Wade's First Birthday Party

It was easy to choose a theme for Wade's birthday party because he loves our dog, Annie.  She was the inspiration for the invitation and for many of the details throughout the party.

Even though Wade was too little to participate in games, I wanted to make sure there were some fun activities for the older kids at the party.  The first step when you got to the party was to visit the dog groomer.  This is where you received your doggie ears and face paint.

From there you went to the kitchen to make your dog tag which was made out of shrinky dinks.

Backyard games included: Bone Hunt, which was similar to an Easter egg hunt; and Feed the Dog, which involved tossing milkbones into a dog's mouth.

 Wade watched everyone playing games, as he sat on Aunt Chris's lap.

After games, it was time for cupcakes and ice cream.  Wade didn't take one bite of cake or one lick of icing.  He ate pineapple instead. 

It was an unseasonably warm day for spring, and while we might be biased, a very fun time.  Wade was a very good boy all afternoon and we hope the other kids (and adults) had fun too.  Wade is enjoying his new toys very much and while I had a blast planning his birthday party, I'm sort of glad it's over until next year.

Wade is One Year Old Today

Bear with me, it's 6 am and I haven't taken the "block picture" yet.  I am behind on blog postings though and I wanted to make sure that I got this one out here TODAY...not tomorrow, and certainly not next week.  I have spent too much of late March planning for Wade's birthday party (see next blog post, I imagine) and so I haven't posted anything.

Everyone says things like "I can't believe it's already been a year."  True.  "Are you surprised at how much you love your baby?"  Duh.  "Is parenting keep you very busy?"  Nah, we just stick him in Annie's kennel and go about our days.  So in some ways, I don't find anything too surprising.  What I am most surprised about is just how FUN Wade is.  Ryan and I have such a good time playing with him and coaxing belly laughs out of him.  It's always fun to watch him quickly learn how things work and to mimic the things we do.

And with that, I hear Wade waking up.  Soon he'll be off to the babysitter and I'll start my day of cleaning for the party.  Oh, and I hear there will be a lot of "Remember where we were this time last year..."  I'm already remembering the pain of 6 a.m. on April 8, 2010.  The joy didn't come until 9:15 p.m....which of course was worth all the pain and more.

11 Months Old

 

Wade turned 11 months old yesterday!  What a happy guy!  He has recently started clapping and out of nowhere, he has started crawling up on his hands and knees.  I thought he would army crawl until the day he walked.  Yesterday he walked behind a big toy car for the first time.  I'm excited to see more of that.

Less fun milestones:  He has learned how to turn off the TV (actually the whole U-Verse system) and how to climb the basement stairs.  Beware!

A Little Change to Wade's Crib

I learned a term from Ryan and his days at boy scout camp and his time spent around the horses there.

cribbing - Also called crib-biting, an injurious habit in which a horse bites its manger and as a result swallows air.

Well someone has been "cribbing" at our house!  Those 6 chompers have done some damage!  Wade only just started standing on his own but apparently he has been busy the past couple weeks.

He was home sick today so we had time to remedy the situation.  Here is the finished $4 product:

 And yes, he's sinking his teeth into it again but hopefully the fleece will be enough to protect the wood.  (I didn't stage the photo either!)

10 Months Old

Wade is 10 months old today!  I am not sure any of us can believe that...how time flies!  He started pulling himself up to his knees a few days ago and is now doing that all the time.  We had to lower the crib mattress over the weekend as a result.  He is SO close to pulling himself to standing and I imagine it will be any day now.

And here he is trying to escape his photo shoot...

Play Date

Before we were housebound by the non-blizzard of 2011, we had Nash (and Heather & Dan) over for dinner and a playdate.  We hadn't seen them in a few months and the visit was long overdue.  It was fun to catch up and see how Nash had changed. 

Here is Wade and Nash's first picture together.

 Now we have seen them since that picture from April...but it's still fun to look back.  Remember, they were born only 1 day apart.

Here are the cuties today:

A Big Day for Wade

After 4 ear infections in less than 4 months, we decided that it would probably be best for Wade to get tubes in his ears.  So yesterday was the day of the big surgery!  Wade's last bottle was at 6:30 pm on Sunday and then he couldn't have anything to eat or drink on Monday morning.  That was perhaps what made us the most nervous.  He did great though!  He was awake from 5:45 to 7:30 am without anything to eat and only got a little fussy toward the end.

The surgery was very quick, less than 15 minutes, and he recovered for about the same amount of time before we got to see him again.  When we went into the recovery room, he was hooked up to oxygen and under a blanket.  He looked pretty tiny and helpless.  The nurse gave him ear drops which woke him up.  Then we were able to finally give him a bottle.  He cried after that and most of the way home.  He took a big nap when we got home.  He was a little fussier than usual, but was mostly in good spirits.

Today, things are 100% back to normal.  Wade is on ear drops for the remainder of this week and has a follow-up appointment with his ENT in five weeks.  Hopefully he will be ear infection free for the remainder of winter.

He celebrated with his first spaghetti dinner.  What a blast!