Saturday, March 1, 2014

A Birthday Party for a Sweetboy

60/365

Tomorrow is my first nephew's First Birthday.  Funny, how just a year ago, I had 4 nieces, and no nephews, now I have 2 - What a good year it has been!

Today was Jeremiah's Birthday Party.  

First birthday parties are kind of funny, it's wonderful to celebrate the new baby, but really, the child doesn't care too much.  I've often said, this birthday is all about eating the paper rather than caring what's underneath.  That was just as true at this one.  And I now often say, it's bad luck to not eat the birthday cake at a birthday party.  Also true.  So we did.  But the thing that's special about first birthdays that doesn't seem to ring as true with the others is the feeling of triumph for the parents.  They've made it, their child has made it through the first year!  I remember thinking, with Chris, that we didn't just survive that first year, we thrived!  And that's what I say now to parents celebrating that first year, Congratulations on not just surviving but thriving.  It takes that year to really get in gangbusters on parenthood, especially for the first born.  But Jeremiah isn't a firstborn, but that doesn't mean I don't want to Congratulate Ryan and Amy for surviving and thriving this year.  They've had a rough year, and they've done it, they're coming out the other side, seeing through the clouds, and handling it with such Grace and Love, I am honored to be a part of this family.  And Jeremiah, well, he's a walking, almost talking little miracle.  

And he's in good company. 


There was a ton of cuteness there when we arrived. Lots of cute cousins. 


I got to hold little Cole for a bit, he's now 2 months old.  He has such dainty ankles, it makes me smile.  
He smiled at me, that made my day.  


Jeremiah had so much fun with the simple things.  One present came in a plastic bag, while it was being taken from the packaging, he was shaking the bag, having almost more fun with the bag than the gift.  Once unwrapped and open though, luckily, that changed. 


But his presents from us, yes, he really enjoyed the paper. :)


Chris has one of these footballs, and Jake has a rattle like it, and he's been known to snag the football, they are great to hold on to, and JJ loves anything that rolls, I bet he'll love this.  Sam had fun helping me wrap (footballs are hard to wrap for the record) and he decided this one was from him. 


Our big gift was a popper.  The boys decided that's what he needed.  Sorry Amy, to give you a noisy toy, but poppers rock, and he needed one, especially this cool one that not only has a classic popper feature, but it's shaped like a plane, and shoots balls out the nose.  It's pretty cool.  As we were leaving, Amy had unpacked it, and the kids were going nutsy for it.  Mine wanted to play with it too, I'm like, We Have A Popper!  I guess kids of all ages need a popper. 


Jeremiah, ready for a safari.  
Mom got him the sun hat, and his other Grandma got him the giraffe.  He loved the giraffe, but wasn't too much a fan of the hat.  I don't know any baby in this family that likes it when hats are put on their heads.  


One of the other big presents was Baby's First Basketball Hoop.  
Hey, it's Indiana, he's got to start young playing basketball. 
Daddy helped hook him up - 2 points! 


Then it was time for the cake.  
Clearly it was the first birthday party he was paying attention, because at first he was looking at the cupcake that his Mama put a candle into, but when we started singing, he looked at us, like Say What?!  


And then he went for the cupcake. 


Ryan gave him a sample of the icing, but he still was none to sure about this cupcake business at first. 


Then he went for it.  
Full face! 
The icing went into his mouth and he put it into his mouth and sucked on that chocolate like he had a straw. 
Baby likes chocolate. 
That's my boy. :) 


All the cousins came around to see him eat his cupcake.  
He was not sharing, he just kept stuffing it further into his face.  


It slid around and the icing started to fall, but he just kept slurping away at the chocolate icing. 


Lots of us were taking pictures.  Jeremiah was so adorable.  
But this one cracks me up, because of Sam.  He was playing with one of the girls' play cell phones, and came up and "took a picture" of a cake covered baby.  


Yeah, he wasn't going to share with Mama either. 
He was starting to get a little messy as the cake started to disintegrate. 


Oh yeah.  He shows me the awesomeness that was his cupcake. 


Chocolate covered smiles for Grandma.


I love this, chocolate stuffed face. 


Pastor dared Ryan to have a cupcake.  So father and son ate dueling cupcakes. 


Jeremiah started to show signs that he was getting a bit of a sugar high. 


He loved that icing so much, that he grabbed the paper from the cupcake and started going for that too.


Almost done.  


He had to get every smidge of chocolate icing he could. 
Of course. 


Then as Ryan started to wheel him away, toward the sink, he started to potch in the icing mess.  
Awesome.  
That's my favorite part of 1st birthday parties, when they get all smothered with cake and icing, and it's all messy, and they have so much fun, because it's the first time they've experienced something so wonderful as a cupcake, or piece of cake.  I just love the whole thing.  And I love this boy.  So the two together made for a wonderful (albeit exhausting because Jacob wouldn't let me put him down) party. 


Biscuits on the counter.  PWAH! 


This just slayed me.  Ryan was giving Jeremiah his bath at the kitchen sink.  Jeremiah got all wiped up and cleaned off.  Sparkling clean, so clean his little biscuits were clean enough to sit on the counters.  


Aww...a sweet boy, all clean in a towel.  I love clean babies, all the rolls, and they smell so nice.  
Though Jeremiah was clearly less than festive with the towel on his head. 


Whatever.  Party's over.  
And he's still adorable.

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