Baby Makes Four: Our Baby's 1st Birthday!

I've been avoiding this post because I feel like it marks the end of something. The end of my baby's first year of life. The end of being able to call him a baby. The end of my "baby book."

No wonder it feels like a daunting task, huh? So, I've decided to treat it as it should be treated...a celebration of Griffin's first year and a way to preserve the memories of this fun day!

Griffin's actual birthday was pretty low key - a typical Thursday at home with Mama - but we had the treat of meeting Dada for lunch at Chick-fil-a! Griffin even got to eat some chicken nuggets and french fries. Then we played on the playground before Dada headed back to work and we headed home for a birthday nap. (As I wrote that I laughed to myself because on G's birthday, everything was a "birthday something"...birthday breakfast - same blueberry waffle as always - birthday nap, birthday lunch, birthday bath. Things just sound more special if you add the word birthday in front of it! haha.)

It was fun thinking back to "a year ago today" and saying things like, "a year ago today Chad was eating a McDonalds breakfast in the delivery room with my dad, while I looked on (unable to put anything in my body except for ice chips) and waited for the nurses and midwife to say we were ready to start pushing." Or, the absolute best was when Chad called me in the car after we had just left from lunch and said, "It's 12:34. A year ago today Griffin was born!" Sure enough, the clock read exactly 12:34. I lost it -thinking back to all of the emotions that were happening at that exact moment in the delivery room. I just love looking back on that day...nothing but fond memories and I hope those memories never fade.

***Pause to take a deep breath and wipe my tears as I'm writing this. Motherhood has made me an emotional basket case!***

Okay, on to the party weekend! Gram and Grandpa came in town on Friday so we could all go out to dinner for Chad's birthday. I think they wanted to make sure that their baby's birthday didn't get overlooked. Sweet Chad...I think he's more than happy to give Griffin the birthday spotlight!

Once Saturday came, I was in full "party planning" mode. Everything was pretty much in order, just had to finish decorating and pick up a few things from the grocery store. Most of the day was spent with me sending up silent prayers that Griffin would take good naps and be a happy boy for his party!

Once the house was ready, the guests started to arrive! It was just a small, family event...perfect for a small birthday boy. Thankfully my prayers were answered and G had good naps. Though he was a little thrown off when he woke up from his afternoon nap to find all these people at his house, he warmed up pretty quickly and was a perfect party host.

I'm pretty sure one of his favorite parts of his birthday was the balloons. He had fun playing with them for days after the party was over.

After opening his great gifts, it was time for cake....

He was NOT too fond of his birthday hat. I kept trying, but he wasn't having it. (Though it made for great photos.)

So, of course we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to Griffin, anxiously anticipating what he would do with his smash cake! I think most moms secretly hope for a good show...you know, face first into the cake; a messy chow down as he shovels cake into his mouth...but I wasn't really expecting that from Griffin. He pretty much did just what I would have predicted. He liked the taste of the cake, but was thrown off by the texture of the icing all over his hands. (Or was he thrown off by all these people standing around staring at him?) He kept squishing and squeezing the icing in his hands. haha...it was cute. He eventually put a few bites into his mouth...

....and he even shared a few bites with Dada. See the icing all over his face?

I love everything about this picture. GinGi's 85th birthday was just 3 days after Griffin's 1st birthday. A perfect picture of young and old, in deep conversation, no doubt.

After everyone enjoyed some cake and Griffin took a dunk in the bathtub, he had fun playing with his new toys and we all had fun watching him.