Friday, November 6, 2015

The Birthday Party

Well, I made that promise that I was going to try to get more pictures edited and try to get back to that twice a week blogging, but it may have been a bit premature! After only sleeping about four hours last night, my motivation and energy are lacking today. At 2am this morning, after being up for more than three hours with Reece, I texted Eric to tell him that I'll be the one sleeping at a hotel tonight. Just to get a full night's sleep. Sounds reasonable, right? I don't think he's going to go for it...


Seriously though, it's a good thing this kid is cute. I'm not exactly sure what was keeping him up last night, but I was about ready to lose my mind. Of course, he has napped well today (and I got a short one this morning, too!), but I was at my wits' end last night. I tried everything...music, picking him up, frozen pacifiers, changing his diaper. I even rocked him back to sleep, only to have him wake up when I stood up! The last time I went in, I told him I was "all done," and he immediately signed back "more." (Because he signs "more" for everything now...a ball stuck under the chair, food or milk, getting picked up...it's pretty cute!) Thankfully, he really did go back to sleep after that, because it totally melted my heart, and I wouldn't have been able to ignore any crying after that move!


The day of his birthday party was another one of those "Reece" days. He took a short morning nap before church, which I thought was going to work out perfectly. Lately, if he takes a good, long morning nap then sometimes he won't take an afternoon nap at all. So, I thought it was all going to work out perfectly but no such luck. He refused to take a nap in the afternoon, in spite of a short morning nap, so though I'd prepped as much as humanly possible ahead of time, I was still stressed out at party time when we plucked him out of his crib as the first guests arrived.


Needless to say, having only slept 45 minutes that day, he was not in the best of moods that afternoon. He was generally happy as long as we were feeding him, and from my vantage point in the kitchen, it looked as though he was content to be passed around the room from one person to the next.


When it came time for cake, though, he was quite unsure. I'd hoped that with a practice round the week before, that he would know what to do a little more than his older siblings, but that was not to be. Having 30 people watch his every move with that cake didn't help things, I'm sure! (And Eric recruited one of our photog friends to take some pictures. I'd forgotten to change one of the settings, so that she could use my camera, but I was happy to see that I made it into one picture! Hopefully, she'll send the ones that she took with her own camera soon.)


Eric was a bit impatient and ended up cutting Reece's cake pretty early, since we knew that he liked the cake itself and wasn't a fan of the frosting. He was ready for the show, and it certainly did inspire Reece to get into the cake with a little more vigor.


He was pretty content to sit there and snack on that cake for nearly an hour; everyone was impressed with how much this kid can eat! He had already eaten a pretty significant amount of taco chicken chili and he finished it off with plenty of cake! He was so tired, though, that he did periodically break down in tears for no apparent reason.


I made pumpkin cake and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for everyone else, but one of our friends did have to snag a bite of Reece's cake just to verify that it did indeed taste good. I guess when you tell everyone that you're not too worried how much of it he eats because it's bananas, (homemade, sugar-free) applesauce, and coconut oil, people doubt that it actually tastes good. But it did, I promise.


I brought some decorations back from the States for the party--some plates, a banner, and balloons. I didn't end up getting a picture of the banner, because the table wasn't too impressive and it hung above that. I enjoyed the challenge of picking the pictures to print and hang--one for each month--and one of our friends asked who I got to take them, so I'll take that as a compliment. Finding the letters for his one year photo shoot was a bit of challenge. I knew exactly where I had seen them four years ago, but I wasn't sure how to get back to that spot. Nothing is ever simple here, but I managed it, and Kennedy and I ended up with a fun (and exhausting) little adventure--lots of girl time and some good old fashioned shopping. Cade and I enjoyed picking up leaves and pine cones to give things an autumnal feel, in spite of the lack of orange pumpkins...just a green squash. (And don't tell, but those candy corn are actually a year old; don't worry, I didn't let anyone eat any!)


And, because I haven't noted it anywhere yet, Reece's first official word is "uh-oh." He's been saying "mamama" and "dadada" for months, but "uh-oh" is the only word that he uses in the proper context with perfect pronunciation. It's a favorite...even when he doesn't accidentally drop something! He's also starting to wave hello and goodbye, though usually with a significant gap between when everyone else waves and when he waves. And now, this little boy is officially one. And all of the festivities are officially over. And it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

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