The After Party

My friends and family showered me with many fabulous toys, books, and clothes at my birthday party. Even before the wrapping paper had settled, though, this was what I wanted to play with most!

When all the partiers had gone home, I discovered that I can craw quicker than Mommy can clean. This is a very practical skill when there are cake crumbs on the floor, I tell ya'!
When Mommy got tired of party clean-up, she and I took a break in my ladybug tent. Can you believe my Mommy forgot to put this super cutie diaper cover on me when I dove into my smash cake?

Oh well...maybe I can wear them to all of the first birthday parties I have yet to attend this year (under a dress, of course).

Party Day

My birthday party has come and gone, but Mommy and Daddy are nowhere near finished with the cleanup! They're okay with that, though, because we had such a fun time partying down today.

Here are some of the party details that Mommy has been working on.

This cutie boa wreath greeted guests at our front door. Tomorrow it will be moved to its permanent home in my nursery.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've probably seen lots of these guys already.
Mommy took all of my monthday pictures and matted them to colored cardstock. Then, she arranged them with brown grossgain ribbon taped to the back.

This garland was full of pictures of various "firsts" I've experienced throughout the past year.

Here's a closer shot of that garland. These pics were of my "first lock-out", "first Easter", and "first piano lesson".

There were two vertical "firsts" sets like this. Mommy will be moving them to my nursery, too. She used plain old clothespins to attach the pictures to the ribbon, which will make them super easy to update from time to time.

Another closeup. Here we have "first act of defiance" and "first road trip".

The mantel decor. Mommy took the flower canvases and name banner from my nursery for this space.
Discovery bottles for all of my kiddo friends. Mommy added blue colored water, marbles, and confetti to these (washed) water bottles. Then, she hot glued the lids and added some blue curling ribbon.

The yummy food table!

Beautiful cake made by "Aunt" Michele. This was almost too cute to cut!

See that little pink candle on the left with the ribbon wrapped around it? Keep it in the corner of your mind. I'll tell you more about it in a bit.

We're all ready to party!

Can you tell what our favorite colors are right now?

I was so excited about all of the people who came to see me that I forgot to pull my bow off.

Okay, now you pull that candle out of your mind's corner. At one of the baby showers thrown for Mommy when she was pregnant, the hostesses had each guest write a birthday wish on a strip of paper. They collected all of the wishes and wrapped each one around a pink candle. Mommy brought all of the candles home in a special birthday tin, and each year we'll pull out one candle wish to read on my birthday (or birthday party day).

Here's this year's wish.

If you are the owner of this wish, would you please let me know? There's no signature, and no one at the party claimed it...but I would love to know who it is from.

Once the wish was read, it was time for me to dig into my first bit of cake. Michele's work is just as yummy as it is pretty!

I was too engrossed in my cake to be bothered by posing for the camera.

As soon as I was "all done" with my cake, Mommy took me to the bathroom for a quick rinse in the tub. Then, it was back into my party dress and out into the living room for present time. I made quite a haul!

Thank you to all of my family and friends who joined me on this special day. You have all been a big part of my life thus far, and I am so happy that you were able to celebrate with me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Can you believe that I am one year old today? Here are some things you should know about me at one year:

Every day I do a little bit of walking, but I really prefer crawling and cruising.

I can blow (half) kisses.

I eat just about everything Mommy and Daddy eat, with the exception of honey, peanut butter, Daddy's chips, and Mommy's desserts. I really want to try those last two, though!

I now have 3.25 teeth.

My animal sound repertoire includes dog, cow, monkey, elephant, lion, duck, tiger, chicken, and pig. Daddy has also taught me to make the fish, rabbit, and turtle sounds.

My expressive vocabulary consists of hi, hot, du (duck), Bae (Bailey), ba (ball), bool (balloon), br (bird), uh oh, Daddy, and Mumma.

I tried out my very first two word phrase today. It was "Hi, Bae!"

A few of the phrases in my receptive vocabulary are, "brush your teeth", "do you need a diaper change?", "time to go night night", "give ____ a hug", and "give ____ a kiss".

I can sign "all done", "more", and "nurse". I didn't pick up that last sign until this week...just in time to start weaning on Monday!

I prefer books over toys.

Whew! I sure have learned a lot in 12 months!

For my birthday today, Mommy and Daddy took me to an indoor play area not far from our home. It was a blast!

I giddyuped on a rocking horse,
chillaxed in a swing,
and checked out a slide in the huge inflatable play area. This place was really awesome, and Mommy promised to take me back!

Later in the day, all of the Grands joined me at my house for dinner. We had to pull out the card table so we could all sit together! (Our dining table is super tiny, but it holds a lot of meaning for Mommy. It was Great Nana and Papa's first dining table, Mimi and Poppy's first dining table, and Mommy and Daddy's first dining table.)
After dinner, I had my first dessert ever. This brownie was super yummilicious!
You may not be able to tell from the above pic, but I got real comfortable with that brownie real fast. It ended up all over my face, in my ears, and under my teeny fingernails. So, Mommy decided that I need a bath before I could open my presents.
Once I was cleaned up, though, I was ready to rip into some wrapping paper!
This water table came from Mommy and Daddy. The three of us can't wait to try it out!
Mimi and Poppy gave me a set of stacking cups.

And Grandma and Grandpa gave me a swing like the one I chillaxed in earlier in the day!
My first birthday was a super fantastic day (shout out to Mommy's Dickinson Elementary family), and I can't wait to find out what the next year holds for me!

Party at My Place

Take a look at the invitation Daddy made for my birthday party in a few weeks. Mommy found a very similar invite at tinyprints.com. She sent it to Daddy (with a wish list of changes), and Daddy worked long and hard to create this cutie postcard.

My party theme is "A Year of Firsts", so Mommy was thrilled to have an invitation that coordinated so well with the theme!

Mommy and I did learn an important lesson about DIY party invitations: Thou shalt not print at FedEx-Kinko's! We thought they would be budget friendly, but we were wrong.

Thanks, Daddy, for working so hard on my invitation. It looks great!

Practice Makes Perfect

Mommy, Mimi, and I hit up Party City this afternoon to do a little baby-shower-shopping and some birthday-party-browsing. Mommy decided I needed to try out the "I'm one" party hat.
Notice the color? Mimi is a bit miffed that there is no pink in my birthday decor.

Sorry, Mimi...blue is the new pink (in the Bug household, at least)!

Playdate and Birthday Pics

Mommy and I went over to Cooper's house for a playdate this morning. I had lots of fun playing with Cooper's toys, glancing down from his game room balcony into his living room, and showing off my sweet crawling skills.

Cooper was such a great little model when our Mommies decided to take our pictures! I, on the other hand, was mad at my Mommy for not letting me crawl down Cooper's stairs. That woman is becoming Captain Cautious, I tell you! Thanks for letting me come over to your house, Cooper! You are a very good sharer of toys!

Later in the day, Mommy and I went outside to take some pictures. As you know, I am about to be and we needed another good shot for my party invitation. Mommy thinks she managed to snap a winner, so maybe she'll let me post the invitation later in the week!