Happy Birthday to My Sweet Charlie

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Dear Charlie-

Today you turn one.  Do you know that the day you were born was both the most terrifying and perfect day all rolled into one? You gave us such a big scare when your heartbeat fell of the monitor and it took over five minutes to locate it. Charlie, I've never been so scared in my life. I had not even met you yet, but I knew you so well from spending every single second of the past nine months with you. The thought of something happening to you...well...I can't even put it into words. When we finally found your heartbeat I felt so much relief but was also a little afraid that we might have a firecracker of a little boy who would give us a run for our money (kind of like your big brother) and it was already starting.  Turns out that is so far from the truth as you are sweet as sweet can be.

I truly never believed that babies like you existed  When I heard Mothers talk about their babies who did not cry and were happy all the time and slept well I thought they were lying. That was until I met you. You really only ever cried if you needed something-changed, fed, burped, a nap-otherwise you were content. You started sleeping through the night at about 6 weeks and did so every night until you were 4 months old. We did hit a bit of a rough patch from about 4 months to 8 months in the sleep department but you still were an awesome sleeper waking up once to eat, chugging your bottle and heading back to sleep. At around 9 months you started sleeping from 6:00 pm until almost 7:00 am every night.  Yep, you showed me that pretty much perfect babies do exist.

From the very beginning we have said that you are sweetest boy. You love to be held and watch the world around you. When you were smaller you loved nothing more than to be snuggled up next to me in the Ergo carrier. You give your smiles out for free and have the most contagious grin.

As you have gotten older it has been so fun to watch your personality develop. You love food. Like, LOVE LOVE LOVE food. You have never met a food you don't like and some of the only time we see your temper is when you see us making or eating food and you are not getting any. You sit there and yell at us to let us know that you would like some too.

You love you brother more than anybody and it warms my heart to watch the 2 of you together. You light up when you hear his voice or see his face and you want to do whatever he is doing. He loves you so much and already stands up for you. The other day a kid pushed you over and Drake marched right up to him and said "That is my brother! You do not touch him!" Yep, I told you he loves you.

Charlie Bear you have brought so much to this family.  My eyes are filling with tears right now as I write this thinking about all the special moments that we have shared this year. Do you know what my favorite memories of our first year are? Those nights that you got up in the middle of the night to eat. I love rocking you in the quiet house when it was just you and I awake. I loved watching your face as you ate your bottle. I always rocked you longer than you need me to, but I did it for me, not you. I knew that you would not always be getting up in them middle of the night. I knew this year would fly by. So I rocked you and held you and snuggled you instead of rushing back to my warm bed. I wish I could bottle up those moments to relive over and over again.

Lastly Charlie, I want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being the sweet and gentle and funny and HUNGRY little boy that you are. Thank you for being that missing piece in our family. Thank you for your smiles and grins and laughs and those big blue eyes that can melt me in a second. Thank you for letting me smother you in kisses and cuddles every day. Thank you for making Drake a big brother. Thank you for giving me the  chance to be a Momma again.

And thank God for letting you be ours.

I love you Charlie,

Momma

 Edited to add:

Charlie's Stat's at 1 year-

Weight-22.2 lbs

Height 31 inches

Curious Charlie- Charlie's1st Birthday Party

Invitations from CardsJr

If you know me you know that I love to throw a party. I especially love planning parties for my kids. I initially thought that I would keep Charlie's 1st Birthday Party small...to just family...that idea lasted all of 12 seconds before I decided to throw an all out bash.

I decided on Curious George for the theme as Mr. Charlie is such a curious little guy. I kept the decoration and food simple all while sticking with the theme of Curious George and red, green, blue and yellow colors.

I decorated the chest of drawers right inside of entry way to greet guests as they came in. I framed a picture of Charlie I took for the invitations  set up a Curious George book and filled in with other things I had in my house.

I found Paul Frank treat bags on clearance at Target and filled them with Curious George fruit snacks and little packages of animal crackers to give to the kids as favors.

One of my favorite features of the whole party was the month pictures of Charlie that I hung up on a piece of twine with cloths pins  Such an easy, cheap and fun addition.

I also tried my hand at the famous tissue paper poms that are constantly floating around on the internet. They were actually super easy to make and really added something special to my decorations. The poms are still in great shape and I really don't want to throw them away so I think I will hang them up in Charlie's room.

The party was from 2-4 so I kept the food really simple. We had cake,  M&M's, animal crackers, Twizzlers bites, and chocolate covered banana slices.  For drinks I had a selection of pops, lemonade and drink boxes for the kids.

Cakes by Kick N Cakes

I really could not have loved the cake more! I told the girls at Kick N Cakes that we were doing a Curious George theme but the design was completely up to them.  I think they did a fabulous job! The big cake was chocolate peanut butter chip with butter cream frosting and it was DELICIOUS  Charlie's little smash cake was white cake with butter cream frosting and as you will see from the cake smash pictures I think he approved.

Yep, he ate about 90% of his smash cake. He loved it and just could not get enough. It was so fun to watch his face while everybody sang to him and then to see his reaction to his very own cake. I think this was probably my favorite moment of the day.

We had the perfect day celebrating our sweet little Charlie. I still can hardly believe that one whole year has already passed since we first met our him. But that is a whole other post!

Birthday Party Feature

Drake's1st Birthday Puppy Party is being featured over at Party Like A Kid today so head over there and check it out!

I am a party planner at heart and love to look for inspiration from all the awesome parties Party Like A Kid features.  I know Drake's 2nd birthday is still almost 5 months away, but my wheels are already turning! Let's just say 'touchdown' and 'interception' are two clues as to what theme I have in mind!

