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!