Planning Logan’s first birthday party was one of the most fun and crafy activities I have done to date. I began thinking of ideas and bookmarking some ideas I liked around October, and decided on a theme/colors/venue shortly after. We had his party at the Bellaire Nature Discovery Center on a Saturday morning. We were very lucky with perfect weather, as it poured rain and was very cold the next morning.

Here are some details:

Food–we had Shipley’s donuts, chocolate and plain glazed. Also a bowl of apples, bananas and clementine oranges. We had snack bags for kids and adults that said “Have a snack with Logan” on labels I made from a Post it pack I bought a few months ago. We had a tub of small waters and apple juices, and a big jug of orange juice.

The cake and cupcakes were from Indulge Baking Co., and matched Logan’s shirt and the banners.

The shirt and matching bib were from my Dallas friend Gretchen. Hi!

Decorations–I made two banners by hand. I cut and glued and laminated all myself. It was really fun. The monthly pics banner was very long, with 13 photos. The “Logan is One” banner was a second thought after I had leftover paper and wanted another banner. It also helped bring the colors together again. Thank goodness his name isn’t longer than five letters!

Then I had another idea after I saw a similar poster on this blog post. I was mildly obsessed with figuring out how to replicate this for about a week. She used Photoshop, but I made mine in Word. I downloaded a chalkboard jpeg, then downloaded some of the free fonts and typed in white on the chalkboard. It turned out really awesome, in my opinion. Then I sent it to a local printer who printed it on foam matting and I displayed it on an easel. I love it still.

For activities at the party, we had a bunny read a story and then the kids could pet it. Her name was coincidentally Lily. We also brought some blow up sports balls and had some plastic clappers and sunglasses on the picnic tables.

For party favors, we had a minor dispute about these. I wanted to write names on water bottles with curly straws I saw at Party City, but they turned out too ugly for Jeffrey, and he recommended we do something else. He found some glass tiny milk jars that we filled with colored goldfish and came with a personalized label. They turned out very cute. And my mom added some shovels and rakes for kids to take home.

I was so happy with how it turned out, and very proud of myself for being so crafty.

Now onto planning Jeffrey’s 30th birthday in May!

This last month has been busy with getting ready to turn one. We have entered toddler territory, with more opinions, more interaction with people, and a lot more clingyness. Logan loves to hold onto things, whether he is supposed to have it or not. Like a phone, sunglasses, toy or trash found on the ground.

Backing up a bit…there isn’t a whole lot new. Logan still has no words, but makes a lot of sounds. He still won’t hold a cup or bottle himself and doesn’t even try. He does walk and sometimes run. He loves peek-a-boo, loves when someone pretends to chase him, and he loves when someone makes him laugh. He is starting to hand things to us when we ask, like keys, a toy, a ball, or dirt at the playground. How thoughtful. He loves holding anything shaped like a stick in his hands. A rattle, long and skinny puzzle piece, wooden drumstick, hammer, etc. He is also starting to “play” with Lily. They will wrestle over the same toy and she will try to take it from him or ask him to throw it. If only she knew he has no idea what she is asking him to do!

His eating is going fine. New this month is an interest in fruit, of which I am glad because it gives me more foods to pull from my arsenal of choices to offer. He likes strawberries, kiwi, steamed apples, mango and cantaloupe. Still won’t touch a banana or blueberries or raspberries. He had zero interest in his birthday cake and would not touch it. His loss!

Milk is a different story. All month, we have been weaning from the bottle and from formula. My goal was to be done with formula by his birthday, and hopefully onto all cups too. We have spent a lot of the month trying to teach him to use a straw cup or various sippy cups. He wants nothing to do with it and can’t figure out a straw to save his life. It also drives us crazy. He seems to like whole milk, but won’t hold his cup to get enough to fill himself up. We are constantly chasing him around holding his cup in his mouth or else he gets mad because he is hungry and thirsty. I was changing one feeding a day from formula to milk each week for a month. Does that make sense? By the end of the 12th month, no more formula. We will probably keep one bottle a day and fill it with whole milk to make sure he is drinking.

Sleeping is also going great when he is at home. He falls asleep easily at night and sleeps until about 6:30 a.m., but we leave him in bed until 7 a.m. When at home, he takes two good naps a day, at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. The afternoon one is usually awesome, from 1-3ish. When he is at school, his naps are crappy and often total one hour or less for the day. It makes for a long afternoon after I pick him up and drives me crazy.

We have been spending more time this month at parks by ourselves or with friends. Now that he is a steady walker, he can move around the playground much better and we have more options than just the swing. He also must be holding a shovel. He loves to climb up a slide or tunnel, and down as well.

Eating, sleeping, playing…that’s about it for the highlights of a one year old!

Next up–the birthday party!

Happy on the swing.

Checking out the dishwasher, we love anything that goes “open close.”

Delicious dinner at Cleburne Cafeteria. The high chairs wheel through the line and come with a graham cracker!

Book with dad.

Park.

My little chickens.

For the last few weeks, we have been in a good pattern of me figuring out what Logan likes to eat, and Logan actually eating what I give him with minimal waste. I am still trying new foods, but I have a wider variety of things I know he likes. It makes packing his breakfast and lunch for school easier because I don’t need backups, just snacks, and it makes planning the week easier because I know a few things I can count on. Here are some recent favorites:

For breakfast, Logan loves YoBaby yogurts and pancakes. I make a batch of pancakes on Sundays and he takes them for school 3-4 days. I use the Kodiak Cakes brand because you literally “just add water” and no egg or oil is needed. I have tried blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips and bananas, and he likes the ones with chocolate chips and bananas or plain. On days he doesn’t have pancakes, I do frozen baby waffles, either Earth’s Best brand or a grocery store brand. I take yogurt with it too, and maybe a fruit, but there aren’t many fruits he eats right now. On the weekends, I serve Cheerios, a scrambled egg (yolk and white), and a fruit. No yogurt since he eats it 5 days during the week.

Lunch and dinner can be interchangeable. I would like him to be able to eat anything we eat for dinner, and we are getting there, but I still plan for him separately. I roast lots of vegetables all week. I try to have two “bake days” where I roast up squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and while I am dirtying the kitchen, I cook something on the stove like polenta, pasta, ground turkey, and also steam apples in the Beaba. Organizing it into two days of cooking makes the other days a lot more relaxed, and I just pull things from the fridge.

Some of his favorite combos are ground turkey with polenta or potatoes and roasted veggies, a sunbutter sandwich with avocado and applesauce/apples/fruit cup. Also mac and cheese with a veggie like peas mixed in and ground turkey or grilled chicken pieces. He loves veggie burgers, hummus and bread too.

He is funny with fruits–he likes steamed apples, cantaloupe and mango, and will spit out or toss on the floor any berry or banana.

I am not exactly sure what I want to write about Logan turning one…but I do know that it is amazing how much babies grow in one year. I do think often lately how different things are this February than last February. It’s so calm this year. I like it. I am spending lots of time being crafty for Logan’s birthday party. Last February, we were closing on a new house, packing up our first house we lived in together, and we moved six miles away.

I spent a lot of time at Lowe’s looking at a new kitchen sink, faucet handles, carpet samples, paint colors, and even a grill. I went a few times to the hardware store to pick out bathroom fixtures, and the baby store getting last minute things ready for either a boy or girl…we didn’t know. Then on February 29, we closed on a new house and began renovation the next day. Then in March, our new lives began, and besides February, it’s hard to remember life before this house and baby.

There are many things I will remember from the first year, mostly that the second half is way more fun and a lot more manageable than the first half.

Here are a few other things that will stand out from the last year:

• March 13 will forever be a special day. And giving birth at 3:46 a.m. is interesting–there is no one awake to tell besides our parents!
• Giving Logan his last bottle of the day and the few days he would fall asleep on me was so special. Nothing is more peaceful than a sleeping baby. This never happens anymore.
• Before he could fall asleep himself, we would rock him to sleep, either in my arms or in the swing. I loved watching his eye lids get heavy and putting him down asleep.
• The first time he laughed
• The first time he wore pants, he was about six months old at least. Strange, but he always wore short-onesies since it’s hot here from March-November.
• “Talking” to him–how he listens, mimics sounds, and babbles like we have conversations
• How he smiles so big when he sees Lily, his daddy, or swings at the park.

Then there are many things that stand out that aren’t so fun:

• Waking up in the morning still exhausted. Sleep exhaustion is not a joke, and it’s hard to take care of myself much less other people.
• Trying to drive around to get Logan to sleep or stop crying, when I was too tired to drive. Including the time we drove through a restaurant to pick up dinner, and he was wailing but I was stuck in line and couldn’t drive away or get out of the car.
• Sitting or walking in our front yard at 6 p.m. waiting for Jeffrey to come home because Logan would be content outside, even though it was 100* and I was wearing him on me.
• Coming home from a dinner out with adults and having to pump before bed for 20 minutes when I just wanted to sleep. And the sound of the pump. Oy.
• Pumping in the middle of the night–this seems like forever ago when I used to do this.
• The night he had hand-foot-mouth virus and wouldn’t eat or sleep. Of course it develops around midnight.
• Always being in a hurry to run errands and get back before he got hungry.
• The week of sleep training

I am sure I can think of many more, and I hope the happy memories outlast the frustrating ones!

Things have been busy around here. Someone got their first pair of shoes because we have a walker! Logan began taking steps less than a month ago, probably like 3 weeks ago, and within 10 days, we had a full-fledged walker. It is hard to believe he used to fit in a bouncy seat or just sit on a mat and not know how to move. Now he rarely crawls and prefers to walk around the house. He is very determined. And very fast.

We go to weekly music class on Thursdays, and I can tell he is more comfortable there each time. He loves the parachute and bubbles part, and anything that he gets to hold that shakes or makes noise. It’s a fun 45 minutes for me too.

Logan has begun giving open-mouth kissies, mostly to Lily. I have gotten one or two. He loves soft, fluffy stuffed animals and Lily. It is super cute. Lily thinks so too.

Just chillin’ at The Children’s Museum at a birthday party. Fun to walk around like a big boy!

I don’t know what Logan weighs or how tall he is since we haven’t been to the doctor since 9 months. We go back after his 1 year birthday and hopefully not before! He still enjoys eating (avocado, sweet potato, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, cheerios and ground turkey are favorites), won’t hold a bottle or cup but will drink from them, has been taking much better naps than he used to, and doesn’t have any words besides “dada.” Giving him bottles has been very frustrating–he won’t hold it himself and also doesn’t want to sit still to drink it. So he is not taking in much formula and prefers to just play and walk. Hopefully we will be done with bottles soon and move onto milk in cups. If only he will hold them himself!

I have also been busy planning for his first birthday party, which has been really fun for me! I am doing some crafty projects by hand, paint and on the computer, and I look forward to sharing them here!

In unrelated news, if you are in  Houston, a new Zoe’s Kitchen restaurant is opening tomorrow (Feb. 14) in Rice Village on 5215 Kelvin. Just sharing the news! I am very excited to have another Zoe’s closeby. This dish above is actually one of my favorites–the hummus salad plate.