Baby’s First Birthday!

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We celebrated Eddie’s first birthday this past weekend {on the 28th} and oh my heavens, it was a fun day! I can’t believe Edward is one. I mean, I can; It’s been a hard year; I’m not sure if it’s because he’s the third child or because he just came out not wanting to sleep {ever} or because we moved, or because I work a lot….or a combination of all the above. But man oh man, I’m sort of glad to be moving away from the baby stage and more towards the toddler stage. Of course I’ll miss those small pockets of time when I was cuddling a sleeping teeny tiny baby, or nursing said teeny tiny baby, but, I’m happy to look forward to the next year and see all the milestones he has yet to hit.

Even though you have been my hardest baby, Ed, you always bring a smile to my face with your funny faces, your happy demeanor, your hilarious impressions of daddy’s sounds, your willingness to eat anything and your addiction to me {even if you *still* don’t say ‘mama’ to my face}.

Here are some photos from our day celebrating with our sweet son. Be sure to scroll down to read about his 12 month baby update.

The details of this party are also at the bottom too 🙂

Eating

Eddie is getting really good at trying new things and he much prefers real food over his baby food. The older he gets the broader his palate becomes! He LOVES pasta tossed in any kind of sauce, Plum Organics Cereal Bars, Cheerios, Oatmeal {Quaker low sugar brand}, apple slices, cucumber, bites of cheese depending on his mood, rice, small bites of chicken {any kind}, chicken sausages, bread, baby puffs and basically any food we are eating, which works to our advantage most days.

Dislikes include: avocado and yogurt {still!!}. It might be a texture thing?

We just started him on whole milk as well and he does like that quite a bit. He has also started weaning himself from his bottle and pacifier! Fine by me!

 

Sleeping

Ed continues to be a wild card in the sleeping arena. He has started fighting us to take naps which is super fun. It is obvious that he needs them desperately, but he just loves to play and explore instead.

His morning nap is typically 1 1/2 hours and his afternoon/evening nap is 30-45 minutes. His bedtime used to be 6:30, but as we push his evening nap later, we are able to put him down later…more like 7:30. This will get him to sleep until about 6:30 which is GREAT considering he used to be up and ready for the day at 5am! *yawn*

On days he wakes up earlier than 6, we {for our own sanity and well being} have to let him cry it out until it’s past 6. Before you jump down my throat, we had it approved by our pediatrician AND I checked with a sleep coach. She recommended we try a dream feed to see if he woke up later but it didn’t change a thing. So, we do what the pediatrician tells us and all is well. Having an unpredictable sleeper stresses me out. I’m hopeful these changes will help!!

 

Other Miscellaneous Stuff

This boy is crawling a ton, crawling FAST and crawling up the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. He cruises along furniture and just recently started pushing a walking toy to help him get used to walking in a straight line instead of side to side.

He loves to jump in his exersaucer or when being held.

Thinks it’s hilarious when we spin him around to get dizzy.

Can wave hello, give high fives, raise the roof and clap.

Gets mistaken for a girl all.the.time because he is such a beautiful baby.

His hair continues to grow and get curlier! I’m not sure whether or not to cut it.

He loves being pushed around his new toy! He sits on this elephant and Brooke and Blake take turns going up and down the hall. It’s so adorable!!

 

Helpful Baby Links

{PS–a few of these links are affiliate links 🙂 }

We started using this sippy cup a few days ago as per recommendation from my friend, Stephanie, and it’s AMAZING! We went through at least 4 other options before we tried this one. So easy to use and Eddie picked it up right away. And, it DOES NOT SPILL. It’s amazing.

We love the mighty 4 Plum Organics baby food pouches and the cereal bars from the same brand. They aren’t paying me to say that; Eddie really prefers their foods over any other kind.

The baby puffs I buy are these Gerber Lil’ Crunchies. They are like baby cheetos…aka crack for babies.

I cook smaller cut pasta for Eddie to make my life easier. Ditalini or Macaroni works great!

 

Details about the Party

I baked my perfect chocolate cake plus my best chocolate frosting for Eddie’s cake and cupcakes. I baked the larger cake in two ramekins, then stacked them and frosted them. Not my best work, but oh well. It got eaten and destroyed.

We got this plastic tablecloth for underneath Eddie’s high chair for easy clean up….best decision ever!

I made our shirts. I got them all from Hobby Lobby {similar here} and I ironed on the letters myself.

The balloon letters on our wall were 16 inchers. They’re too small for helium, so I just blew them up and put them on the wall. I love how they turned out!!

Eddie’s crown was from Hobby Lobby and we were shocked how long he kept it on for. {similar crown here.} I fell in love with him all over again!!