Leah's First Birthday Party

So I probably started thinking about Leah's first birthday party about a few weeks after she was born...  I even created a private Pinterest board so no one would see what a nerd I was trying to plan that soon. When Leah was four or five weeks old, I went to a first birthday party up the street in my neighborhood. The theme was pajamas and pancakes and I loved it! It seemed easy enough and I didn't want to stress too much about a party that Leah wouldn't even remember.

Fast forward about 2-3 months before Leah's first birthday and I realized that I hadn't even given a second thought to the planning of her big party. While I was in Hawaii, I toyed with doing an Hawaiian themed party, but I decided it involved more planning and decorating that I was capable of or wanted to do. One night I got on Pinterest and typed in pajamas and pancakes and I knew immediately that I was going to do this for Leah's first birthday. It was brilliant - cheap food, the most comfortable dress, and all over before nap time! I found cute invites, printed a couple, but then just invited everyone via Facebook.

Pinterest was full of cute ideas and most of them wouldn't really work for the 1-4 year old audience that I would have attending Leah's party, but SOME of them would. Here is a screenshot of my "secret" board.

My first over-the-top idea from Pinterest was to create personalized monogrammed blankets for all the kiddos at the party as favors. Joann Fabrics had a 50% off sale on its blizzard fleece and then we had a 25% off the whole order coupon as well, so the fabric for each of the blankets was pretty cheap. The hardest part was picking out unique fabrics that each one of my little guests would like. My mom has a sewing machine that does embroidery so that part was easy. I knew I wanted to have a finished edge on my blankets and I knew I didn't want to just tie them off, so I skowered the internet looking for ideas. Using my mad Google skills, I finally found (not on Pinterest) a grandma lady's low tech blog with instructions on how to use a serger with #10 crochet thread to finish the edges on a fleece blanket. Yay! Plan hatched! We ended up using crochet thread on both the top and the bottom instead of the woolly nylon because it looked better.

We shopped about three weeks before the party and started the blankets right away. I didn't want to save anything for the last minute. It took about three nap times to complete the blankets and I actually really enjoyed doing them. The only part I didn't end up doing was the serger because the tension was crazy tricky, so my mom did that. We did 13 blankets in all for 13 little friends. I forgot to take a picture with my nice camera the day of the party so here is a picture from a couple weeks before the party when I finished up a few later RSVP's and was wrapping them with tulle and little cute tags.

I feel like making these blankets was completely over the top, but I really loved doing them and hey, you only get to go overboard once for your first baby's first birthday!

You may have noticed from my blog that I like taking pictures, so when I saw the picture collage in the shape of a 1 on Pinterest, I couldn't help myself. My parents have a laser color printer so I printed off 9 sheets of 12 pictures each with the square Instagram look. I had too many pictures, so I ended up taping together two huge pieces of white poster board and making a border. It turned out okay and served its purpose to add decor to a big empty wall in my house.

Speaking of decor, that was probably the only real stressful part of getting ready for this party. It is no mystery that Doug and I are super cheap. We have been in our house now for 6 years and I barely had any pictures on the wall and we were still using an old Walmart cheap entertainment center from 10 years ago that I bought my sophomore year in college. It may have had a slight tilt to it. Our front living room had a single black recliner that I bought for Doug for Christmas several years back and there was a huge empty wall where we had been planning (for about 3 years) to put a love seat. We rarely have people over due to the out-of-the-way location of our home, but we were going to have a bunch of people finally coming over. Doug was less than willing to contribute to my crazy task financially and I kind of have limited funds being my TpT earnings are my only source of income. So I got on Wayfair.com and ordered a new entertainment center (with doors so Leah couldn't push buttons) and a love seat to go in the front room. I also ordered a square coffee table from IKEA (that took forever to get to my house because of some serious shipping mishaps!). So combined with all of Leah's birthday gifts that were coming from out of town family, we were getting packages just about every day.

