Isaac's 1st Birthday Party

The party was a success! The weather warmed up and was actually hot in the sunshine. I think there were a lot of pink noses and cheeks, I should have offered sunscreen.

Isaac didn't take a morning nap, so I got a little stressed out. I had planned on vacuuming the pool while he took a nap, but I spent an hour repeatedly trying to get him to sleep. That's my only not perfect part of the day. And it was fine because our guests must have thought that the streamers were yellow caution tape and nobody went by the pool. AND Isaac was happy the whole time and didn't act tired!Can you see how high Dylan is on this swing? He has a big smile too. We re-dug this old swing set in, then cemented it. Steven repainted it and bought new swings too. I trimmed some trees and Steven did a lot of landscaping/mowing/edging etc I got stung by a bee the day before. It's still a little red. We had about 50 people over. I'm sad that our grass died with the two overnight freezes we recently had. At least the ball pit balls gave the lawn some color:)
The only structured game we played was the piÑata. Isaac started hitting it with his hand, so we got out the bat.It was a pull string one, but we treated it like it was a fragile one. Everybody got a chance to hit it.
Marc knocked it down. (Or maybe it was Jake, they took turns.)
then Jake ripped it open. I'm sure he'll make the baseball team!

Then it was cake time! We got Isaac the free "smash cake," and "pupcakes" for Dylan. It still said Isaac's name on it. Good thing Dylan can't read yet. I think it was at this point that the guests realized I was going for a Kung Fu Panda theme and maybe they started understanding why I had fortune cookies on all of the tables. (We also had a regular cake for the adults.)

Isaac gave her a glare for messing up his face. Love it.
Noah took the cupcake and just sucked it down. He never came up for air, it was so funny. See their "#1" bibs? Noah's grandma made them!


Dylan is sitting on Malia and Olivia while Olivia's dad rocks the train.
I'm so excited about this little bike from my mom and step-dad. Dylan can peddle his trike, so he's ready. He likes peddling backwards on his trike, so the breaks will take a little getting used to. We already have good skid marks on that slab. Malia was saying "Dylan, DYLAN, it's MY turn now." Dylan replied, "You have to wait two minutes. No, maybe tomorrow. Or Maybe Wednesday." (I must say those phrases a lot. I know that he has to wait to see the Szaszs until Wednesdays, and he asks about them a lot.) We laughed at the toddlers' adult negotiations.
His new Rays outfit made an appearance after the cake.
And one of Dylan's old outfits made an appearance on Isaac because he found a cupcake.
After the guests left, we missed them. THEN it was nap time. Of course Dylan took off one layer of shorts to expose his beloved Rays shorts. He wears them like boxer shorts over his undies.
I love my birthday boys. ♥ (I also snapped a picture of Steven who also crashed, but I'll keep that for myself. They all just fell asleep in their dirty clothes.

We opened presents after dinner. What a fun day!

Happy Birthday 2Dylan!

Look at the train cake Jolyn and her friends made! Soooo cool.

Who looks like the birthday boy in this picture? You'd never guess b/c it looks like Dylan's daddy. When Daniel told everybody to sit down, 2Dylan was so good and sat down too. They the kids would all get up to swarm the gift until Daniel told them to sit down and wait for the next one.

A typical Wednesday morning

Isn't this fun? I should just go ahead and open a daycare, huh. 5 of 5 are looking at me, 0 of 5 are smiling a real smile. Maybe no daycare for me.Dylan stripped his PJs off and had his Rays outfit on this morning. It was so funny to Steven and me when we looked over and he had quick-changed. Yea, Malia's in her PJs still too. I love it. Welcome to my life:)

1st Birthday Evening

When Daddy got home, we continued the birthday fun. Isaac didn't care for his crown, so he wore the cone hat. We first stopped at Quizno's for dinner.

Next stop, Lowe's. Dylan was making Isaac laugh while we window shopped in the garden area.

We went to Publix to order the free "smash cake."

My mom, Don, and Kat came over for "cupcakes." Luckily, Dylan thinks muffins are cupcakes:) I was reading to Isaac when they got here, so Kat took some pictures.

They brought presents too! Books and clothes. How appropriate, I was just reading a Dr. Seuss book and they brought another one that's still big but it's a board book.

So I got out the birthday hats and we had a party!

