Will's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated the big day on 4/14 so that we could have the party on a Saturday. JT and I were completely overwhelmed at all of the people that came to celebrate with us - family, friends, and neighbors! It was a great party and a wonderful day!

Planning:
It took me a while to decide what kind of party to have. Everything seems to be theme-based now, but Will doesn't have anything that is really a "favorite", except for Maggie and other dogs of course. I kept going back to a safari theme since he has tons of monkey and giraffe toys, but that is because that is what we buy him, not necessarily because he likes it! So just in case he wants to do safari at a another party, I decided on no safari party this year. Then a friend of mine suggested a red wagon themed party since Will has 2 red wagons. Super cute idea, but again I may want to save it for next year. I knew there wouldn't be many kids attending this party, so I decided a them wasn't necessary and I planned everything around some light blue and chocolate brown patterns and "1". I don't know why I decided to take a creative path with this, but it all worked out. I made the invitations, a birthday banner, monthly picture banner, and even some cupcake toppers. Gram made a wreath for the front door (an idea from Pinterest).

Banner of Will's monthly photos. Can't believe how much he has changed when looking at all of them together!

The Big Day:
Will's birthday outfit was an early birthday present from our sweet neighbors - The Ellers. Scott and Kate have a 3 year old daughter named Maddy (you will see more of her later on, she and "Baby Will" are crazy about each other) and twin 6 months old girls. Here is Will and his best buddies Max and Grant hanging out in the back yard.

 Will played with Gram, Gramps, and MAO.

 

JT and I worried a lot about how Will was going to handle all of these people. He isn't comfortable with just anybody, and most of these people he doesn't see too often. Hope came in and you could see a huge wave of relief sweep over him. He loves sweet Hope! She has been Will's nanny since he was 3 months old. He is crazy about her! Oh, and she's pretty crazy about him too!

A couple of pics of us with our lil' man.

Cake time! We had cupcakes for all of the guests and Will had his own smash cake. Publix decorated it but didn't put a "1" on it, so Lauren fixed that for us.

He wasn't too sure about getting his hands in there. He would just get a little icing and then smear it on his face. Fine by me, I prefer this to having cake thrown all over my walls!

We pulled up a chair for Maddy to see if she could show him how it was done.

Maddy to the rescue. Does it get any cuter than having you girlfriend feed you some of your 1st birthday cake?!?!

After cake time we were ready to open presents, but we were told to come outside for a minute. NeeNee and Aunt Julia were leaving, so I assumed that we were going to take a picture. Boy was I wrong. We walked outside and everyone followed.

I am expecting a Little Tikes car or truck...

WHOA! A Cadillac Escalade from Rob, Andi, Bubba, and Jill! I was absolutely shocked! Hope they plan on coming back and supplying the gift for the 16th birthday party!

Will says, "Check it out Maddy. I can ride down to your house and pick you up. Oh wait, no I can't reach the pedals. Maybe you can come over and drive me around then!"

Replaced the girl with Max and Grant, and Will lost it.

 Back inside for some presents.

All this stuff and you can see he is still playing with the remote control.

Hat and matching dinosaur stuffed animal made by Brandon's girlfriend Monica.

A few of the many presents - "Willie Bug" growth chart handmade by Gram's friend. Blue chair from me and JT. See the GIANT teddy bear from Max and Grant!

Cracker Barrell rocking chair from MAO - just Will's size!

 Favors:

Cake pops made by Gram. I made a tag that said "Thanks for poppin' by" that sweet Aunt Julia took the time to put on them all for me.

After everyone left, Will continued to sit in his truck. It moved to our dining room and he drank his bottles in there. Did I mention that it has a working radio? Will can turn it on and he dances away!

THANK YOU to everyone that came to celebrate this wonderful day! And a million thank-yous to NeeNee, Aunt Julia, Gram, and Lauren for helping me get this all set up.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!!!!!!

Will - 12 Months

Happy 1 Year Old Will!

How on earth has a year already passed by?!?!