I even convinced Doug to let me take a family picture on the new couch. It took a bit of photoshopping, but I used the clone tool to get the best faces and hair from the 15 or so tripod shots I got. The hardest part was fixing Doug's slouch which make his head a full inch below the top of mine... But alas Photoshop is wondrous and amazing and I think the picture turned out great. I did the Staples black and white over sized blueprint mounted on foam board. It turned out okay, but I think next family picture, I will just spend more than $6 for a nicer quality large family picture for the wall.

So yes, all of this home furnishing and decorating had nothing to do with Leah's actual party, but I'm glad now that I went ahead a did all the stuff because I feel overall happier about the appearance of my home now.

So fast forward to the actual morning of the party. The house was spotless and my parents plus Johnny and Chris got there early to help with set up. Johnny was in charge of tying three helium balloons to the mailbox which was apparently too hard and took about 20 minutes.  Chris was in charge of hanging four pictures on the wall... to make it look like I lived in my house, my dad was blowing up balloons and watching Leah while my mom cut up fruit and I set up a kids table.

The plan for the party was to have breakfast, play with toys upstairs, and do fruit loop necklaces from 9-10am. Then we would open Leah's presents from 10-10:20. After presents, we would give the kids their blankets as a thank you so they could cuddle them while my mom read The Hungry Caterpillar from 10:20-10:40 Then we would sing happy birthday, do the cake smash and cupcakes from 10:40-11am. Simple enough plan and it worked out great. (Can you tell I'm an overthinker??)

My BIG little brother Chris took pictures during the party and did a great job! I took the camera during the cake smash and was able to capture some real treasures of Leah really enjoying her cake! 

I got this cute idea to do fruit loop necklaces from Pinterest and I had made an example one ahead of time for Leah. When I put it on her at the beginning of the party, she had absolutely no interest and wanted to take it off UNTIL... I put a fruit loop in her mouth. For the rest of the party, she was a fruit loop monster! She was stealing kids necklaces and stuffing fistfuls of fruit loops into her mouth.

My mom and dad took on the task of making the pancakes and waffles for the party along with occasionally multitasking and holding Leah while I was greeting guests. They were awesome!!!

This picture shows the breakfast set up with some of the kids sitting at a little plastic table to eat their breakfast and some at the bigger table. Most of the parents just sat on the floor or stood nearby and ate their breakfast.

Leah was crazy wired her whole party (even before the cake) and I could not get her to sit and open presents.  Here is a picture of me opening her presents while she goes over and steals more fruit loops!

These are a few pictures of the kids with their new blankets.

Here is a picture of my mom reading the story to everyone.

I think the smash cake turned out super cute! I found a little tutorial online that was super easy and was exactly what I was looking for. It was my first time trying to ice something like that and I was happy with the results even though they weren't perfect! :)

We sang happy birthday and I helped Leah blow out her candle...

Then she started digging in! I quickly stole the camera away from my brother and parked myself on the opposite end of the table to snap a ton of pictures while everyone else enjoyed their cupcakes.

It is hard to pick a favorite, but I think this one is it!

Overall, we had a great time. Leah took a super long nap afterwards. And finally, I'm glad that I have another year before I do one of these again.  :)

Happy birthday my sweet Leah!

Leah 1 Year Old!

Happy FIRST birthday Leah!! It seems like it has been FOREVER since I wrote your 11 month post! I guess your first birthday party took a lot out of me. I will blog about that fun-ness later... So now to your monthly update. Right now you weigh 20 pounds and are 31 inches tall. You are wearing 12 month clothes, but some of them have been a little big on you which is against your earlier growing trends. You're kind of on the smaller side. I'm interested to see how you stack up against other one year olds on the percentiles when we go to your one year well-visit.

This picture was a year in the making! I love how the bib shows how she is changing in size!

I wouldn't say that you are running quite yet, but you have definitely picked up speed. You have tried jumping, but you aren't getting much air at this point. You crawl up stairs at lightning speed, but you still do not go down stairs. You stand at the top and holler for me to come get you if you want to go downstairs. If you are about three steps up and you decide you want to go down though, you slide down on your belly. As far as climbing, you will stand on things that are next to something that you want to get to that is high, but you aren't getting on couches or chairs yet. This increased speed makes it harder to stop your sneaky messes!

