Brady's 1st b-day: The Birthday Boy

This is my final post about Brady's 1st birthday party.....I promise! This is also the most important birthday post... The Birthday Boy! I still can't believe he's already a year old. That was probably the fastest year of my life. I know I say it a lot, but we're so blessed to have Brady in our lives. I will never be able to thank God enough for giving us this precious little boy to love.

Chewing on his fingers.... he recently got his 8th tooth!

"Where's the cake, mom?"

"I wonder what this feels like?"

"Hey, I wonder what that thing is glowing on top."

"Might as well give this a try...looks like that's what everyone is waiting for..."

"Yum, that was good. Got to make sure I get every last bite."

"This is funny. I'm making a mess and mom isn't doing anything about it."

My handsome birthday boy.

"Is this for me?"

"Cool! Legos!!"

"Why did she take that away from me??!?!?! I wasn't finished with it!!! (This is when the meltdown began.)

"That's it! I want out of here! I've had enough of this nonsense!" (Meltdown was in full swing here. But mama managed to keep a "fake" smile on her face. What she'd like to do was wear some legs out!)

"I'm not playing with you woman! I want out of here right this instant!!!"

"This is more like it...The birthday boy ALWAYS gets his way." (This was my answer for the meltdown..no I don't think you need to give them everything they want, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. And I managed to keep a smile on my face.)

"I'm done. I. AM. DONE!!!"

"Thank goodness...she finally got the message."

So this is what ended up happening...mom & dad had to open all the presents.

 

He loves books.

He still has those big pretty blue eyes.

He always has that big toe curled up.

This is his.. "I know I'm rotten and I love it" face.

I know Brady will never remember this birthday party, but it sure was special to me. There were times when I thought I'd never have the chance to plan a first birthday party, so I wanted to enjoy every single moment of this wonderful day. Happy 1st Birthday Brady!!!

Brady's 1st b-day: The Guests

Brady's birthday fell during spring break, which means lots of people are out of town or camping or playing ball, etc... So, many family members weren't able to make it. I kept Brady's birthday a family affair. I didn't want it to get out of hand and I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings for not invited them, so I felt it was best to just celebrate with the family and in a couple of years when he really has friends and he can tell me who he wants to invite..I'll invite friends. Here's a few pics of Brady's guest.

Pap & Brady

Gavin was having the time of his life! ha

The proud parents! :)

Cameron, Bobby Gene, Teresa, & Jimmy

Big Nana & Big Pops

Melba & Grandma

Sherry & Brady

Grandma & Brady

Matt, Kristian, & Brady

Nana & Meme with Brady

There were other guest there that I didn't get a picture of...we had a lot of fun with everyone who was able to come.

12 months with Brady

Brady- 12 months

It’s hard to believe we were blessed with the most wonderful little boy a year ago! This year sure went fast and Brady has changed so much. I’ve honestly enjoyed every day of his life. Of course, being a parent is the hardest job in the world, but it’s also the most rewarding and wonderful job in the whole world.

Here’s what Brady has been up to this past month:

*He weighs 22lbs. 4oz and is 28 ½ in long.

*He’s eating more table foods, his favorite table food is guacamole, rice, and beans (it makes my heart happy that he loves Mexican food). He still takes a bottle. We’re trying to get him comfortable with whole milk. I tried to do it cold turkey and that didn’t go so well, so now we’re doing 2oz of whole milk and 4 oz of formula. Next week I’ll change that to 3-to-3, and so on until I have him off formula.  

*He walks very well, claps & roll his hands. He loves to play Patty Cake. He waves and blows kisses. He climbs very well (which is very scary). He can open doors and go outside unassisted (again, very scary). He hasn’t bitten in a while, but he is capable of biting. He’s still very social and likes to go to different people. He loves his bathes. He’s still attached to his pacifier. He likes for mama to carry him around. He still loves to watch Wheel of Fortune. And he’s still very curious.

*He can say da-da and bye-bye.

*He loves to brush his teeth.

*He hits people in the face (I don’t think he’s trying to be mean, he just gets really excited, but I’m trying to get him to stop as soon as possible).

*Dressing him is still a challenge, but it’s a little easier than it has been.

* He has 7 teeth. (3 on bottom & 4 on top)

*He is sleeping well at night. And he’ll take some really long naps sometimes (up to 2-3 hours). You know when he’s tired because he’ll pull on his ears and rub his eyes. It’s nice, because I can go lay him in his crib and he’ll go to see on his own during the day. At night, he still wants to be rocked.

 * He wears 18 month clothing. He’s wearing a size 3 diaper.

*He enjoys riding in the car, especially since he’s facing forward now. He also likes it when we let him drive the car in the country (dirt roads). He likes riding tractors and four-wheelers too.

*His eyes are still blue. His hair is curly in the back and is blondish. He has the goofiest smile and expressions. It’ easy to make him laugh. He’s always happy.

*He has no problem at all with letting you know that he’s unhappy. He can throw some major fits.

*He loves books. He doesn’t sit too long while we read to him, but he picks books up and looks at them more than he plays with his other toys.

Here’s Brady this month.

This is his, 'I don't want to be still for a picture mom, so I'm going to scream and wrinkle my nose at you' look.

This is his, 'Life is Good' look.

This is his, 'Why did you lay me on the couch, mom? you know I'm' going roll off' look

This is his, 'quite running from me mama' look. I see this look a lot.

This is his, 'hold me mama' look. I see this look 95% of the time.

This is his, 'look at me mama' look. I love that sweet smile of his. It has a way of melting my heart.

Brady's 1st b-day- the food

For the party, I decided I didn't want to have to do a lot of cooking (or make Steven cook either), so I decided to do sandwiches. I figured most people would have eaten lunch already since the party was from 2-3:30pm. My mom made chicken-salad sandwiches and I made turkey and ham sandwiches. I also made deli wraps, and banana pudding.

We also had fruit.

Brady's cakes

I got the inspiration for his cake off Pinterest. I had Albertson's bakery make it. They did an awesome job and the cake tasted good too!

Brady's smash cake

This monkey took a lot of work to make but it was identical to the picture I took to the bakery.

Our fruit palm tree.

Brady's 1st B-day Party- the decorations

In order to not overload you in one post, I decided to break my post about Brady's 1st b-day party into themed parts. Today, I'll focus on the decorations. The theme for his 1st birthday party was monkeys. I can't think of a better animal that describes my bouncing little boy. I love Pinterest and that's were I got all my ideas and inspirations. I worked so hard on making sure things looked nice. I painted, cut, glued, etc...it was wonderful. I'm so thankful his birthday fell at the end of Spring Break, I was able to get everything done without stressing out.

All the table clothes can from Wal-Mart. I thought they were cute and perfect for the day. I made the vases from Mason jars, burlap and monkey ribbon. The flowers came from my Grandmothers house.

I had to have a picture table.

I'm so proud how his chair turned out. It was a lot of work but it turned out perfect. I was very proud of myself.

I had a frame for guests to sign. I also had a picture of both Steven and I at our first birthday party.

The gift table.

I saw this monkey balloon and had to have it. It was just too cute! And Brady really likes playing with it now.

Look at him grow. These are all the pictures of him each month with his monthly tie on.

It was simple but I loved it. I'm so thankful the weather was beautiful. It was the perfect day for an outside party.