo much in their 1st year.  It's mind-boggling.  I can't believe a year ago today this fella came into the world.  What a day that was!

Toe-touch I'm turning one!

chester

 New this past month:

1. Wanting to feed himself...and that's the only way he will eat. I had a friend tell me to embrace it and just feed him finger foods. Wonderful advice. I fought it through several meals of trying to spoon feed him. Yes, I now have to give even more thought to his menu, BUT he and I both are happy as larks feeding ourselves at mealtime. :). Win. The first meal Corey and I shared with him using this method we didn't even hear from him. He just happily crammed piece after piece into his mouth. It felt like the 1st peaceful meal we'd enjoyed since he began solids.

2. Walking! He barely toddled 2-3,6 steps in the beginning.  Now he mostly walks with an occasional crawl.
Here's my attempt at putting a video on my blog.  Someone please help me.  I don't know what I'm doing.  I figured watching him walk was cooler than looking at pictures.  He went nuts with the sale ads in this flick.  At one point he was making snow angels in them, but I didn't have the camera ready.  Please appreciate the anti-climatic face plant at the end. ;)

3. Clucking. With his tongue. Where does he come up with this stuff?

4. Opening drawers and unplugging things.

5.  Jabbering in conversational tone with voice inflection, facial expressions, and occasionally a hand gesture.  He is quite the character.

6.  Blowing kisses with the back of his hand, "MMMmmmUH!"

7.  These days he's too busy for me to hold him.

8.  Touching his ear when you say, "where's your ear?"

9.  Having an opinion about things such as: what finger foods he will eat on any certain day, who can hold him,  and whether or not he was done playing with your phone or keys.

10.  Holding the phone to his head and acting like he's talking.  (not sure where he gets this one b/c I very rarely talk without speaker phone on AND Corey's phone is so high-tech that it can only be used on speaker phone these days.  He's really into phones, keys, and remote controls.

And... the photo finish.  You have no idea all of the drama it took to get these few images.  It's nothing of what I dreamed about, but once I got them on the computer I decided it was cute the way it was.  Even if he's not smiling, and it was blistering cold, and he was scared of the balloon.

My Baby is ONE!

Thanksgiving 2012

     Sooo... I told Corey that I was going to take a lot of pictures to document Thanksgiving.  And I managed to take absolutely no photos what-so-ever of Jack's 1st Turkey Day.  Oh well.  Not even with my iphone, though.  ???  I will blame it on being pregnant.

   Luckily Grammy snapped a few with her phone, so I have one to share of Jack and cousin Benjamin enjoying some of their Thanksgiving.  :)  cuties.

     We spent our black Friday and lazy Saturday at the Cabin.  It was a nice retreat.  Corey hunted and brought home the venison after his first morning hunt.  :)  We will be enjoying our free-range, grass-fed, organic meat.

     Oh, and we're half way through this pregnancy.  That was fast.  Here's to 20 weeks and the first "belly shot" photo that we've taken.  I hate this picture, but oh well.

I'm wanting to try to blog once a week.  We'll see how long that lasts.

11 months | Jack

11 months.  How is this possible??

New this past month:

1.  We have entered into a new independent era.  I've coined it the "I'm Big complex."  It started with weaning him a little early and attempting to start formula.  We had Battle of the Bottle for about a week.  It was pretty stressful.  The child refused to take a bottle.  At first I thought it was just the formula, but then he refused to even take breast milk from a bottle.  It wasn't just me either.  He wasn't taking it from ANYONE.  And he let you know about it too.  So much sass.  I didn't recognize this new strong willed  child.  I managed to hide formula in his food for a while and he would drink water from a sippee cup by himself, so at least he was staying hydrated.  Finally I discovered hiding the formula in fruit smoothies.  He LOVED it.  He would only drink it if you let him do it by himself though.  And you can forget using a bottle.  He's too big for that he thinks.

Jack's feelings about formula:  (it's mixed with rice cereal here)

Formula when you mix it with a little bit of fruit smoothie:

2.  Along those same lines he has also been super fussy-bossy when I spoon feed him.  He doesn't want you to wipe any food off of his face with the spoon.  He tries really hard to take good bites so that nothing gets on his face.  If he feels something on his face, he'll wipe it off with the back of his hand.  He also started having complete meltdowns in the middle of meals for no particular reason.  It baffled me.  He would take 3 bites of whatever I was feeding him (ravenously) and then refuse the next bite and cry.  ?  The only thing I could come up with was that he wanted to be feeding himself.  So... I started giving him a spoon to hold while I fed him.  Magic!  I would give him a bite and he would pretend to eat off his own spoon.  Wow.  He now holds his spoon out and gives me pretend bites too- lol!  This child.

3.  He is so ticklish under his arms and around his neck.  I love making him shriek and laugh.  Sometimes I think he asks for it.

4.  He takes after his momma and is a little bit grumpy when he wakes up.  It's the only time you can snuggle him though, so best to take advantage.

5.  Fighting the afternoon nap.  It's miserable for all parties.  We've tried shortening the morning nap.  so far it's still hit-and-miss though.

Here's a pic of him ACTUALLY sleeping

6.  He LOVES leaves.  We took some fall family photos and he went nuts crawling as fast as he could through them, crunching them up in his hands.

7.  2 new teeth up top.  Total count: 6

8.  We're working on "no-no."  The kitchen trashcan is a part of this game.

9.  Doing a lot of standing.  He likes to hold our hands and walk.

10. Swinging and going down the slide (assisted) for the 1st time.  He wasn't too impressed.  Come on Jack!  Isn't this exciting?!

11. Climbing up on things.  Doesn't he think he's big?

12.  Pointing at "Momma" and "Dada" when you ask where we are.  Oh, and on that note, he's got that pointing thing down.  He points at everyone... especially while shopping at Walmart.

13.  Maybe this doesn't count for this month's post... but it was so close!  The day after Jack turned 11 months he took his 1st two steps!!!  I'm so thrilled that Corey and I both got to be there to witness it.  We were both sitting on the couch watching him play.  He had been holding onto the wall walking and then all of a sudden he let go and stood there for a minute and then took one step, then two while smiling real big at us.  :)  So pumped!

Annnd... the photo finish is a combo of our fall family photos and Jack's "official" 11 month photos.  We do all our own stunts, so we actually took these photos ourselves using a wireless shutter release.  (best Christmas present ever, Corey!)  I had low expectations for this photo adventure, but it actually ended up being a lot of fun.  Yay for fall color!  Jack couldn't get enough of the leaves!

THIS. FACE.

Busy, busy, busy in the leaves.  Top right was the expression on his face the whole time he was crawling through the leaves.  We hope he didn't eat too many bugs.