Parker's 1st Birthday

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  First of all, I just have to say that this has been the fastest year of my life.  By far.  I can not believe Parker is 1!

We celebrated his birthday a little early because the weekend before his birthday is when our families were able to be there.  We figured it didn't matter anyways because Parker wouldn't know the difference :)

I did a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed party because Parker LOVES that show.  Whenever I need 20 min to myself to prep for cub scouts, eat, mop the floor, etc. I just put in an episode and he actually does sit and watch most of it haha.  His face breaks into a huge smile whenever he sees Mickey Mouse at the very beginning of the episode and he has started dancing to the "Hot Dog" dance at the end.  It is so stinkin cute!

We had one of Parker's favorite meals BBQ chicken sliders for dinner, then I made mickey mouse ear cupcakes for our families, and I made Parker his very own smash cake :)  I found a recipe that was a little more baby friendly and healthy then your typical cake recipe that had applesauce, bananas, greek yogurt, and other healthy ingredients instead of butter, oil, and tons of sugar.  The frosting was cream cheese and french vanilla yogurt.  It was the first cake I have ever made that wasn't in a cake pan, so I was pretty impressed with how it turned out.  The frosting didn't look as perfect as I wanted, but it was hard to frost because the frosting wasn't as thick as typical frosting.   But oh well!  It wasn't a total failure so we will count it as a success! :)  Especially as my first attempt at a cake.

Watching him eat his cake was by far my favorite part of the day.  At first he would touch it, then look at me like "are you seriously letting me eat this?"  I guess usually everything that he wants to eat like rocks, grocery lists, garbage, etc I quickly take away from him.  After he realized I was seriously going to let him eat it, he DUG IN.  He shoved handful after handful into his mouth and actually ate it.  I was mostly expecting him to make a mess and throw a bunch on the ground.  I didn't think he would actually eat a ton of it.  But he really did eat 1/4 of his 2 layer 6 inch cake all by himself.  At one point when we were taking pictures we got too close and he slimed our camera lens with his goopy cake hands.  Oops!

He loved to play with the balloons but when they would bounce back at him he would cling to Ki before attacking them again :)

What is in here?

Parker literally ate 1/4 of his cake.  He LOVED it!

Uh oh!  We got too close!

Grandpa Marty and Grandma Nat with Parker

My family with Parker

On Parker's actual birthday we went swimming at the Lindon pool with my mom and Aunt Shay.  He wasn't sure about the splashing kids at first, but ended up having a lot of fun.


Some details about Parker at 12 months:

•  Has been walking since two weeks before his 1st birthday.  I was surprised he walked this soon since he didn't even crawl until he was 10 months old.  He is actually a quick walker now too.  If I thought he got into everything when he was crawling he REALLY gets into everything now :)
• Did I already mention that he had a very unique crawl?  When he was crawling he would use his left knee and his right foot.  It was so funny looking.
• Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• Loves to give his big bear (we are talking same size as him) lots of loves.  He always jumps on it, gives it hugs, kisses, and sometimes when he is tired he just lays down and uses it as a pillow haha.
• Not saying many words yet.  Says tickle tickle and moo randomly, but I am not sure if he knows what he is saying yet.
• He has 6 teeth with another 2 coming in.
• He still hates getting his hair shampooed and his face wiped.
• Ever since he learned to walk he has been in a super clingy phase.  He has become my little velcro.  Whenever I make dinner Ki tries to entertain him, but often Parker will walk over and hang on my legs.
• He likes to be outside.  Mostly to eat rocks, bark, dandelions, and anything he can get his hands on :) 
• Is a pretty good eater.  If he sees me and Ki eating the same food we offer him he will usually eat anything we eat.
• I tried to transition him from a bottle of milk to sippy cup of milk before nap time but we have been unsuccessful so far.  He just gets mad and throws his sippy cup on the floor.
• Still loves his binky, but now that he is 1 we try to only let him have it if he is in his bed.  With some exceptions for bad teething days, and when he has a new babysitter.
• Has recently learned to flush the toilet, turn on the tub water, unroll toilet paper rolls, turn on and off light switches, and loves to push all the buttons on the front of our fridge.