Our little baby Charlie turned one on Saturday. It was weird. I'm not really one to cling to babyhood or anything, and I actually have liked and enjoyed him more and more as he's gotten older, but I still found that I was a little sad, a little melancholy, when he reached that one-year milestone. I don't think it was that he's growing up so much, but instead that 1/18th of the time that he'll be in our house has already passed, and while we still have 17 more years of him with us, I know that that time will pass in a blink just like the last year did (albeit a pretty long blink at times). I mean, it was more than 17 years ago that Friends debuted on NBC, and that basically feels like yesterday!
So, anyway, he's one. A toddler. A lunatic toddler. Oh, Charles.
Sir Charles is getting closer and closer to walking every day, and while I wasn't in any hurry for him to take this next step (oh, awful puns), as he's gotten closer I've started to get more impatient about it. I mean, walk already! Charlie also has an uncanny ability to find the one thing in a room that has the greatest potential to kill him, and then to barrel toward that thing as quickly as possible. So we've been experimenting with some time outs around here. And even though putting him in time out is like the opposite of fun, we know that we have to be strict and consistent, lest he turn out like Mitch. Learned that one the hard way.
Charlie is also hilarious. Like when he does blanket monster or plays hide-and-seek or speed crawls to his room and then slams the door shut so that we can't get in. He learned to snort laugh the other day, too, and it was kind of the funniest thing that's ever happened.
I feel really guilty about the fact that we're about to turn his little world upside down in a couple of weeks when his sister arrives, and I have no idea how he's going to feel about it or deal with it. The best I can guess is that he might try to hit her with a maraca or a miniature frying pan. Might have to get her a little baby helmet. Oh, and she might be a little Charlie doppleganger:
Okay, enough about all that. Let's talk about his party! We had Charlie's party on Sunday, and it turned out wonderfully. Matt's mom came down (um, a godsend!) to help us clean and prepare for the party, and I really don't know what I would have done if she hadn't, given that I'm 76 weeks pregnant, in pain, moody, and super tired all the time.
We tried to keep our guest list kind of small so that Charlie wouldn't be overwhelmed by all of the people. And the weather all week was predicted to be just awful--in fact, every day that I checked the forecast it would be worse and worse. By the day before, the weather forecast basically said, "If you go outside on Sunday you will face certain death." But by about noon on Sunday, the thunderstorms had passed, the temperature had risen, and the sun had shown its bright shiny face. So we opened the windows and got going.
All of the food was stuff that we could prepare beforehand, so that on party day we were freed up to talk to people and enjoy ourselves. (Also, I totally forgot to get a picture of any of it. Shooooot.) We had ribs, grilled chicken skewers, grilled pineapple, spinach dip, pasta salad and pimento cheese (from Cassie), potato salad (from Matt's mom), and three cakes. For Christmas Matt's grandma gave me 6" cake pans which I'd been stoked to use since the moment I opened them. Also, is anything cuter than a 6" cake? Maybe just Charlie eating that 6" cake?
I wanted the party to be nice, but didn't want it to be overdone or overly Pinteresty or themey. And I think we found a good balance in there. Ooh, but you really might need to make the robin's egg cake because it was fun and easy (just put some of those super-addictive Cadbury milk chocolate eggs on top) and festive.
The party turned out exactly the way I had envisioned. We had a house full of happy friends, Charlie ate his cake (surprisingly, with more manners than he eats anything else), and everyone left full of tasty food. Success!
Oh, just check out the pictures already.
So, anyway, he's one. A toddler. A lunatic toddler. Oh, Charles.
Sir Charles is getting closer and closer to walking every day, and while I wasn't in any hurry for him to take this next step (oh, awful puns), as he's gotten closer I've started to get more impatient about it. I mean, walk already! Charlie also has an uncanny ability to find the one thing in a room that has the greatest potential to kill him, and then to barrel toward that thing as quickly as possible. So we've been experimenting with some time outs around here. And even though putting him in time out is like the opposite of fun, we know that we have to be strict and consistent, lest he turn out like Mitch. Learned that one the hard way.
Brothers play tug.
Charlie is also hilarious. Like when he does blanket monster or plays hide-and-seek or speed crawls to his room and then slams the door shut so that we can't get in. He learned to snort laugh the other day, too, and it was kind of the funniest thing that's ever happened.
I feel really guilty about the fact that we're about to turn his little world upside down in a couple of weeks when his sister arrives, and I have no idea how he's going to feel about it or deal with it. The best I can guess is that he might try to hit her with a maraca or a miniature frying pan. Might have to get her a little baby helmet. Oh, and she might be a little Charlie doppleganger:
We tried to keep our guest list kind of small so that Charlie wouldn't be overwhelmed by all of the people. And the weather all week was predicted to be just awful--in fact, every day that I checked the forecast it would be worse and worse. By the day before, the weather forecast basically said, "If you go outside on Sunday you will face certain death." But by about noon on Sunday, the thunderstorms had passed, the temperature had risen, and the sun had shown its bright shiny face. So we opened the windows and got going.
All of the food was stuff that we could prepare beforehand, so that on party day we were freed up to talk to people and enjoy ourselves. (Also, I totally forgot to get a picture of any of it. Shooooot.) We had ribs, grilled chicken skewers, grilled pineapple, spinach dip, pasta salad and pimento cheese (from Cassie), potato salad (from Matt's mom), and three cakes. For Christmas Matt's grandma gave me 6" cake pans which I'd been stoked to use since the moment I opened them. Also, is anything cuter than a 6" cake? Maybe just Charlie eating that 6" cake?
I wanted the party to be nice, but didn't want it to be overdone or overly Pinteresty or themey. And I think we found a good balance in there. Ooh, but you really might need to make the robin's egg cake because it was fun and easy (just put some of those super-addictive Cadbury milk chocolate eggs on top) and festive.
The party turned out exactly the way I had envisioned. We had a house full of happy friends, Charlie ate his cake (surprisingly, with more manners than he eats anything else), and everyone left full of tasty food. Success!
Oh, just check out the pictures already.
Forgot to buy plasticware, so decided to use the fancy silver with our paper plates. I mean, what's the point in even having fancy silver if you can't ever use it, right?
Birthday sweet potato lunch.
