Thursday, March 29, 2012

Red Ball Party!




Of all of Paxton's toys, balls are definitely his favorite. He throws and chases them all day. When I started planning his party I knew I wanted to do red and turquoise. I was thinking of doing elephants or whales or even red wagons, but I decided that I wanted it to be something that reflects him, so we picked balls.
We had the party at 7:00 so it for sure wouldn't interfere with naps. We ended up serving three kinds of cupcakes, fruit skewers, cake pops, two kinds of punch, peach iced tea and water.



I put out a few pictures from Paxton's cake smash shoot around the cupcakes.




Jared printed out labels and I glued them to scrapbook paper. I couldn't think of a cheap way to stand them up so I just stuck them in the cupcakes. I made the cake stands out of candle holders and plates I found at the thrift store and then spray painted them. I made the cupcake toppers out of stickers, paper and toothpicks.











We had pictures of newborn Pax, and then his 3, 6, 9, and one year photo shoots on this table. I also put out some red and turquoise m&m's and Mike and Ike's.




I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was cute. Mine didn't turn out quite as cute as the one I saw, but I loved having an excuse to go back through his tiny onesies. We picked our favorite in each size, newborn, three month, six month, nine month and twelve month. it was neat to see how much he has grown.




I also made this banner of his monthly bear pictures. This was my favorite part of the party and I can't make myself take it down.








After some social interaction with all the guests, we put Paxton in his high chair for Happy Birthday singing and his cupcake. He was in awe of the candle.




He was a little grumpy for his party. He might have been overwhelmed by the amount of people, plus he had his shots the day before so he was probably a little sore from that.








But, he put all that aside and ate his banana cream pie cupcake...the WHOLE thing.




















After that, we opened some presents. Aunt Maddie opened most of them because Pax was fussy. He got tons of great stuff!

(like this awesome Radio Flyer from Ryan and Tabatha and Baby Blakely)




We had a vase with index cards out for people to write messages to 18-year-old Paxton. They turned out really sweet. I think it will be really special for him to see what people said about him when he was little.




As everyone left, they took one of these goodie bags:




Each one had a wallet sized picture of Paxton from his one year photo shoot and a cookie. They also had a note that said "I'm so glad you came to my party. I had a ball! Love, Paxton".
I definitely wish we had taken more pictures. We took almost none of the decorations before people got there (most of these were after the party). There were clumps of red balloons everywhere also. I also wish we had gotten pictures of the guests. I had planned to take some video too.
It was a successful party and I was happy with the way it turned out. I liked making a lot of the details instead of buying. It took a lot of time but it saved money and it felt good. We loved having our family and best friends to celebrate the first year of Paxton's life.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Cake Smash!

We did Paxton's cake smash pictures in our back yard to avoid clean up, and because I love the way our fence looks in pictures. Instead of a whole cake, I just got him a mini cupcake because I wasn't sure how he would do. He ate it so fast that we ended up having to give him another one. He didn't like his hands being dirty but it didn't stop him from digging right in.

He went for it immediately:















He even ate it off his toes:






Crawling away satisfied:



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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

One Year Photo Shoot!

While we were in Texas two weekends ago, we decided to use our hotel's pretty pool area for Pax's one year pictures. We were surprised to actually get some outside pictures without his "outside face". Maybe he outgrew it?














































I made his shirt with iron-on letters and a big one from Hobby Lobby. It looked like it was stuck on pretty well...but by the end of his party the one was gone and the shirt said "AXTO"...so maybe we'll wait on making any iron-on shirts until he's done army crawling.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

TWELVE MONTHS OLD!!!

This day seemed so far away when I started these monthly update posts...and even when he hit seven months I remember thinking I had such a long time. Well, it's here. It came fast. Paxton went to bed a baby and woke up a toddler.

At ONE YEAR Paxton is:


-pulling up on everything and sometimes letting go for a second. He is more cautious about standing and walking than he is about other things (like crawling off the end of the bed).


-big boy crawling (aka normal crawling) most of the time now. Every once in awhile he drops to his tummy for some army crawling, but I would say he crawls normally about 75% of the time now.

-loving playing in the toilet. We try really hard to keep the doors shut and the lid down, but it's hard! And as soon as we leave a door open, Pax's bathroom radar goes off and he's in there at lightning speed. We have been through a lot of shirts, hand sanitizer and wipes lately. At least he leaves the toilet paper alone.


-trying to talk a lot. He still says "dada", "uh-oh", and "banana" and sometimes "hi" really clearly. He also says doggie and outside sometimes...but I'm probably the only one who understands those. He said "duck" to his stuffed duck once but hasn't repeated it. He is constantly crawling around saying something like "I did it". I don't think that's what he's saying but it sure does sound like it. He understands no now but doesn't always obey. He will give kisses, high fives and mimic coughing and nose blowing. If he hears someone laugh, he will fake laugh back, and if you're not paying enough attention to him, he will fake laugh loudly. He and Jared growl back and forth all the time, and he also still makes that crazy dinosaur noise.


-loving bath time still. He is really active in there and is constantly trying to pull up to knock things off the ledge. He also crawls around in there and will put his mouth in the water and take a drink. When I dump water in front of him, he leans forward and drinks it like it's a hose. He still splashes a lot.

-sleeping a ton. I don't know if daylight savings threw him off or if he's going through a growth spurt, but his sleeping has increased a lot. He goes to bed around 9:00 and sleeps til 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning. He takes a nap from 11-1 most days but is ok if he skips it. He also still takes a nap from 3-5. He used to be a little fussy in the evenings, but that has stopped. He is usually happy until about 8:30.


-wanting to eat almost completely table food. I switched him to milk yesterday because he hasn't been drinking formula very well and he did a little better but not much. He takes a few drinks and then throws it down. If he doesn't like something he will spit it out, grab it, and throw it on the ground. He's a little bit dramatic. He has gotten pickier in the last few days and hasn't been loving bread. Shredded chicken is one of his favorites right now (second to bananas of course). He also likes cut up grapes, broccoli and pasta.


-wearing 12-18 month clothes. We got him two summer outfits from Target that are 18 months and the shorts are a little long but they fit. He has moved up to size 4 shoes and diapers. He is still in his 12 month pajamas with a few 18 month pairs from Baby Gap thrown in.

-still showing a preference for the same toys he's loved best for awhile now: his car that drives on its own, the construction site, all balls and his piano walker from Grandpa Mark. He has also started loving his Little Smart Driver, his stacking rings and the singing cookie jar he got for Christmas. We'll see how that changes with some new birthday toys.


The What to Expect book said he should be using gestures to show what he wants. I guess that's what he's doing when he pulls up to the baby gate in the kitchen doorway and rattles it with all his strength and squeals. He's using gestures to communicate he's ready to eat.

It has been such an amazing year. We have made it through the night feedings, the switch to formula, the rotavirus reaction and a few other sicknesses, several head bumps and falls, a scary choking incident where my previous lifeguarding experience came back to save the day, road trips, and the desire for independence. We are so lucky to be this little boy's parents. I know this next year will come with a whole new set of challenges, fears and excitement. All I can say is that I promise to love him more every day.

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