You are quite the loud babbler! Most of your talking is nonsensical, but you have down mama and dada. We have been working on bye bye. We were over at Grandma and Grandpa H's house with the missionaries for dinner and you did a hand clap motion and said "buh buh buh." The next day at Walmart you did the same with the lady at customer service. The other day your daddy and I were trying to tell you that the front door was HOT from the sun because you kept on putting your hand on it and smiling. We kept on telling you hot and you walked around going, "hah, hah!" You seemed like you were trying to saying it. ('H' is not usually one of your babbling sounds.)

Boy! Do you love to eat! At this point, you are not too much of a picky eater. We got you some divided plates and silverware to eat with since you had been showing interest in eating like mommy and daddy. You can stab and get some food into your mouth with great difficulty, but you are very motivated so that is great! You still have only those two bottom teeth, so that makes eating difficult. You try just about anything that we put on your plate, but you mostly eat mandarin oranges, green beans, and different varieties of noodles. You love any sort of dessert or sweet thing! 

During General Conference, Grandma H usually has a bunch of veggies, chips, and cheese on the coffee table. We had put everything in the center where you had difficulty reaching it, so you walked around the room and gave everyone big cheesy smiles in order to beg food off of them. It was so cute! Your Uncle Johnny was laying on some bean bag chairs drinking orange juice and you literally tackled him and climbed on top of him to get some. Haha!

You have loved getting into my kitchen cabinets for a while and you are very good at pulling everything out of them. Your latest thing though is to walk around closing things - cabinets, drawers, doors, etc. If you are being fussy while I am cooking dinner, I'll quickly open up a bunch of drawers and cabinets in order to keep you busy while I get a little more of dinner done. We got you a play kitchen for your birthday present. It had so many little pieces that it took me almost 4 hours to put together! You so far enjoy opening and closing the cabinets and transferring your play food from the fridge to the sink.

Your determined personality still asserts itself often. If I try to keep you from getting into something, you always go right back to it. Sometimes, I think that you just like to do things to get into trouble, but I think your curiousity is just spiked whenever I tell you that you can't do something! We put hair bands on the cabinet doors whenever we visit Grandma and Grandpa H's house, but that doesn't keep you from getting in the drawers! You pulled out all the Tupperware and cookie cutters from this drawer and had quite the blast doing it!

You love animals and bugs and the outside. Now that it is Spring, you love any chance we take to go outside. Lately, you have started doing this high-pitched squeal each time I open the door to the outside. Yeah... That needs to stop. When you are inside, you get bored quickly and can become very clingy (even with your loads of toys!) But, as soon as we are outside, you don't even need a single toy to be content. Yesterday, you walked around and just picked up sticks, you sat next to a bush and watched bugs fly around... you were just happy. 

We go to weekly play dates at Miss Caitlin's and Brooke's house. You love getting kisses from their pug Sway. They also have three goats and a donkey that you love to visit when we are there. I am looking forward to all of the adventures we will have this year in the nice weather!

We have had some fun times recently on Grandma and Grandpa H's trampoline. You love to walk and crawl around on it (you aren't jumping on your own yet.) You love it when I pick you up and jump while holding you!

There are a ton of kids in our neighborhood and several nearby that you love to go play with. You are the youngest one in the bunch by a year, but that doesn't mean that you have problems keeping up! Most of your friends are at least a year older than you, but you find other kids fascinating.

As far as your schedule, you are still napping twice a day and nursing about 4-5 times a day. You wake up around 7:30am and go to sleep at 8pm with naps around 9:30-11am and 2-4pm. You drink whole milk in your sippy cup now, so weaning might be somewhere in your near future, but I'm not going to force anything. Some days it seems like you may be transitioning to one nap, but then other days you still get grumpy around 9 am.

I love you my little girl! You are so much fun!

