Luke’s 1st Birthday, Continued

Luke’s birthday festivities have continued throughout the weekend, culminating in today’s pool party at the house.  Luke did three new things this weekend.  Friday Aunt Bonnie taught him how to drink out of a straw and now he’s pretty much a champ, and today he started blowing kisses AND TOOK A STEP!  He took his first step today at his party!!  I almost jumped out of my seat!  He was so cute! 

Last night we went to Marsh Hall for dinner with Tommy’s extended family.  They eat there most Saturdays in the summer, so to make it easy to break up the birthday parties, I just brought cupcakes and turned it into a party! 

Those were the blueberry cupcakes.  I just used a vanilla cake mix and in place of water used pureed blueberries.  Then, for the icing, I made a standard buttercream icing- butter, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and milk, but again I added pureed blueberries and garnished them with a blueberry.  They kind of tasted like blueberry muffins with icing on top, but they were pretty tasty and very easy and I think they looked pretty.

Luke ate the other kind of cupcake I made- yellow cake with chocolate icing in an ice cream cone.  Just put the batter in the cupcake pan like you normally would, and then stick a cake cone upside down into the batter, and the cake will bake into the cone.  Everyone was so generous and Luke was spoiled rotten!  We had a great time with the family. 

This morning we started preparing for his party today.  I hung the banner that Nicki helped me make with her Cricut machine

and put the finishing touches on the cake

I made the little sea creatures from fondant

And then our guests began to arrive!  We had lunch and chatted for a while, and then it was time to open Luke’s gifts.  He got SO MANY great gifts!  Between the family last night at Marsh Hall and today at the house he is one very blessed little boy.  He got tons of clothes and pajamas and lots of toys.  He seemed to favor two things- his tiny Toy Story bat from Ryan, Elaine, and Caleb (Elaine- I feel like I hardly spoke to you today!  Sorry!), and his lawn mower from Jason and Brittany. 

I don’t know what’s up with my camera, it’s been taking terrible pictures lately

Other notable gifts are the octopus that Lynsi crocheted that I absolutely love.  She just started crocheting!  I think he’s so cute!  It’s only the second thing she’s made!  And, Melissa gave him a Redskins chair that she hand painted.  She only brought this chair today, but also painted him a Steelers chair and a table that is sports themed in general.  She’s going to bring them by next week.  I LOVE homemade gifts.

Then, we moved on to cake

After having cake Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday I have a feeling Luke is going to be wondering where the heck his cake is after dinner tomorrow night :)  A few people swam in the pool and the weather held out for most of the party.  It was a truly wonderful day. 

We’re going to have pictures taken some time this week I think. 

Thank you so much to everyone for being so generous and spending Luke’s special weekend with us.  Okay… now I’m going to go crash for the evening!!

Luke’s First Birthday!

My sweet baby boy’s first birthday is coming to a close and reflecting on the day, is making me smile.  He slept in pretty late this morning, had a peach for breakfast, and we headed to his doctor’s appointment.  I’m not sure why I made his appointment for his actual birthday, but I feel like there was some method to my madness when I made it.  He’s 19 lbs, 7 oz (7th percentile).  He’s 28 1/2” long (10th percentile).  Tommy says he’s in the 99th percentile for looks :)  He had four shots and took them like a champ. 

After the doctor we headed to Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch.  He was a superstar!  As soon as our waitress saw his shirt she brought him a little plate with some fries and grapes on it, and a chocolate milk.  He was in heaven with all of his treats!  He also had lots of little bites off of my salad plate like ham, egg, zucchini, carrots, and cheese.  I put a little of the chocolate milk in with his white milk and he loved it.  Then, the girl sitting next to us who looked like she was around 13 insisted on giving Luke two dollars!  It was so sweet!!  And for the grand finale our waitress brought out two big scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.  He had a few bites, but Krystal helped him with that :)

Since the weather was nice, after lunch we headed to the National Harbor just to walk around and spend some time outside.  We had a great time and I got Luke a chocolate covered Peep from the Peeps store, but he hasn’t eaten it yet.  I didn’t want to overload him knowing he was having cake tonight. 

We got home and I started preparing dinner.  My parents and Sage came over and Luke had a little bit of steak and twice baked potatoes with us.  We got him a wagon for his birthday and went for a couple of trips around the backyard. 

After that, it was time to sing happy birthday and for Luke to have his first cake!  He’s been snuck bites here and there like I’m sure most babies have, but this cupcake was all his.  He wasted no time digging in!!  He basically crumbled the whole thing first, and then started taking little bites.  He drank lots of milk to go along with it.  After all of this food and all of the excitement, he finally crashed around 7:45 and I never heard a peep after I laid him down. 

stuffing his face!

hanging out with Grandpa

crawling through the tunnel from Sage

cruisin’ in his wagon

 

Thank you so much to everyone who sent love Luke’s way and our way.  We appreciate being surrounded by such amazing people everyday.  I don’t know where I would be as a mother without my friends and family, so thank you all for helping me raise Luke.

