Wy's Big Party

So the party has come and gone...I'm still recovering.

It was a great day.

I spent the previous night with my dad and his wife, who was wonderful enough to give me tons of feedback through the whole party planning process. We did all of those last second things like ordering balloons and grabbing the last of the food supplies then rested up for the main event.

All in all it was a pretty typical family get together. My family anyway. And by my family I mean not only my actual relatives who live close enough to drive to my dad's house, but also a few of my best friends and their kids, friends who are basically my sisters! A few were missing for one reason or another, but for the most part everyone important was in attendance.

Wyatt actually ended up sleeping through the beginning of the party. I thought I had planned his naps well enough that he would be up and fresh, but right before people were supposed to start showing up he started to crab. So he napped while people arrived and said their hellos. Which on one hand was great, once he woke up he was up for the afternoon, happy and smiling the whole time. On the other hand, he had no idea what the heck to do when he woke up and found 20 people at the house! Thankfully my very friendly son adjusted quickly and in no time was smiling laughing and playing.

Honestly I barely saw him most of the afternoon. It felt weird to not be the one making sure he ate and was happy. But it also felt wonderful to be able to talk with my friends and family! I put together a little gift bag scavenger hunt for the other kids, which they seemed to like. Nothing fancy, just collecting goodies from the other people at the party, who they knew to look for based on clues from me. Then they all played outside for a while, the sidewalk chalk was a big hit as were walks (with supervision) around the small pond next to the house.

For cake I did a cupcake cake, which I am so happy I did. It was so easy to just divvy up cupcakes instead of cutting a regular cake. It keeps the "his piece is bigger than mine!" to a minimum. The bonus was that Wyatt just got one cupcake for his first adventure into mass amounts of sugar. I have never understood why bakeries, and parents for that matter, insist babies have such a huge cake on their first birthday. I know that most places will provide a "smash cake" so your kid has their very own to demolish. But really? Do they need something that is bigger than a normal adult slice of cake?

I digress.

Wyatt loved his cupcake. He didn't do any of the tentative touch and smell and taste with the tip of his tongue. He smashed his hand right into it and promptly turned it upside down. I did break off a little bit of the cake part to feed to him just so he knew he could break it apart and eat the whole thing, but after that he was off and running on his own. He devoured every bit of it. There was some frosting left on the plate but I think that was only because he doesn't know how to lick the plate clean yet. He loved that thing.

We didn't open gifts while people were there. By the time we finished eating lunch, singing Happy Birthday, watching Wy eat his cake, and playing outside it was getting late and most everyone needed to get going. My brother and his girlfriend did stay so we could open their gift and I ended up opening everything else at that point too. He got a lot of clothes, some good toys and a toddler basketball hoop! Gram and Poppa got him a little Lego table and Uncle Chris of course picked out some nice chunky starter Legos.

Wyatt crashed pretty early that night, but seemed to have a great day. I'm so proud of how friendly, happy and well behaved my son is. He is just a joy to everyone who meets him. He's just a wonderful little boy!

I'm still having trouble believing he will turn one tomorrow! I could swear he was just born yesterday, not 364 yesterdays ago. So tomorrow at 9:54am I will hug him just like I did a year ago. And I will probably look at him and think again, whose fantastic and beautiful little boy is this?!

The Invites are in the Mail!

That's right, I put them in the mailbox at work today.

Wy's birthday is in 3 weeks!!!

Auntie Jami did a great job creating cute little cards to send...I figure it's worth the money to have some extras and not have to hand write each invite, who has time for that? It was a struggle just to get them all addressed this past week. But the job is done.

Now it's a waiting game till I can do more shopping for the party. I want to get some fun stuff for the kids who will be there, but I don't want to do it till I have a better idea of how many kids will actually be there.

I also have to finish planning the food. That is one thing I am really excited about, we are doing fun fall comfort foods since it's mostly going to be family and I'm sure at some point the party will devolve into everyone watching whatever football game is on that Sunday.

In fact I just checked the NFL schedule and both the Bears and the Packers are playing that day. This means the Bears fans are going to want to have the TV on in the afternoon (heads up, I'm not allowing it, the party is only 3 hours long, DVR the game if you need to see it that bad) and the Packers fans will want to leave early (to get home for the game) or stay late (to watch the game on my dad's nice HD tv). Typical family gathering!

I'm just excited to celebrate my favorite little mishap and the fact that he is here at all. I'm so thankful for him and really can't imagine life any other way. It feels like that is what most of my blogs come back to, but it's so true.

Though after attending the Wright kids party, I don't know if I am ready for the craziness that comes with kids birthday parties. It was chaos! But it was also a party for 3 kids and they have a big family. Hopefully we can keep the chaos to a minimum at Wy's party.

Yeah right.

Numbers 3 & 4

I posted that last blog too soon. Seriously, the day after I posted it I caught a glimpse of teeth 3 & 4.

Thank goodness my child won't look like a hillbilly for his pictures but a normal 1 year old with his 4 front teeth.

Downside of having 3 teeth coming in at the same time is that we are finally experiencing some of those normal teething symptoms. Yesterday he was a seriously crabby baby. He was whining or crying pretty much all day. At least he was also sleeping a lot. He was pulling his ears, chewing on everything (including the leg of the couch) and wanting lots of attention.

I'm so spoiled, any crabby day throws me off! I'm thankful my kid is so easy going, but it has not prepared me for the days when he's not in a good mood.

I am excited about the teeth though! Despite it meaning he really is getting bigger and is now officially no longer a baby. He is still wonderful!