Leah 11 Months Old

We had quite the month in February with our trip to Hawaii! You've grown so much! Right now you weigh 19 and 1/2 pounds and are 30.5 inches long. You are still wearing 12 month clothes, size 3 diapers, and size 3-4 shoes.

These monthly pictures are really becoming more challenging. In reality, a lot of your pictures were like this...  You're not one for sitting or laying still these days unless you are sleeping. 

This month you spent getting your walking down solid. You now walk mostly everywhere and if you fall down, you get right back up again and walk to where you are going. You have difficulty getting around in sand, so you still crawl in sand. More recently, you have started to experiment a little with running. You are not as cautious and will sometimes just take off and starting walking pretty quickly until you fall forward.

The week before we left on out trip to Hawaii, we got a pretty big snowstorm. It dumped over 15 inches of snow in a day! Your daddy brought in some snow for you, but you weren't really too intrigued. It was too cold!

As far as talking, you are still just making sounds. You used mama very rarely and sometimes you babble saying dada. You are starting to experiment with different consonant sounds. While we were at your cousin's recital in Hawaii, you looked at Sammy and pretty clearly said, "Hi!" Your Aunt Bekah and I both heard it and looked at each other wondering if you really understood what you said. You haven't repeated it since though. Another thing that you have been doing is patting your mouth while you make sounds. You think this is pretty entertaining. If I start patting your mouth, you start smiling and then you go, "Ahhhh!" It's pretty cute! This is a little clip from our Moana Falls hike.

You also started making a gurgling sound this month. You have started to imitate me some and I was making a purring noise in the back of my throat for you. You were drinking from your sippy cup at the time and it made a gurgle noise. I could tell that you really liked the noise because you kept on doing it! The next time I was nursing you (and several times since then), you stopped, looking up at me, and started gurgling the milk. It's pretty silly and you think you're hilarious when you do it. You gurgle all the time now!

You are starting to understand even more, but you haven't been listening as well as I would like. I read an article online that perfectly described your stage, "Her desire to explore is stronger than her desire to listen to your warnings... What seems to be defiance is just her natural curiosity to see how the world works." You are DEFINITELY a curious kid. For the most part, I like to let you explore. I even let you eat the dry cat food since you weren't giving up on getting into it! Unfortunately you liked it, so my lesson didn't really help! Here is your mischievous face.

This year for my 30th birthday, your Aunt Bekah and Daddy bought me a plane ticket to Hawaii! Of course, you got to come with me! We left on Sunday, February 16th right on your mommy's birthday. Both flights were completely packed, so it was very difficult for you to lay flat to sleep. You did pretty well on both flights. On our first flight from Dulles to Los Angeles, we had a bunch of Asian tourists on our flight. They were absolutely enamored with you! After we got off the flight several of them asked to take pictures with you. This picture is from when you were sleeping and not bouncing!

When we arrived in Honolulu, your Aunt Bekah was right there ready to pick us up which was good since Mommy's cell phone broke on the flight (It may have had something to do with the fact that she dropped it in a tub full of water while cleaning about a month ago!) It was pretty late our time when we arrived (3am) so we went right to bed... Only to wake up a few hours later (4:30am Hawaii time) to run 8 miles in the Great Aloha Run! You were awesome in the jogging stroller! You watched everything for the first four miles of the race and then you slept for the next three. You woke up really hangry (hungry+angry) for the last mile and I was feeding you puffs as we crossed the finish line. After you had eaten more Puffs, an applesauce, and half a banana you were much happier! This was your first time seeing skyscrapers and you kept on looking up at the really tall buildings!

A week later, your mommy ran a Warrior Run 5K with Aunt Bekah and you were babysat for the first time by someone not in the family! You were sleeping when I got back and everything went well. Later that evening the whole family participated in a Glow Bash where we went on a scavenger hunt through Honolulu in the dark with lots of glow gear on. It was a ton of fun and you had a blast! You didn't fall asleep once or even fuss the whole time we were running around solving clues. We had a great time!

The two of us also went to the Honolulu Zoo. You enjoyed the zoo for the most part because there was a lot to see, but your favorite part was the "Keiki Zoo" portion where you could get really close to the animals!

