The Party!

Yesterday was Eliot's birthday party!  Overall, I'd say it was a great success filled with family, snacks, cupcake smashing, and a happy little boy.  I was honestly pretty bummed that my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew couldn't come due to sickness.  However, I know it was the right choice in the end.  How do I know this?  My parents got very sick the day before the party with the same bug, so my niece and nephew were probably still contagious.  And then my parents would be too.  We'll go see them in a few weeks once this all passes.

The party was a reasonably small get-together, but, man, putting together even a small event with a baby can be difficult.  Chris was working on a paper most of the day.  And let me say, I am not complaining about that at all.  The guy has been putting off his own work to help me out with other things to get ready throughout the week, so he needed to concentrate on writing.  Anyway...

Eliot woke up extra early.  I was hoping he'd sleep in a little so I could shower before he got up.  He had other plans.  Instead, we had the big boy birthday breakfast.  Yogurt and raspberries.  He fed himself so well with a spoon!

 
After he was done, he played with his toys some while I got some dough going in the bread machine to make soft pretzels.  I did some cleaning, changed a diaper, changed the baby's clothes, yadda, yadda.  Chris's parents came over and his mom watched Eliot so I could run to the store for a few things (milk, dip ingredients, wrapping paper, candles...).  By the time I got back and put everything away (and party decorations up), Eliot was ready for his nap.  I took him to bed while Chris and his dad went to pick up the cupcakes and Chris's mom went to pick up Elizabeth.

Can we talk about multitasking for a second?  While Eliot napped in our bed, I wrapped his presents on the floor and then did my hair and make-up (all while staring at him to make sure he didn't roll off the bed or something).  Tada!  As I said on Instagram, I was looking a little (lot) better than I did a year ago on this day.  And baby's birthdays are special to moms too--it's the anniversary of doing a very, very big thing that becomes a defining moment.

Eliot woke up...  I made the soft pretzels (that just turned out to be rolls), dips, and got everything in order.  As it turns out, Eliot is one of the few babies in the world that actually kind of likes wearing party hats.  Crazy!

And the party began!  My aunt, uncle, and cousin came along with Chris's aunt and uncle as well as Stephanie and Bernard.  His parents, grandma, sister, and sister's boyfriend were also there.  Eliot had fun grabbing people's hands and conning everyone into walking him around the house.  Chris's mom and I got a little weepy together looking through Eliot's birth book while Elizabeth laughed at us.

What happened to my curls?!?!  Who knows.  Life, I guess.

Then it was time for the cake.  Eliot didn't get why everyone was singing to him, but he was cool with it.  Then Chris and I blew out his candle together.

Eliot isn't huge into sweets.  I didn't know what he'd do with the cupcake exactly, but, yeah, this sums up my expectations rather well.

Eliot wasn't sure what to do with the cupcake all the way.  He ate a little icing and then proceeded to destroy it.  Elizabeth tried to feed him, but I knew that look...  The one when you know a baby is just done eating and if you keep pushing it, food is going to end up in your face as he spits it at you.  Yeah, that one, so I sat back and had a little bit of icing thrown at me too.  The cupcake ended up on the floor (which the cat ate) and Eliot made it his mission to get icing all over himself, the back of the chair, and in his hair.  Good times.

Then Eliot got a bath and we opened presents! 

After everyone left, Eliot went into extreme hyper mode, which meant that he was utterly exhausted.  I got him in bed and he slept for two hours.  In fact, we woke him up to take him to a basketball game.  He let him sleep so long that we only caught half of the game, but that's just fine.

Is he not the most affectionate thing?

We came home to find that the dogs had eaten about 30 treats between the two of them--yes, two of them because Dexter was in his cage and I guess was forced to watch as Abed-nego and Bella (Chris's parents' dog) chowed down.  After our nightly routine, I got Eliot to sleep about 10:30 pm.  What a day!  I think it was a good, enjoyable, fun day for our Eliot.

[More photos from the day]

Today, we're relaxing some, picking up the pieces from the party, and trying to accept that our little boy is really one year old.