The Big Birthday Bash

Well, maybe it wasn't big, but it was certainly a big deal to us :) We had Jake's 1st birthday party this past Sunday at our house....it was scheduled from 11am-naptime, thank goodness the Steelers game didn't come on until 6:30 that night!

We were able to get Jake to take his morning nap late, which I think was a key step in the success of the party....he made it until about 2pm and by then people were starting to filter out anyway so we put him down for a nap.

Before we recap the day, I have to show off the adorable invitation made by Polka Dot Bumblebee....I've ordered stuff from her before & it always turns out great, I highly recommend her if you're looking for invitations, photo cards, favors, etc....

He sat on my lap very nicely and opened his gifts...we have such generous friends and family, we loved all of his gifts! Here he is enjoying a few of them:

After that, we huddled around the TV to watch the photo slideshow I made of his first year (see previous post)

Then, it was time for the main event: the smashing of the cake. Well, the giant cupcake in this case. I ordered his awesome (and delicious!) cake from Creative Cakes by Gwen.

At first, he didn't seem to know what to do with the cupcake (see 2 posts below for video) but once I showed him that he could eat it, he became a bit more interested. But I think overall, he enjoyed the texture of it the most and really derived pleasure from spreading it through his hair & ears.

He's also very much into sharing right now, so he was offering up bites of his cupcake to everyone, which was quite generous of him. (He certainly doesn't get that from me....I would bite someone's finger off if they tried to take a piece of my cake) Here he is sharing with daddy and Aunt Melissa:

He even shared with the dog (and if you read in my previous video post, in the end, he shared the whole cupcake with her....directly on top of her head)

I think he really enjoyed the day and we are always happy to have an excuse to get together with friends and family. Here are some other random pics from the day:

Aunt Melissa and Ben made the trip up from Virginia!! (how adorable is Ben??)

12 month appointment

Jake had his 12 month check up earlier in the week...I could tell he was nervous for the big weigh in. Did he gain a lot from all the icing at his party earlier in the week? Was he maintaining his slim physique from all the running around he's doing?? Here are the results:

Weight: 21.5 lbs (30th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (55th percentile)

He had dropped in the whole percentile thing, which of course concerned me, but the doctor assured me that it's completely normal at this age for that to happen...they stop growing so rapidly and he's working off a bunch of calories from walking all the time. he said as long as he's eating fine (if anyone has ever seen him put away a 3 course meal, you know this isn't a problem) then there's no reason to worry about what the "average" size is. Good to hear!

He got 3 shots, blah. It was terrible because I was by myself this time & he screamed worse than ever before...he ran a fever yesterday & was pretty miserable, but seemed to be back to his happy baby self this morning, so I was grateful for that. I can't stand to see him so uncomfortable!!

Hopefully we won't be returning to the dr's office until his 15 month check up in April....

Jake's 1st Birthday Video Montage

I made a slideshow of Jake's 1st year using One True Media (a great site if you have a need to make a slideshow---very easy to use, super fast delivery!) Here is a link to the show!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=78a23b4c77096cf817e201&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Let Them Eat Cake

I'll have a full post about Jake's first birthday bash, but to give you a sneak peek, here he is going to town on his giant birthday cupcake (what happened eventually that is unfortunately not featured in the video, is that Jake dumped the entire cupcake directly onto Gracie's head...she was patiently waiting under the highchair for something to fall. I think she got more than she bargained for!)

Bust a move.

You can't hear the song very well, but Jake is getting the Led out. Brian had the stereo on and for the first time ever, Jake stopped walking, paused in front of the music & got his groove on.

The Next Bachelorette??

After swearing up and down that he was not going to watch this season of "The Bachelor", Brian cracked and couldn't resist when I turned it on the other night. We agreed on a few things.

This girl had strange teeth that were waaaaaaaay too white (and she was stalker-esque):



Doesn't it kind of remind you of that episode of "Friends" where Ross bleaches his teeth so much they glow in the dark??

We couldn't imagine leaving our 14 month old baby to do a reality TV show, like this girl (from Pittsburgh!) did:





But the highlight of the evening came from the look on the face of one of the girls...a bizarre twist of her lips and opening of her eyes that was just begging for mockery. So like any normal happily married couple might do on a Friday night, we paused the DVR, got out the camera & took pictures of me doing my best "Bachelorette" impression.

Lisa-Isms

You know how some people have those calendars that you rip off a page each day & there's a new motivational quote to read? I've always said that I'm going to make one of these and each day will have a new quote that was said by my mother. One of my favorites is an oldie but goody from years ago:

Me: (circa 1997) So you know how the ship goes down at the end of Titanic?
Mom: (putting hands over ears) la-la-la-la...I'm not listening!
Me: What is wrong with you?
Mom: I haven't seen Titanic yet, don't tell me what happens at the end!!

But that has recently been replaced as my favorite with the conversation that took place when we had Christmas at her house. I got my parents a snapfish calendar with pictures of Jake and it came with all of the holidays filled in. So my mom is flipping through it:


Mom: oh how neat, it puts in the holidays for you. wait, what’s Milk Day?
Me: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Mom: it says right here, Milk Day.
Me: let me see (examining the calendar) Mom, that says M-L-K Day, as in Martin Luther King Day.
Mom: ooooh. Well that makes sense, I had never heard of Milk Day.


She's a very bright woman who is in charge of the physical and mental health of patients every day...but sometimes it just takes a few minutes for the light bulb to go off for her :) (and if you ever wonder where I get my sometimes lack of common sense, just refer back to this post...)

Ben + Jake = BFF

This is a bit overdue, but I'm still trying to catch up on my pictures! We celebrated Chrismakah with my BFF Melissa and her family the Sunday after Christmas with presents for the kids and some Steelers football...Ben got soooo big, I couldn't believe it! It's hard to remember Jake ever being that little.

Jake still didn't seem to know what to make of Ben, but he did want to coach him on how to properly use his legs while in the rainforest.

"No, no, no kid...you have to move your legs while you're in here, get some type of workout! You think I got these bulging muscles by just hanging out? Get moving!"

When those attempts failed, he moved on to providing Ben with natural disaster training by simulating an earthquake in the rainforest. Hey, at least he didn't try to eat his head this time.

"Quick kid, what do you do when an earthquake strikes? You need to have a plan in case of a disaster! First thing first, grab your binky, locate the nearest bottle so that you have a source of nourishment...you never know how long these things are going to last. Ok, here comes the simulation...are you ready kid???"

Walk this way....

We officially have a walker. Back in October, Jake took his first few wobbly steps and has continued to work on his walking skills ever since then. But this past Monday (around 11.5 months old) after months of practicing, he pulled himself up on a chair, turned around & started walking around the room as if he had been doing it all along....and he hasn't stopped since!!!

We captured his new talent on camera last night...as you can see in the video, he LOVES to be chased...if he's walking around & you tell him "I'm gonna get you...you'd better run!" he giggles so much and takes off in a panic.

please note that his shirt says "Lady Killer"-awesome gift from Brian's friend Kate!

At the end of the video, we try to get him to show off his other new talent, waving & saying "bye bye" but he doesn't cooperate this time around :)