Stats:
Weight - 22 lbs and 1 oz
Height - 29.75 inches

Food:
We are finally moving on to table food. He will pretty much eat anything that we give him, except he sometimes isn't too thrilled with the textured baby food. I don't know why; he eats chunkier food that isn't baby food. I sure hope that he isn't picky like me! I still give lots of baby food just because I don't feed him during our meal times and it is easy. He loves waffles or pancakes for breakfast. Chicken or turkey pieces for lunch or dinner are a big hit.  We try to share food with him when we go out to eat. He has been introduced to Cracker Barrell food so he is liking vegetables, dumplings, and hashbrown casserole.
We made the transition from formula to whole milk and that was easy. I am glad to see the formula go - it smelled terrible! Our next challenge is the transition from bottle to sippy cup. This is not going well so far! He will drink water from a sippy cup just fine. Just try to give him some milk in a sippy cup and I suggest that you stand back...it will be thrown at you and a temper tantrum begins. We have a plan of action to just pack up the bottles one day and he will eventually give in to the sippy cup, but I just can't take it away from him yet.

Mobility:
Still not walking on his own yet, but I expect it any day now. He moves all over the place as long as he is holding on to something. He has great balance though. I think he is already more coordinated that I am! He crawls so fast now. He also crawls up and down the stairs with the greatest of ease. Maggie is getting a workout trying to stay out of his way - every time he finds a good spot to lay down, Will comes charging towards her.
He is a climber. He climbs in and out of his Pampers box that all of his toys are in. He also manages to get in to Maggie's toy box. He loves to swing off of JT's shoulders and climb back towards the front of JT.
He is a dancer! Between MAO and Gram's disco days and my Zumba dancing while I was pregnant, this kid definitely has some dancing genes! He will let go of whatever he is holding on to and bounce his knees up and down when he hears music. And he just smiles the whole time!

He loves being outside! He is getting the idea of fetch and wants to play with Maggie so badly. He can grasp the tennis ball and hold it up to her, but we have to throw it. Sometimes Maggie is patient and waits for us to help him throw, other times she just runs up and takes it out of his hand.

Oh, and you can see in this picture that Will is a blonde! Finally something of me!

Airplane salute - This is hysterical and gets funnier every time he does it! He used to simply point in the air when he heard an airplane. Now he pretty much does it on command. And it isn't so much of a point now as a hand to the head like a salute.

We went for his 12 month check up and he had to get some shots. He did great as always. JT and I have a few concerns about Will. The spot on his back and huge vein on his right foot are pretty much unchanged since birth. These were both things that we were told would start to go away with time, and now that we are at the 1 year mark, we want to get them checked out. But most important at this visit was the identification of a hernia. JT had really diagnosed this a few months ago but we thought it might just be a hydrocele. The pediatrician sent us to a pediatric urologist at Vanderbilt. As suspected, Will has a hernia and also some type of cyst near his testicle. The only treatment for both of these is surgery. He is going to have surgery on June 7th and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. The procedure will last 1.5-2 hours and we should be there for about 6 hours total that day. I knew that surgery was the only option, but I was expecting 15-30 minutes, not up to 2 hours. Oh well, it is the best thing for Will and that is all that matters.

Happy 1st Birthday lil' man! We love you more than anything! Thanks for the greatest year of our lives!

Water Baby

JT's initial hopes and dreams for Will came true tonight...Will officially LOVES the water! This means there is going to be lots of pool time and water park adventures in their future.

We went to the indoor pool at the YMCA tonight to take Will swimming for the first time. We were all excited when we got there, and then we saw a sign that said the pool was closed due to thunder and lightening. I was so sad! We stayed for a little while and then it opened back up. This actually worked out well because we were the only ones in there (besides the life guards). JT got in and I sat on the side with Will in my lap and we put our feet in. Then JT grabbed him and they played, splashed, and swam. Will loved it! Whenever Will splashes the water he has his mouth wide open. Every once in a while Will would sit back on the side with me, and he would giggle when JT would swim away or go under water. Will is already sitting on the side waiting for JT to catch him when he jumps in. He would reach out his arms and fall into the water knowing his daddy would be there for him. Sweet moment! I loved watching them play together!