Dylan got new clothes from them because his birthday is in less than 2 weeks. Maybe they don't like the short Rays shorts that Dylan is always wearing. They got Dylan these cute shorts and he wore them because they told him that they were like Uncle JT's.

I put a belt on him and he flexed for us. Isaac didn't much care for the muffins, I mean "cupcakes," but certainly liked hitting Kat with a hanger! I think it was a good first birthday for my little baby.

February 2nd is Isaac's FIRST Birthday!!! Here's what we did.

Hi Isaac, you're 1!

You slept through the night! You have been lately. If you wake up, your cry isn't hysterical so I let you cry it out and it only takes 5 min or less. You wake up between 6:30 and 8. Daddy gets you because he has to get up anyway. We cuddle and Dylan usually comes in under the covers to get warm too. He does not like his covers, but he likes mine. We ate breakfast. You had a little variety, but more importantly, you actually sat in your high chair. On Mondays, Dylan and I usually eat in the car and you eat at Corrie's. We took Dylan to preschool and got Noah. We went to the craft store so I could get supplies to make your birthday crown. This is funny. I think you knew it was your birthday because you were lounging in your stroller with your feet up and stole poor Noah's pacifier. How did you know you were king for a day? I gave it right back because king or not, that's not nice.

I tried to take a onesie picture for you being 12 months old. What a joke!

You wanted nothing to do with your crown too, until you pulled one of the stickers off of it and got distracted for 2 seconds.

Something outside must have been distracting too, lucky me!

I like this one.

I know this picture is washed out, but it still has some kind of dimension because I like looking at your pale hand. I wonder if you'll get any color on your skin this spring?

Then, this is basically your only birthday present from me. It's your favorite thing though, so you were happy. You nurse to sleep and have even started taking two naps a day like a normal 1 year old!

Noah is sweet too. You guys get so much attention when I just have the two of you. You both love having somebody to play with too. You get so excited when he wakes up from a nap. (You should sleep as long as he does, then you wouldn't miss him!)

Maybe I think you two are playing together when you're quiet. You start a little bit of a cry and when I find you, you're stuck like this.

I like how I can see the pillow that you shoved past you as you climbed up. Instead of rescuing you, I turned around and grabbed my camera. Then I kissed your neck 1.2million times while we both giggled. This time you started laughing when I came in to your cry. You were in such a good mood that I was inspired to get out your crown again.

We had a party w/o the cake! I like Noah's fish lips.

This is out of focus, but you're both looking AND your crown was on, so it's a keeper:)

This one's a keeper for an opposite reason, NO faces:)

Thanks for celebrating Isaac's birthday with us, Noah!

Corrie came and traded boys. Dylan liked the cone party hat, but Isaac was done with the table, blocks, and crown.

Maybe he was done waiting for the cake. Have you ever been to a party and wanted to leave, but had to wait for the cake? It takes forever for people to bring out the cake sometimes, doesn't it?! And yes, Amber, Isaac was probably crying because he needed milk with his cake in those cake pictures. I know you need milk with your cake or it's inedible. Should we get some milk for our birthday party this Saturday?

Dentist in Training

Jake is so good with Dylan and Isaac both. He'll be the best babysitter around pretty soon. I probably should have taken the glasses away from Isaac, but to me, it looked like he was performing his first dental exam, telling Jake that he needs to brush and floss more. It was so funny because he was being so serious about trying to get the eye glasses to touch Jake's teeth.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby!!

I could see this comming because you started walking and having a mind of your own a long time ago, but still. You're more a toddler than a baby. I'm going to try to just nurse you before and after bed time. You are a picky eater, but in a different way. You pick what you want to eat. Sometimes you love a food, and other times you pick something different and want nothing to do with a past favorite dish. For instance, you would lunge for my carrot, but now refuse to even look at one. You pick raisens now. You know where I keep the little boxes and you know how to get your big brother to open them for you.

You can say "Hello" and "Uh-oh" now, but I'm not sure you know their meanings yet. You can sign "ball" and "milk," of course. I should work on signs more with you because you're ready to learn.

I took you for this photo shoot and can't pick one favorite, so here you go.





Daddy said this looked like a combination of the Spaghetti pictures and the Santa pictures. Should I be sorry for giving you your own chocolatey cake, you poor poor baby. Actually, I'm sorry we had to wake you up from your car seat and I'm sorry that I fed you before the pictures. You weren't hungry for this sugar rush at all.