For almost the first full two weeks in Hawaii, you HATED the sand. Whenever I would even bring you near it, you would cross your ankles and lift your feet so you wouldn't even need to touch it. On one of our last days there while we were visiting Pokai Bay, something finally clicked and you just LOVED the sand! You ate a bit of it, but I don't think it tasted as good as you thought it would! You even let Nicholas bury you in the sand!

Since Pokai Bay is on the leeward side of the island, we were able to see some awesome sunsets!

We also went on a few hikes with Aunt Bekah and the boys while we were in Hawaii. On our first hike to Makapu'u, we were able to push you in the jogging stroller. We saw some whale pods out in the ocean, had a great view of a light house, and of a few islands. When we got to the lookout point, I took you out of the stroller and put you next to the gate that kept people from going on the cliff. You clung HARD onto me and would not cooperate one bit when I wanted to take a picture of you holding onto the gate with the lookout. I hope this is not the start of a fear of heights and just your cautious nature!

Another hike that we went on (Kaena Point) went right along the ocean the whole time. There were some crazy waves on these cliffs that almost hit us and made your Aunt Bekah very nervous. I think you were pretty freaked out as well because you kept on looking back at the ocean instead of at the camera. You fell asleep after the hike as usual! 

While we were in Hawaii you were absolutely enamored with your cousins Nicholas and Sammy. If we ever needed you to smile for a picture, we would just get Sammy to come over. He would make faces and act crazy and he could get a great smile out of you every time. You loved to watch Nicholas play Kendama, a Japanese ball/stick-like game. You also enjoyed listening to Nicholas play the ukulele and the piano. You really enjoyed just sitting at the piano with your cousins and touching the keys to hear the different sounds.

On our last day in Hawaii, we hiked Moana Falls with just the two of us. We has a blast! You were pretty unimpressed with the waterfall, but you enjoyed exploring some of the vegetation.

Coming back from Hawaii was really hard! Not just because we would miss the warmth and sunshine, but we will miss your Aunt Bekah, Uncle Jon, and your cousins Nicholas and Sammy. We'll definitely have to go back next year!  The flights back were much easier because you slept the WHOLE way home including the layover. You were only awake for brief moments to eat! It made flying much easier. When we arrived home, daddy was on a business trip, so Grandma H came to pick us up at the airport. Boy was it cold! You slept the whole way home in the car, ate dinner once we got home, and then you were ready for bed by 7:30pm EST. You even slept through that whole night!! I think you were pretty tired from our trip to Hawaii!

The weekend after we got home, we were hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa H's house when you had a pretty scary accident. You were sitting in a booster seat at the dining room table eating mandarin oranges (a favorite of yours) when you got excited and pushed really hard on the table. You pushed the chair completely back and hit your head pretty hard on the back of the seat. A huge goose egg started appearing at the base of your skull almost immediately and you were SCREAMING. I comforted you and you were able to calm down pretty quickly, but the goose egg was getting bigger and looking pretty bad, so I called the advice nurse hotline.

Even though, you were up running around and playing a few minutes after the fall, they still advised me to take you to the nearest medical facilities with an MRI, so that meant our first trip to the ER. On my way driving you, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that you were starting to go to sleep. I was really worried that it had something to do with your head injury, so I got really scared. I rolled down the windows, turned up the radio, and even resorted to flicking you lightly on your cheek to keep you awake until we got there. When we entered the ER, I was looking pretty flustered and scared and the person at the desk waved me past the two other people in line. Once we got in to see the doctor, you were wide awake, full of energy, and ready to explore the whole hospital. I had to hold you down just so you could be examined, but the doctor confirmed what I had started to feel that you were going to be OKAY!

Since we've been home, the weather has warmed up a little and we were actually able to go outside! You were able to push your own stroller and a play stroller of a neighbors. You absolutely fascinated by wheels and couldn't stop staring at a little girl that was rollerblading outside today.

I can't believe that you will be a year old in just a month! You are growing up so quickly my little Leah! I love you so much!