First off, let me share a few photos from his first birthday party! We had quite a blast with a lot of friends and Gammie and Grandpa, who flew up for the celebration!
The birthday boy at 11:20, the exact time he was born!
Gammie with the 1 year-old!
Playing with the barn set from mama and dada!
Jarvis' party was construction themed, and I have to admit I may have gone a bit overboard, but I had fun! I purchased a 'printable' package off of etsy and was able to print everything I needed so the party was cohesive. Here are a few pictures of the party (much more on shutterfly!).
Avocado/Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese/cauliflower icing for the kiddos.
I branched out and tried some new things (with guidance from the Make a Cake series over at make it and love it), for Jarvis' birthday cake. It was a carrot cake with applesauce, dried apricots and dried dates, and covered in a cream cheese/cauliflower icing. I made all the fondant decorations myself from scratch (which was surprisingly more difficult than I had imagined!).
One of my favorite parts of the party! These were the favors the kiddos got to take home, homemade truck crayons... sadly, they were all disappointed they weren't chocolate! haha!
With Grandpa in the construction hats the kiddos decorated!
Birthday boy chowing down on his cake! Took some encouragement, but he finally dug in!
Our family, with the little blue-bearded boy.
Jarvis was quite thrilled to have Gammie and Grandpa up here for a visit!
And now, onto an update about his progresses!
Probably the BIGGEST change we have seen over the past few weeks is sign language. J and I have been signing a few signs to Jarvis since he was about 6 months old, but he only really ever picked up on one, all done. However, the day he turned 1, the silly baby started signing back like crazy!! He now signs, all done, more, milk, cheese. We are currently working on eat, bread, water, diaper change, fruit, yogurt, and many more! He has definitely figured out he can communicate what he wants and we will give it. He wakes up from naps signing milk and asking for his bottle. He will crawl up to the fridge and sign milk, milk, milk! No matter what he is eating, he will sign more and cheese, his favorite thing to eat! Now mama and dada are frantically learning as many as we can!
He is also starting to associate actions with objects or books. His current favorite book is Eight Silly Monkeys (remember the song about them jumping on the bed and falling off and bumping their heads?) and he loves to read it over and over again. He will go searching through the books, bumping his head with his hand, looking for that book. If we say, 'where's the bonk your head book?' He bumps his head with his hand and looks around for the book. It's fun to see his recognition and connections!
He still loves chasing the puppy and kitty and giggles like crazy when he gets close and they run away... poor animals!
On the walking front, we are still oh-so-close! He has taken several steps now (up to 5 at a time) but still seems a little hesitant to try any more. His favorite activity right now, however, is walking circuits around the house behind his little lion walker. (check out the videos on youtube!) If he runs into something, he fusses until someone turns him around so he can keep right on walking! One of these days, he'll get brave enough, and then watch out world!
And an update on a few of our goals for this year, we are transitioning even more to table foods (for a week during his 'wonder week' he refused EVERYTHING on a spoon, even yogurt!). He is still getting purees, but is eating more veggies and fruits as finger foods. Although he is hesitant to try a new finger food (even if he loves it as a puree) unless Mama and Dada are eating it too! We have also dropped the afternoon bottle that he normally got after his nap, 1 down, 3 more to go! But we are taking it slow and giving him plenty of time to adjust. He is drinking alot more milk out of his sippee cup, so we are not concerned about taking away the bottles nutrition-wise, just comfort-wise.
Hmmmm, think that's it for now.... I'll add more later if I think of it!
Hugs,
J, C, & J
3 comments:
:) Gammie sure misses her boy!!
What a cute birthday theme. He's so lucky to have such a creative mother!! Those birthday pictures will be such great memories to have forever. I can't believe Jarvis is already 1 year old! I always catch myself thinking about when we have kids, how much older their cousin Jarvis will be, hehe!! Love you guys!
I LOVE that you got a photo of him at his birth-time. Such a great idea!
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