It's Party Time!

the decor

I found the idea for the ruffled streamers on a blog I follow and the banners came from my research on monkey birthday parties. I found the happy birthday banner here. The monthly pics banner was a conglomeration of several other banners I found online.

the food

the cake

James wasn't really sure about the sticky icing on his cupcake but once I opened up the cupcake and gave him some of the cake he loved it. Since he didn't like the icing he didn't make too much of a mess of his face but he did get a nice stripe of chocolate down the side of his face.

gift madness

James did a pretty good job of helping to open presents and looking at the gifts he got but there was one point in the party where we stopped opening presents and wondered where James had gone. We found him sitting in the corner with his box of books reading a book. I wish I had gotten a picture of it because it was pretty funny. I guess all the attention finally got to him and he just needed a little time alone!

One Year Old

Well, James is now a year old and I think this is the best age yet. A couple weeks before he turned a year old he started being able to go from a crawling position to a sitting position. This helps him be able to play with his toys better by himself. He can sit for a long time and play with his toys by himself, especially since he has new birthday toys. This entertains him while I am getting his food ready or our dinner ready, etc. He will sit and giggle and tell stories to himself...I think he has a great imagination!

He is also learning things very quickly now. Last week I taught him to point to his nose when I ask where his nose is. I can also ask him what a fish says and he will make a kissy face.

James is also learning to communicate without screaming. He has known the signs for "more" and "all done" for awhile but he would still scream at me first or while he did the signs instead of just politely telling me what he wanted (I'm sure we still have a long way to go on this one). This past week he would just sign more and point to what he wanted more of...no screaming! I'm starting to feel like we each speak a broken version of each other's language instead of not knowing ANY of each other's language. It's kind of fun. He also says "hi" to anyone near us at the grocery store or a restaurant or the street and says "yes" with a clap when I ask him if he wants to take a bath or go swimming, etc.

James isn't walking yet but he has taken a few 2 or 3 step controlled falls and will walk with you just holding one of his hands. He is trying to figure out this balance thing but doesn't seem really interested in taking off on his own yet.

I've decided that the best way to be ok with your baby turning 1 is to have fun planning his birthday party so my next post will show fun party pics.

How Old Is James?

(more birthday pics to come soon!)

11 Months

So James actually turned 11 months old a couple weeks ago but I didn't have good 11 month pictures yet. Then our internet was out the day I finally decided to write the post. Maybe the real reason is that I secretly hope that if I don't acknowledge the fact that he is 11 months old maybe he won't turn 1!

This month he has started clapping. He is crawling and pulling up all over the place. He has started eating more finger foods and we are almost to the point where I don't need to make him any purees. James likes to point at things and people....it can get kind of embarrassing sometimes. He will dance when he hears music or you ask him to dance (he wiggles his head and body). James has also started whistling. I'm not exactly sure how it started but he will purse his lips and breathe in and out. Sometimes you can even hear a faint whistle. It is pretty cute.

We have been taking a swim class and James loves the water. He especially loves to jump in off the side and float around in his float. We have started practicing going under water too. I wouldn't say he loves it but he doesn't cry and doesn't seem to mind if he goes under again.