Elijah's First Birthday Party

Elijah's first birthday party could not have gone any better.  Seriously.  There is something about this child that knows to be good when it really counts.  I mean every time we've had a big event (the July 4th baseball game comes to mind, as well as his flights to and from Denver at Thanksgiving, and the church service for Easter...) he is on his best behavior.  His first birthday was no exception.

We started Friday evening with making one batch of carrot cupcakes.  Then Saturday morning we made another batch of chocolate cupcakes.  We intended to cut that batch in half, but we forgot so we ended up with 50-some cupcakes.  Elijah woke up Saturday morning very congested and a very runny nose, so we took him to Urgent care.  Last time we waited for the illness to pass and it was 2 weeks of misery.  This time, we wanted to get a jump on it and hopefully start antibiotics right away.  But the doctor said he had no ear infection, so no antibiotics either.  On Saturday afternoon, Daniel's mom flew in from Phoenix. We picked her up and she helped a ton with the planning and prepping for the party.

He skipped his afternoon nap on Saturday, so I was worried.  But it turned out to be a good thing, because he went to bed early, slept all the way until 6am like usual, and woke up on party day a very happy boy!  He hung out and played while we did all the prep for the party.  We set everything up, made little sandwiches, and tidied up.  He went down for his nap a little earlier, around 9:30, and slept for over an hour!  The longest nap he's taken in weeks.  He woke up exactly 15 minutes before the party started.  Just enough time to change him into his adorable "birthday boy" shirt.

During the party, he was all smiles.  He let anyone and everyone pick him up and gave each person big smiles too!  He also smiled for every picture.  When he wasn't being held, he crawled around the house and the yard.  He showed off his new skill of walking with his walker toy.  And he crawled after Aaron's adorable new puppy, Jenna.  The two of them together was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. He didn't eat much, which gave him plenty of room for cake ;-)

When it was time for the big cake smash, we moved Elijah's high chair out to the backyard.  We put a big "1" candle in a carrot cupcake, and then I realized how perilous it is to stick a flame in front of a one year old.  How did I not think of that ahead of time?  Well, I just kind of held it a little out of his reach and told everyone to sing quickly.  Then I blew it out just before Elijah reached his hand out to grab the flame.  Thank goodness the wick didn't burn him.  He started by sticking his pointer finger in the frosting and licking it off.  Then he went for it.  He ate the entire cupcake.  He just loved it.  And we loved watching!  He didn't make an enormous mess either, but did get green frosting all over his face.  It was great.  Everyone loved watching him devour the cupcake and there was minimal clean up since we did it in the backyard.  After the cupcake, we opened presents.  Elijah helped a little bit, but he was more interested in crawling around and playing with some of his new toys.  He got so many thoughtful gifts.  We really are so lucky to have all these friends who genuinely care about our son.  There were 15-20 people there.  Just enough for our little house not to feel too crowded.  His little friend from church, Carolyne, was the only other child.  He went down for his nap easily and slept over an hour again.  We cleaned up while he was sleeping, and then were completely exhausted right when he woke up refreshed and energized.  Lucky for us, he was happy to crawl around and play independently while we relaxed on the couch and recouped our energy.  He was just the perfect birthday boy all around.  I will have incredible memories from his party for the rest of my life.  What a special occasion.