On the forth I made Knock You Naked Brownies in honor of birthday suits (really cuz I wanted them) for Homegroup. The sad thing was that John was sleeping while we enjoyed them. It was fun to think back... my water broke at this time... and we were going to the hospital at this time... etc. I'm not going to lie, it made me want another baby... then I thought back to nursing and I was content to wait a few more months.
Grammie (My Mom) came in the night of the forth. And on Thursday (5th = actual birthday) I took advantage of having her in town and did some yard work. For John's birthday present I took him to the doctor... I know, I'm such a great Mom, haha. The doctor kinda laughed at me for coming in exactly on his birthday, but it worked out well for our busy weekend. John got a TON of shots (more than he has had before) so he was pretty mad when we left... but Grammie was watching him the rest of the day so I wasn't too worried :P That evening Steven and I had a date... I highly recommend taking advantage of grandparents :)
Friday (6th) was our big Blue Bell day. I already posted a video (if you haven't seen it yet, go watch it ... it's worth the three minutes!) and there is a slide show below of some photos. That was the first day we turned around John's car seat. Since he's almost always off the charts he met the size requirements to flip it but lacked only the age. I know about the studies that say it's safer to have them backwards, but John is long and he is running out of leg room... in addition, I feel like our seat is more secure forward facing. We meet the requirements posted on the actual seat so I'm not too worried about it. He is still super stoked about being forward facing... I think he especially likes it when I turn around to peak on him while waiting at red lights. The major disadvantage of the forward facing is that naps in the car are now nonexistent... Major Bummer! (I'm nervous about our trip to Inks Lake coming up)
My Sister & Niece came in on Friday and John started to show the first signs of over-tired-ness at dinner. I've never had such a cranky baby in a restaurant... I was kinda embarrassed. But, I think the whole weekend was quite a learning experience for me. John is pretty flexible, but by only two days out of our normal routine he was not cooping well. My son loves his routine!
Saturday was the big birthday party day. We only invited family and church friends because we wanted to keep it small... our house isn't the biggest. Saturday morning involved a lot of cleaning... and last minute shopping trips. I also made John's cake on Saturday morning. The theme was Cinco De Mayo... go figure... and Steven wanted it to look like a chili pepper. This is what we came up with!
I saw some really cute mini three tier cakes for baby's first cake, but I can't find the site again... which is probably for the better, cuz mine did not come out as cute... it looks more like a mountain of icing. Steven & I wanted chocolate cake... but let me tell you, icing a chocolate cake that you have cut up and reassembled is not the easiest! It's super crumbly! I recommend freezing it before icing it if you have time... and pipe on the icing and then smooth it out after it's piped on... or just choose a white cake.
Our plan was to do cake and let the kids play in the water. The hope was that John would splash around and get most of the icing off of him before he came in. John liked his cake, but I think the sweetness got to him because he definitely came to a stopping point. The kids sure enjoyed the water (see video below) but John sure did not. I'm not sure what it is with this kid... He LOVES bath time, but put him in the ocean or a pool (kiddy or regular size) and he freaks out! Steven ended up hosing him off. Since it's getting hot already we may start doing pool time in the back yard more often, maybe then he will get it. I also think that by Saturday afternoon John was just plain done with being out of our routine. Definitely take my advice and don't plan too much for your little one at once.
Just plain Tired!!! I've never seen so much thumb sucking!
Speaking of the heat! It's May but the cake definitely melted. I used real butter to make the icing so a few seconds in the sun and the icing was dripping! Texas is brutal. It was yummy though.
After fun with friends we came inside and opened presents. I did update John's wishpot list for family but I tried my best to not encourage gifts. There is no great way to do that, but here's the honest unedited truth. John has everything he needs... and I probably have enough stuff to have like two more boys and be fine. We are blessed to have TONS of toy entertainment, clothing (Thank you, Issac hand-me-downs) & diapers (although I would never turn down more Bumgenius!). I did update John's list because people in my family asked me what he might need.
John got new shoes, walker/scooter, big ball, tunnel, more bath toys & books. All of those things have been his new favorites so far this week. Also he has LOVE the maracas... the kid is living up to his cinco de mayo birthday. In the past three days he is often seen crawling around the house with one of the maracas in his hands.
Most of the toys he got are 'walking' themed... and I have good news in that department. As of today (10th) John has started to take more voluntary steps. I was sitting on the couch reading something when I saw John let go of the coffee table and take few steps on his own. He kept doing it while I was making dinner. I could see him gaining confidence with each step... re-balancing himself and stepping off. It was kinda neat to watch. I may get out the video camera tomorrow if he is still doing it, but I'm not expecting him to take off. If there is one thing I've learned about this kid, it is that you can't force him to do something early. He will give up army crawling when he is ready to... and he will walk when he wants to, not when you want him to. Somethings I will force, like keeping your bib on during dinner, but I think in the milestone department I can not rush John... even if I know he can do it!
The walker converts to a scooter for future use. A friend of ours has this one and John really likes it. It is a great toy and John plays with it often.
And of coarse the tunnel. I have a little confession: we have the tunnels in our nursery at church and I never was very excited about getting them out for the kids... until I saw how much my kid enjoyed it. I like it so much that I asked for one for his birthday. Something I've discovered I really like about our tunnel is that it collapses & it's portable... a great toy for a small house!
It was a great weekend. We are ridiculously blessed. By having John and by all the people that love us. John is so cute that he makes me want more babies (but I kinda wanted more babies before him so that really isn't fair). I love having him around even though the days are sometimes long. He's taught me so much about how God loves me. Through his fits I've seen how God sees me when I'm ridiculous. I've personally felt the hurt of disobedience from John that God must experience when I don't obey him. I've experienced pure joy when I look at him and he smiles back at me just because I'm his Mommy. Surely God feels that way when I praise him. I truly delight in his accomplishments as God delights in my successes. And I love watching him grow! It's amazing how God created us and gave us a peak into his character through parenting.
Thanks for sharing! That last bit made me cry a little. John is so cute!
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