Party, Party, Party!

South Carolina has been "home" since 2009, but home will always be the hills and woods of western Pennsylvania.

Blue Ridge Mountains in Virgina/West Virginia.   

...so...the middle of July took us home.

Out here its like I'm someone else,

I thought that maybe I could find myself

if I could just come in I swear I'll leave.

Won't take nothing but a memory

from the house that built me.

Posting my son's first birthday pictures on social media and drafting this blog entry helped me realize how valuable the individuals in my life are and how the memories that have been made over the past few years are truly irreplaceable.  Recently there have been some surprises about who is still around and who has disappeared.  It's sad; more so, it makes me inordinately angry, but I can't say that I would trade how I ended up "here" with these people and these memories for anything different.  I keep telling myself that the acceptance of change (and subsequently changing yourself) means that you are still capable of adaptation; therefore, change is good.  Right?  I used to be fairly decent at expressing myself through the written word; lately, I just don't know what to do with myself and my thoughts.  I'm afraid my husband gets the brunt of that because everything that I think just pours out.  Every question, every statement, everything.  Poor bastard.  Especially when I expect the same from him, and anyone that knows my husband knows he's the watch, think, think some more, and then maybe, if you're lucky, he'll comment or share his opinion/emotion.  More often than not, he really doesn't say much about his feelings, so I guess I speak enough for the both of us.

But I digress...

While we were home, we were responsible for a small handful of events.  One was an engagement party for my cousin, H.  The second was nugget's birthday party!  I was completely geeked out by both, and had a blast planning each of them.

My sister is the maid of honor in my cousin H's wedding at the end of August.  We know that it is going to be an amazing event, so we just knew that we had to host a really perfect engagement party.  My sister is in the Air Force Reserves, and took a small, voluntary deployment to Riga, Latvia to assist the building of an orphanage.  She was gone for a few weeks before the party, so I finalized many of the details (cake, decorations, food, etc.), but we worked together to finalize everything two days before the party when I finally made it north of the Mason Dixon.

I'm so very much looking forward to the wedding.  H and her fiancé are really adorable and fit very well, so I'm sure that the wedding will be both fun and heartwarming.

L and I tried really hard to make a fairly fancy engagement party in my parent's backyard and garage.  I think we pulled it off!

Wildflower centerpieces (Thanks, Aunt L)!

Candles lit! <3

Cake and cake table set up

Uncle C, hubs, me, J, H, and H 

We had a day of rest and recovery before we had to gear up for the nugget's first birthday.  I had been planning this event for months.  When I started decorating the night before, I was afraid that I had  planned too much for a first birthday before I realized that I straight up didn't care.  This is nugget's first birthday.  We only get one first birthday party, and we don't ever get this first-first again.

Here are the highlights of our amazing Where the Wild Things Are themed birthday party.

The cake table set up!

Collage of monthly pictures.
Smash cake.
Cupcakes arranged on a handmade stand thanks to the hubs.
Where the Wild Things Are and custom crown (which we forgot)
A sign that read, "Welcome to Lochlan's Wild Rumpus!"

Favor table.
Favors were small green boxes filled with candy rocks and bubbles. 

 Everything turned out so perfect.  By the end of the day all of us were absolutely happy, exhausted, and overwhelmed with love.

A few more of us and the happy birthday boy:

He actively opened his Aunt M and Uncle M's gift.

Mamaw bought him an awesome roller coaster.

I swear he enjoyed it.  He was just so hot and tired!

Nugget and his friend C.  So cute!

Smash cake with 80+ people looking at him was a huge success!

Look at those baby blues! *swoon*

It's always hard to leave, and now that we have little nugget, it's getting harder and harder to make that break; however, it also really makes me appreciate the time and space that the hubs have to create our life, and I think that's so crucial when you're a new family.

My perfect little family of 3!

Our Journey so Far...Happy Birthday, Nugget!

This past year has gone so incredibly fast.  I knew it was going to be crazy quick, but I never anticipated this.  The past weekend was incredible.  I have spent the last three (okay, maybe five or six really) months planning both our family celebration and our larger birthday party back "home."

