Royce's First Birthday

Just like that, year one for baby #2 is a wrap! (Might be time to update my blog header?)

So, I kind of have two toddlers now, except not, since the small one is not toddling yet (although he did take 3 steps on his birthday!), and more importantly, I will consider him a baby forever and ever.

Royce, in his endless consideration for others, was born on a Friday, so we got to celebrate on his actual birthday (Saturday, for the calendar challenged). I tried to have a moment with him Friday night before I put him in his crib, being all "next time I see you, you will be ONE!". Royce is ALL business at bedtime so he was having none of it. This kid loves his sleep and I think it goes without saying how much his parents love this particular characteristic. 

I went to my friend's house to drink wine and eat tacos to avoid a whole emotional "my baby's growing up!" thing. Wine has never let me down here. 

We generally make up for our apathy towards decorations/planning/pinteresting in making sure we serve our guests amazing food. Eric planned to smoke brisket, but really, it was a team effort.

Applying the rub

Dalton and I also made these funfetti cupcakes (highly recommend them). He was obsessed and just clutched the sprinkles and asked over and over if it was time to put them in yet.

He takes his baking very seriously.

When Royce woke up on his big day, he had the nerve to act like it was just any other day. However, I finally got my wish of nursing on my kid's first birthday! Dumb, I know, but when the goal is a year, you want to make it a YEAR, not 11 months and 3 weeks, not naming names. After that, like every morning, he immediately went down to Dalton's room to pound on the door and try to wake him up.

While waiting for Dalton to finish up his beauty sleep, we took Royce's final monthly picture. He had no interest in sitting for it.

He's come a long way.

But still looked adorable!

After breakfast, we FaceTimed with my sister, BIL, niece and nephew and Royce waved for the first time!

While he napped, I went out to a local artisan craft boutique called "Dollar Tree" to procure decorations and stopped by a nearby designer marker called "Aldi" for appetizers. Once again, it was procrastination for the win, because unfortunately a few of our tiny guests ended up getting sick and having to cancel, so of course I felt bad for them but glad we didn't end up with massive amounts of extra food.

I desperately wanted a picture of Royce in his adorable birthday onesie and party hat.

He...did not want this. 

Dalton was more for it.

We ended up just having three of my best friends and their families over, and it was just perfect. None of the kids were overwhelmed, they all played really nicely together, and we just got to relax and hang out with a few of our favorite people and celebrate Royce turning one. 

It didn't hurt that we had some of the world's most adorable guests in attendance (all little boys! #boymom fo life).

It kind of crossed my mind that Dalton could get jealous, but I really doubted it because, although he is 2, he is his mother's son and isn't much for attention on him. He's been talking about Royce's birthday and singing Happy Birthday to Royce for at least two months and was so excited for presents and balloons and cake.

I had to hook him up with the one thing he was most excited for - blowing out candles. All day he was saying "and then we get candles and do fire?".

In absolute heaven.

My BFF Casi made Dalton's smash cake, and she made another amazing one for Royce!

HOW CUTE IS THIS??

Royce fussed a little during Happy Birthday, because he was in his high chair and wasn't eating, but once he saw his cake he was all excited.

"What is this strange thing?"

Adorable frosting covered face photo montage coming.

Pure concentration.

My sister made this beautiful sign.

Terrible picture, great sign.

Plus my friend Liz took pictures with her fancy camera, even though she was here on her own with a 4 month old and 2.5 year old! Have I mentioned I have amazing and talented people in my life?

We didn't do much in the way of gifts, because, he's one, but our friends spoiled him of course. We took Dalton to the store to pick a gift out for Royce, and he picked out this fire truck that shoots balls out and they are both obsessed with it. Dalton is doing pretty good with understanding that it's Royce's and he has to ask him to share. He's definitely in for a rude awakening though one of these days when Royce learns to talk and/or fight back.

I'm still in total disbelief that he's one, just like every mother ever on every kid's birthday ever. #basic

He's just such a sweet little guy and I love this age with him where he's so fascinated by everything, constantly on the move, climbing everywhere he can and just picking up every item in sight to examine it carefully. He's super independent, but just recently has started getting really excited to see me. When I pick him up at daycare, he's usually in his high chair and he goes crazy trying to get out and get to me. He's also understanding more and more and imitating what we do or sounds we make, so we can play games with him. He goes CRAZY with hysterical laughter when we chase him while he's crawling away. He's already really into vehicle toys and his one "word" is  his own version of "vroom" while he pushes his cars and trucks around. He also gives the most amazing kisses! He leans right in for it! I could probably go on and on for five more paragraphs so, insert trite statement about how awesome my kid is.