The Final Chapter of the Palmer Festivities

We did it!!  We officially celebrated Palmer's first year of life with our friends and family.  Palmer was spoiled beyond excess.  The party was a lot more tame than last week as we had about half the attendance.  That unfortunately translated into no pool grape toss, chicken fights or arm wrestling.  On the bright side he had his best buddies and plenty of new toys to keep him busy.

This is the only picture I got of him and I together.
Worst mom of the year award.

The main table.  Parting gifts on the left.  Toddler snack trays on the right.

Festive baby

The smash cake. 

Mini gum ball machines.  What kid doesn't love that as a party favor?!

Sweet and simple.

Table 2.

More snack trays, straight sugar sticks (you're welcome Mom's and Dad's) and fun glasses

Gramma got me a walker.

And I decided walking was a no brainer with this little lion.

The candles!!! Which were never lit for obvious reasons.

So this is a smash cake....

You want me to do what?

Eh....it's sticking to my fingers... 

I hate this.  I'm going to cry in 2 seconds if no one gets this **ish** off my hands. 

The smash cake was a failure.  I smooshed his hand in it and he cried.  And then it was over.

So I got to get some pants on and went inside to play.

And then all 24lbs of stud (with chicken pox vaccine war wound) was happy.

I was pleased to show off how much of a natural walker I was.  Unknown to Mom or Dad I'd been practicing in my crib.

I played peek-a-boo with Grampa Wayne

And then tried to pick his nose through the glass.

Played peek-a-boo around the couch.  I mean, what 1 year old can't get enough peek-a-boo.  Just hide!  All of you!

Got to love on my new beanie baby Cookie the Dog. 

My buddy Parker was there with his Mom Amy.

He took on my John Deere.  He's a surfer so this was new terrain for him. 

My buddy Brax loved my new rocking horse.  He put on quite
the show and broke her right in for me.

To be honest my favorite part might have been the blueberries in the snack tray.

Oh...I ate about 192 of them.

Mom had to throw away my pj's the next morning.   Joke was on her!

And here is my less than 2 minute movie montage of the day....

Our First Birthday Calamity

Poor Palmer has inherited not just my looks, but my tendency toward injuring myself.  As a kid I heard phrases such as, "Hail Mary, full of grace" on the regular following one clumsy bit after another.  Not only did Palmer manage to squeak in his first ER trip before he turned one, he also went ahead a gave himself a real "hot" birthday present.  See details below of how a seemingly dreamy day took a quick detour at lunch time.  If you haven't guessed already, my ambitious Sea World birthday plans didn't pan out.

Around 1pm Da-Da came home to spend this very special day with us both

Needless to say, Palmer was rather excited.

And then he was all like, "So, what are we going to do?!"

Oh, lunch.  Brilliant. 

I'll just eat this fiddlestick and...

Oh wait! You guys surprised me!  With this...

Yeah baby!

And then we tried to explain the candle...

To a one year old...

He thought about it...

We demonstrated...

And then he went ahead and stuck his hand on the smoldering candle.
Pete's face says it all.  I obviously hadn't quite caught on yet.

All hell broke loose after that.  There was melted waxed burned to his index and middle finger and blood curdling screams.  We promptly went home a la golf cart and rocked the poor nugget to sleep.

We were destined to improve the derailed birthday festivities and had his two presents from his Grammy (aka Pete's mom) and our birthday gift waiting for him once he woke from his nap.

I don't believe in wrapping baby presents.  The quicker they can get at them the better.
Chrissy left hers while she was here for the baptism so he had some great stuff to open on his real birthday.

He was pleased with our display.  Maybe even a bit humbled by it.

He went ahead and jumped right on in with the blocks.  Of course he ate the corner of one within the first hour.

He abandoned present time for some quick tunnel chasing

Then, after some quick assembly, Grammy's basketball hoop was fully functional and in use.
We know who's really going to enjoy this.  Pete has already challenged me to a game of  PIG.

Let's say the car assembly took a lot more effort.  And Palmer was less than patient.

But after much muscling and teamwork the car was ready for it's first spin.

We played all afternoon and capped off the night with a feast of one of his favorite dishes.  Garlic naan bread with olive oil and mozzarella cheese.  A particularly fancy way to say pizza.  He settled in for a relaxing bath at 5:45 and it was lights out by 6:15!  One year down!  Somehow we all survived...Barely!

I'd say despite the surprises, he was pretty pleased with his first birthday!

Special Gifts, Christmas Attire & Remembering Labor

Baptism gifts are sweet and sentimental.  Palmer stocked up on silver on his special day.

Silver cup from Godmother Lindsay and Grammy bought a baby brush and comb set

He also received a darling silver scroll holder for his baptism certificate from our friend Erin.  That is not pictured as Palmer has decided it should be added to his personal collection of odd teething toys.  (Sorry, Erin!  I will shine it up real nice when he is done with it:)

Pete & I bought him his first devotional.  I love my women's devotional and
I hope to encourage him in His Word daily.

The sweetest nativity set.  Palmer has a special fondness for Baby Jesus.  As in seeing
how many different ways he can make him fall off things or whip him across the room. 

These pj's.  I mean, com on.

 I wanted to use his precious christening outfit for Christmas.  We will be in Chicago and his nieces will be in winter white with red cardigans.  It would have been the perfect match to their ensembles resulting in over the top cute pictures.  Alas, my OCD would not allow for the baby blue lettering to pass.  So once again Etsy came to the rescue with white corduroy john-johns and a peter pan collar.

I will not be able to keep my lips off him.

Did you know today is Palmer's first birthday!!  We marched in his room shouting Happy Birthday this morning.  Promptly made him a first class birthday breakfast which is swiftly discarded onto the floor.  Those teeth are really hampering our birthday festivities!  Pete and I reminisced at about 7 am this morning how I'd been in labor for about 33 hours with about 10 more to go.  At this particular moment we would have been in what you would call hell.  Drug free, pitocin labor is no cake walk.  But let's not focus on the bad, let's remember the good.

Surprised I took my eyes off him to look at the camera for a picture. 

I'll give him a proper post once his birthday festivities are concluded today.  First stop, Sea World!