A First Birthday Party

Andrew's birthday started off more like Christmas - a pile of presents awaiting him when he woke up.

Among a few other things, he got this device, which allows him to walk behind it (and it saves mommy's back) or ride on it.  We are wondering how this is less likely to roll down the stairs than the "death-trap" walkers that we grew up with, but shhh... nevermind.

The walking position

The riding position

He also got his own barbeque grill, which we are hoping will allow him to "help" us grill without changing the heat settings on daddy's big boy grill.  *Ahem.*  He thrilled us by being really excited to play on it, and he made us some burgers and hot dogs.

Very soon it was time to put out the sign for the party at the bottom of our driveway and welcome our guests.

Andrew enjoyed playing with the paper lantern decorations on the porch.

 We had an awesome spread of food, about half of which represented some of Andrew's favorite things to eat, and the other half were things that mommy splurged on for having a bunch of people over.  I made two cakes - a vanilla-vanilla classic two-layer birthday cake, and a healthy, whole-grain, fruit-sweetened cake for the birthday boy (the Blueberry-Banana Cake found here).  In hindsight, about the cake, though it was enjoyed and complimented by many guests, I wish I hadn't tried to be quite so health-conscious of a mom.  The texture of the cake came out to be pretty dense like banana bread, and it didn't lend itself well to a spectacular "cake smash."  What's so bad about a sugar-and-butter-laden birthday cake, anyway?  You're only one once!!  Lessons for next time... which of course is coming sooner rather than later.

"Andrew recommends"

Cake table

A decoration I made out of monthly Andrew pictures.

Photo garland close-up

 Before we knew it, we had a houseful of 18 adults and kids, having lots of fun and filling our house with love.  We chatted, played with toys, and ate lots of food.

Then came the big moment:

Blowing out the candle, with help

Brick o' cake

Here are a couple videos of all the action:

It was an awesome party, made wonderful by the awesome people who came over to help us celebrate our big boy!

In other one-year-old news, the stats are in, and they are looking good:

Weight - 23 lb, 8 oz; 65%ile
Height - 29 3/4"; 50%ile
Head circumerence - 19 cm; 90%ile (braaaaaaaaiiiins....)

We are so relieved and amazed that he has basically recovered all of his weight from our low-milk-supply time.  At his 9 month appointment, he was in the 35%ile.  It is as we have suspected - he does indeed eat like a horse.

Also, he walks!