When It's Your 1st Birthday

I promise this is the last birthday post!

We had Drake's party on Saturday but Sunday was his actual Birthday. We did all sorts of things Drake loved on his special day!

Here is a recap :

When It's Your 1st Birthday you get some pretty cool presents from Momma and Daddy.

When It's Your 1st Birthday you get a special birthday breakfast of donuts! You did not like it all and spit it out much to our surprise

When It's Your 1st Birthday you would rather push Daddy on your new bike than ride it yourself.

When It's Your 1st Birthday eating fruit snacks on the deck is the highlight of your afternoon.

When It's Your 1st Birthday playing with new toys takes up most of the day.

When It's Your 1st Birthday we let you run all over the park collecting rocks and playing in the fountain.

When It's Your 1st Birthday you had fits of laughter from how high you were flying in the air!

When It's Your 1st Birthday we ate supper at the grocery store just so you could have their special mac and cheese you love so much from the deli.

When It's Your 1st Birthday...we celebrate!!

The Cake Smash

So did Drake like his cake?

I think I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

As you can see Drake did not like his cake...he LOVED it!

The Birthday Boy

Who better to tell you all about his party than the Birthday Boy himself? I'm going to hand this post off to Drake so he can give you a play by play of his big day! Take it away Drake!

Hi it's Drake here. Momma said you all wanted to hear about my big birthday party. I'm in the process of getting 6 teeth in and I've been a little grumpy. What?!?!?  Think how you would feel if you had 6 sharp objects poking through your gums...Yep, that's what I thought! Anyway, Momma made me take a morning and afternoon nap on the day of my party so I would be "well rested and not such a grumpy pants". I figured I would make her happy, so I slept a few winks and when I woke up I was ready to party!! Anybody who knows me knows I love food, puppies, attention and action. My party included all of those so I was dog-gone happy. (Get it? Dog themed party made me dog-gone happy...Hahaha I have a pretty awesome sense of humor for a baby!)

Here are a few of the highlights:

Here I am in my Birthday outfit! Daddy was making funny faces at me!

I had enough picture taking! It was time to go greet my guests.

Even my shorts had puppies on them! I wish Skinner could have a matching pair.

Momma has been really into family photos lately. She told me to tell you that her hair looks pretty wild because she was busy running around in the 1000% humidity!! I told her I thought it looked pretty, I'm learning early that a happy Momma makes a happy baby!

My Nana loves to cuddle on me. She thought my birthday party was really cool. Maybe I will let her borrow the decorations for her next birthday!

I was hoping Papa would want to quit taking pictures soon so we could play. He loves playing with me and always finds awesome stuff to play with.

What would a puppy party be without a puppy? I was so sad that Skinner had to go over to the neighbors during the party. Daddy said he is too wild and might eat the cake!

Laila wanted to know why I was mad and I just said "It's my party and I will cry if I want to!"

I had so many friends at my party! I think they all like puppies as much as I do!

I was not sure what to think about the whole present thing. It seemed very strange to me that a toy would be covered up by paper!

Grandma helped me eat my birthday supper. I got so lucky they served all my favorites-hot dogs, buns, oreo salad and mac and cheese. Best.Meal.Ever!

Being a Birthday Boy is really hard work! I was taking a much needed break with Momma!

You better check back tomorrow to see my cake smash pictures. I might have liked the cake but I might have hated it too. Guess you will just have to stay in suspense for another day!
Much Puppy Love and Slobber Kisses,
Drake

Puppy Birthday Party Decorations

Today is Drake's Golden Birthday! (1 on the 1st)

We celebrated with family and friends last night at Drake's Puppy Party!!

The party was a  huge success! I have almost 350 pictures of the party, so I'm going to do a few different  birthday posts the next few days so I can cover everything. (Thanks for the idea Shannon!)

First up...the decorations!

What birthday party would be complete without balloons?

A puppy all ready to party greeted guests as they arrived.

The cake table was probably my favorite part of the party. I think everything came together so nicely. I made a picture clothes line using pictures of Drake and Skinner as the main decoration in this area. I also had the favors and my computer playing Drake's slide show on the table.

I printed out a little sign to put in front of the party favors. I had some golden retriever stickers on hand that I stuck on to add a little fun. To make it looked more polished I stuck it in a picture frame.

Dog themed cookies were the party favor. I went the easy route and used pre-made cookie dough so all I had to do was cut them out and bake them. I made sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies. I put 2 cookies in each bag, tied it with a paw print ribbon, and attached a wallet sized photo of Drake and Skinner that said "Thanks for making my Pawty Pawfect". People loved the favors and they were so easy to make!

The cake. Oh, the cake. What else can I say?!? It was PERFECT! We did a white cake with chocolate filling. It was so tasty and since the cake was huge I'm lucky (or maybe unlucky) to have lots of leftovers!

The smash cake was so darling. Bet you are wondering what Drake thought of it? I guess you will just have to check back later this week to find out!

I carried the puppy theme over into the meal by making a doggy menu and using paw print napkins.

I tried to be creative and come up with different puppy themed names for each food item I was serving. I had so much fun making this. Once again I threw on some stickers and framed the menu to give it a more put together look.

I wrapped each place setting up in a napkin and tied it with puppy ribbon to make grabbing the silverware easy.

I had dog bowls full of puppy chow and coco puffs on each table for the guests to snack on. Don't the coco puffs look just like dog food?

I could not be happier with the way everything turned out. I had so much fun planning the party. I think what I learned most from this party is people really do notice the small details and that makes it so worthwhile to go the extra mile and make every aspect of the party memorable.

As for the rest of the week look for posts on :

The Birthday Boy

Cake Smash

How Drake Spent His Birthday