My mother has always made birthday's so special for my siblings and me, that I was looking forward to everything so much!  Every birthday she would sneak into our bedrooms and decorate everything with streamers, balloons, etc. and when we came down to breakfast "our chair" would have a helium balloon tied to it and our first (of many) presents would be waiting.  I know Lochlan is much too young to remember, but I just had to get the tradition started!  The hubby and I spent the evening blowing up balloons and wrapping his presents.

Here is the end result:

The birthday boy's door!

We dumped the balloons in on him when he woke up...he was confused!

Our day was spent hanging out around the house, kicking the balloons around, throwing fits when mommy or daddy said that he couldn't chew on them, and packing up for our summer trip back home.  Of course, being part me, he refused to nap, so we had to have an early dinner, which meant pictures and cake smashing were earlier than expected and not right before bath time.  We didn't really expect him to smash since he's so funny about picking up things that are sticky, but he did not disappoint!

After dinner, we attempted to get Lochlan to open his gifts.  I'm not sure if it was because he didn't take his afternoon nap, or if he just didn't want to be bothered, but he really wasn't too interested in tearing off the paper.  This was disappointing because he had been so interested in everything at Christmas-time.  Regardless though, he was fascinated by his largest toy, so all-in-all, I think we picked successful birthday gifts.

We had such an incredible day, and this little nugget is such an unbelievable joy to be around.  I am sure that every parent believes this, but I think we are just the two luckiest people on the planet because we have the best little boy that was ever made!  I can't wait to spend the next year watching him grow into an even more independent and determined little boy, and I can't wait to do that with my amazing husband at my side.

Special Shout Out to Aunt Liz for the AWESOME onesie!

52 Week/12 month Update
Weight: 20 lbs. 14.4 oz.
Length: 29 ½ inches

Milestones: He is completely and totally mobile!  He’s walking all over the place with absolutely no assistance…until he forgets to pay attention to how quickly his feet are moving and he crashes.  At that point, he usually crawls himself to a nearby object to pull himself up.  He’s not regularly standing upon his own, but walking is definitely his main way of moving around!  He is saying a handful of words…when he wants to.  Never, ever on command, of course!
Sleep: Through the night 12 hours!  His naps are super tricky right now.  I think we’re stuck deciding whether or not we want 1 nap or 2.  We try to stay on a daily schedule, but he pretty much decides when he’s going to nap.  There are days we go rock and read a book around 10:45 and when we lay him down, he will play until 11:15.  Other days, if you don’t have him in bed by 10am, you’re dealing with the spawn of Hades! And that’s just morning naps!  Afternoon naps are a shot in the dark.  Sometimes we get a stretch of days where he takes a nap from 10:45/11-12:30 and then a second around 3.  Other days he will nap from 11-1 and not take his afternoon.  I’m so lost, but trying not to stress about it because for the most part he’s not cranky.
Eating: This is seriously the worst!  His diet consists of hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or mozzarella cheese for protein and then canned vegetables (he mostly just eats the potatoes and carrots) and baby pureed pouches that are mixed fruit and veggies.  Sometimes we can get him to eat a quesadilla, but fruit is an absolute HELL NO!
Mood: Determined. Temperamental.  Loving.  Goofy.  He has run us through the gambit this month, and it’s been an absolute joy and terror all at the same time.  He’s becoming such an interesting little man.
Likes: Books, books, and more books!  He also enjoys (much to our dismay and attempt to stop him) screaming and chasing Jarkko around.
Dislikes: Being told no or being removed from something in lieu of being told no.

Things I want to remember: His first birthday. It was an absolutely amazing time as our little family.  I am so glad that we get to experience those moments together.  Maybe it's selfish of me, but I really, really enjoy our moments just the three of us.

Looking forward to: His birthday celebration back “home” with all of the rest of our family!  Of course, I’m also looking forward to the next milestones and memories that we will make with this munchkin.  The past year has been incredible!

Here are a few more adorable shots from the rest of the day!

Gosh, we made a handsome boy!

More to come in the next week and a half!  The rest of July is full of adventures!