birthday celebration for the little man

happy birthday baby!


well, tomorrow is the official big day for Maxwell. he will be one year old. in fact a year ago at this very moment i was getting settled into my l&d room for what would be a very long night (and morning) but a very rewarding day was ahead :) it's really crazy to think that just a year ago max wasn't here (getting misty now...) it's amazing how FAST time goes by when you have kids... i seems like it was just a few days ago that we were showing him off to our family and friends in the hospital while chris ran around like a mad man trying to make it to all of his classes in the days directly following max's arrival plus be there for me and max. then getting him home and just holding him and loving him and adjusting to everything that was all totally new. it's just... amazing that life changes as much as it does so damn fast!

well, yesterday was his first birthday party! i ordered the cake, the balloons, the chicken and sent out invites to our family and friends and even to some of max's little friends. i tried to keep it as simple as possible but as we all know that's not as easy as it sounds. i had a few things for the kids to do, sidewalk chalk and bubbles seemed to keep their attention for about a second... but at least it was something for them to do.

max was well, pretty much overwhelmed the entire day. there were six other children on his living room floor that weren't usually there and a lot more noise than he's ever used to. i think that in itself threw him off. then it was time for cake and i said to chris, ok, take his clothes off, but i wasn't as concise as i should have been because he really did end up in his birthday suit..... i expected for him to at least have pants on.... nope, he was wearing a diaper, bib and party hat! ehh, i figured what the heck, it's his birthday, he's in his birthday suit... let's just roll with it. max didn't feel the same way though... his usually adaptable self wasn't adapting very well... he pouted a lot while we put him in his highchair and strapped him in. then we sang to him and he was totally blown away and had no clue what was up with that... then we all sat there starring at him, snapping photos and encouraging him to stick his fingers in his cake and eat it. i'm not sure what we all expected, the kid doesn't like to be messy or sticky (just like his mother) and really hasn't ever made a mess like that ever. nor has he ever had cake so why did we expect him to just dig in? needless to say i had to push his hands into the cake... he pouted some more.... then i had to feed him a few bites... he liked it but still wasn't too sure of the whole getting messy thing. by the way, i didn't skimp on the cake, i figured he's only one once... so he got to have cake for the first time AND it was chocolate! ha! i figured i needed to teach him what was good the first time around. then i was bored with watching my baby get messy so i figured that the guests probably were too so i decided to serve some cake and i had daddy give him a little rinse off in the sink.

sometime during this whole debacle... i was sitting next to him eating my own cake and ice cream when something completely unexpected happened.... first i heard a crack... my body started to lean to the right a bit.... then more cracking and crackling.... more body lurching to the right... then bam! i completely slid off my chair and was on the floor.... it all happened in slow motion so it really didn't hurt much... just a bit of a sting on my ass. but yes, i apparently had too much cake and my chair couldn't handle it! actually our P.O.S. antique chairs have now made it from 6 total to 4. (we lost the first one a few months ago) needless to say, i'm really glad that no one else was sitting in the chair... but everyone was really worried because of my current "condition" and me falling... really i fell quite gently considering, plus i have a lot of padding in the back at the moment. it didn't hurt too much and i thought it was pretty funny actually. if i would have fallen in any other direction, maybe i would have been worried but falling from less than two feet off the ground in a rather slow motion way, isn't anything to bat an eyelash at... it's more something to laugh at! i was just generally embarrassed that i have crap for chairs... but that's another story...

after cake, max was totally ready for a nap but instead we needed to open gifts. i had him sit down with daddy on the floor nearby while i opened his gifts for him... i always feel funny opening gifts in front of others but he's too little to know how. so i had to help him out. he wasn't even interested in the paper like he normally is. he just wanted to play with his new books, toys and clothes.

he received some really nice things, lots of great books that are even entertaining for mommy and daddy to read to him. some great toys that have already replaced his little baby toys (we cleaned out the toy cabinet this morning ) and some much needed clothes for this fall and winter.

after gifts, i made a bottle and put him down for a nap and everyone soon went on their way. it was really nice to spend some time with everyone :) those of you that were there and read this blog, thanks a ton for coming, it really means a lot and it was great to spend time with you and your kids and even with your kid to be ;)

ooh ooh, i got to hold a little girlie! amy, from passion from a stone, her daughter heather, was there and she let me hold her while she had some lunch. she's such a peach and i think i really want a little one of her kind. her little party dress was just adorable and i really want to be able to put some cute dresses on one of my children... hopefully one who is a female. i don't think chris (or max for that matter) would appreciate it if i started to cross dress our son.

the day was really enjoyable and i'm so glad that we got to celebrate it with our family and friends. i'm also glad that max didn't have too large of a melt down :)

here are a few more photos of the day: