1 Year

My baby is 1.

One year ago today, you were set to be brought into this world because you didn't want to come when you was supposed to come. I remember power-walking around our apartment complex at 9:00 the Sunday evening that you were due hoping that the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been feeling for months would finally turn into real ones! I remember pleading to Heavenly Father to please let you come, and promising to be a really nice mom, and letting him know how excited we were to have you!

So we forced you out 6 days later.

(eek! Over 24 hours in labor and almost 2 hours of pushing, I will never be induced again!)

I don't think I ever posted this first picture, but the little guy was terribly swollen. I remember beaming with pride, thinking he was the most beautiful baby ever! Clearly, I was SO. EXHAUSTED.

Hour by hour, the swelling subsided and he actually got cuter and cuter.

 I remember a couple hours after his birth, Steve had fallen asleep on the couch and I was watching my mom holding him. It finally hit me, and I began to cry. She asked me if the tears were happy tears? I shook my head yes. She asked me if I wanted to hold him, I shook my head yes.

I just held him and stared at him sleeping peacefully for the longest time until I fell asleep with him in my arms (this isn't a picture of that moment, but reminds me of it...). We were so in love.

 

We both remember how tiny his little cry sounded, and loved to hear it!

My mom warned us that it would soon not be so tiny, so try to remember this when it isn't so cute.

She was right...

 This is one of my favorite pictures of us (even though I look horrid and had not washed my hair for, um, several days), I remember this so clearly! We had eaten dinner with Jason because Geri was out of town, and we all went up to the school because Steve needed to practice something on my eyes. We got there, then realized I couldn't do it because the medicine they  give to dilate my eyes couldn't be used in nursing mothers. So I took Parker home while they stayed at the school. He was being particularly fussy that night, and I could not get him to calm down. Nothing was working. So I took him to the chair and snuggled and rocked him and sang to him and tried to get him to go to sleep. After a while, he finally did. I remember being sooooo relieved. I tried to soak up that moment as much as I could because he was growing so fast and those cuddling moments were definitely dwindling. Then I apparently fell asleep, and found this picture on Steve's phone a couple days later.

 To celebrate this little man of ours, we threw a party!

Steve was very much against any kind of party for a 1-year-old (really, any parties). He doesn't want the attention or want others to feel like they need to come. I, on the other hand LOVE parties! I love planning, researching, crafting, and seeing everyone happy and having a good time!

The day of is always stressful and clean-up is a big, fat bummer, but it was all worth it.

We love all of our friends who were able to make it, it meant so much!!!

I had decided on a mustache theme...obviously....all of the babies and our friends looked hilarious!

 I made the fabric triangle bunting on the top left, the cake and the cake topper, the signs, the 'Happy Birthday' burlap bunting, glued little mustaches on the swirly straws, and the food! (Oh, and the guest of honor. HA!) I LOVED how everything turned out. And yes, I have Pinterest (partly) to thank.

 We played pin-the-mustache-on-Parker

 There are some nasty mustaches going on in these pictures.

Mine is on upside down, epic failure on my hostess part.

Little P LOVED his little mustache! He kept making all these funny faces and trying to touch it!

 Notice the nice whiskers Steve is sporting? He grew everything out all week and carved out out the little creeper 'stache day of. Babe. Mostly everyone that was there are our optometry friends, as well as a couple other friends in the area and my friend from work with her husband. 

It's so nice to see how loved Parker is...shucks guys! Thank you Jas and Ger for coming, even though you were stressed out of your minds (um literally) and moving the next day!

 After everybody had eaten, turned into their creepy alter-egos, and taken some photobooth shots, we brought out the cake. You can see in the video that Parker got all nervous and confused when the mass of people started singing and staring at him, but with a little reassurance from mom, he was fine.

He had just woken up from a nap when Steve brought him over, so he was quite the subdued guest of honor. So weird for Parker! Subdued is definitely not a word that usually describes my child...

 He was being so dainty with the cake, using two fingers to grasp one little sprinkle at a time.

I finally gave him a little assistance getting the goods in

 Aubrey pulled out a surprise gift that I wasn't to open until the end. We finally got to it, and it was from  my mom. I knew I was going to get emotional, whatever it was....then I pulled out this gorgeous quilt she had made! I love it! It is beautiful, and was obviously very time consuming! 

She called it a labor of love. Mom, I hope you know this means I need one for each kid, right?!

 The party was a success. Day of his birthday we sang to him all day aaaaaand that's about it! I took P to the beach to meet some friends, I graciously took phone calls and face-times from loving relatives to wish the little guy Happy Birthday, and we decided to take him to get some ice cream just as we had changed him into PJs and were about to send him to bed.

We had to.

Turns out he's not quite ready for the goodness we call ice cream.

Next year, kid.