And to Prince Handsome Amazing Perfect Baby Luke:

We never could have imagined the joy and fulfillment you have brought to our lives.  Seeing you grow and smile and learn is so rewarding.  We can’t wait to see what the next year brings.  We love you all the way to the moon and back and are so proud to be your parents!! 

Clearing Out…

All of this old uneventful information to make room for the event of the week… Luke’s first birthday!  I can’t believe a year has flown by.  Luke has started standing on his own quite a bit, but hasn’t taken any steps.  He’s talking up a storm, but hasn’t said any words that I know of.  Just mama and dada, and possibly one time dog and one time boo.  I guess the biggest thing that has changed is Luke’s diet.  He’s eating most of what we eat and loves waffles, peaches, and green beans.  He’s starting to “chill” a little bit, and will sometimes just hang out in our laps for a minute instead of squirming away.  His bedtime has pretty much been bumped to 8:00.  He usually sleeps through the night, but lately has been having some incidents, and I think it’s just a combination of constantly cutting teeth (he’s up to 11) and switching over to milk and different foods. 

I absolutely LOVE this picture.  He was wearing my shades (usually he won’t wear any sunglasses) and right before I took the picture he pointed at me :)

someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed… and mean Mommy is taking pictures!

Yesterday I watched my girlfriend Sarah’s two girls Katie and Claire.  Katie will be 3 next month and Claire will be 2 in December.  They were incredibly well behaved, but even with them being sweet and amazing, it was not an easy day!  It was exhausting!!!  I love those girls so much, and I was so happy to have them all to myself all day. 

Katie reading a story

Katie calls this blanket her “guy.”  Don’t know where she came up with that.  He replaced her kitty, who she left in Mommy’s car.  Thankfully “guy” was an okay replacement.

First Time at the Beach!

Playing catch up again!  As usual!  Last weekend we headed to the beach for a weekend away.   Tommy and Luke left Friday afternoon, my Mom brought Krystal and Hunter (our niece and nephew) Friday evening, and I headed up Saturday after work.  Tommy’s extended family was there for their annual vacation, so we got to spend alot of time with family.  Saturday night Tommy and I went out with a couple of his cousins and had a good time at the Greene Turtle.  Sunday we got up and packed (heavily) for Luke’s first trip to the beach!  We had a good time, but our timing was off and we went right when Luke should have been going down for a nap, so we stayed for about three hours and then decided we’d better let him get some rest.  He was asleep within a couple of blocks!  He loved the water and the sand.  He kept trying to eat the sand.  I’m assuming anyone who has had a baby on the beach has experienced this :)  I set up a small baby pool for him and he splashed around and had fun.  Sunday night we brought the kids to the boardwalk and Krystal got to do the “Slingshot.”  She had never been to the boardwalk before and she loved it.  Monday Tommy and Hunter went back to the beach, Krystal, Luke, and I went shopping and Monday night we played mini golf with the family.  Tuesday we packed up and headed home in the afternoon.  It was a great weekend filled with good family memories.

heading to the beach with a scrunched up face :)

sandy piggies

Luke gave us a really hard time during the nights this week.  I noticed that he finally cut a tooth on the bottom that he’s been working on for weeks, so I think he finally got some relief and slept until 9:00 this morning!!!  After taking turns with Tommy throughout the week getting up with him in the middle of the night, it was so nice to wake up to Tommy saying “we need to get up” and rolling over and seeing 8:51 on the clock!  Sometimes you just need to sleep in.  Today was one of those days.  I’m so glad Luke popped that tooth through!  This brings us to TEN teeth. 

Luke is doing big boy one year old things now like sitting forward in his carseat, drinking milk, and eating lots of big boy foods.  He’s still pretty attached to his pacifier which makes me nervous because I have a fear of having a three year old with a pacifier hanging out of his mouth. 

Luke got dirty crawling around the garage at Jason and Brittany’s last night and then crashed as soon as we got in the car, so he got a bath first thing this morning.

He’s been showing off his bear crawl to lots of new admirers over the past couple of weeks.  Everyone loves the way he gets around on his hands and feet with his butt up in the air!  He’s a huge hit everywhere he goes :)  He holds himself up on things really well and will sometimes stand without holding on to anything for a couple seconds, but hasn’t taken any steps and doesn’t show a huge interest in walking. 

Today we ordered our bridesmaids dresses for Bonnie’s wedding, which is three short months away!  Carrie and I are both happy with the dress and it was a quick and easy decision! 

I can’t think of anything else that’s been going on… Tommy’s at a concert right now and Luke is fighting bedtime, but as soon as he goes down my bedroom, which should really be referred to as an obstacle course or disaster area, is getting a major overhaul!!!!  It’s been crammed and ridiculously cluttered since our spare bedroom became occupied in April, and I can’t take it anymore!  So, here I go…