Sid's First Birthday Party!

Sid's first birthday couldn't have gone better! We kept it very simple and invited only family. I was nervous the week before wondering how the guest of honor would act at his party because he was not in a good mood for the days leading up to it. Thankfully...Sid was the happiest baby on the block! He had the best time and even got a nap in before everyone showed up at 1:00!

Sid still wakes up on most days between 5 and 5:30 every morning. I nurse him and then we both go back down. My plan was to just stay awake so that I could start prepping things for the party. Grammy was in town and she got up with me. I didn't care about anything that morning except that I knew I wanted to walk into Sid's room when he woke up again with a bouquet of balloons. He loves balloons and constantly points to the not real ones in his room. 

The look on his face when we walked in was just so cute. He was surprised and happy and I'm pretty he would like to wake up every single morning with a bouquet of balloons brought to him! It definitely started his day off right :)

We let him hold all the balloons while he patiently waited for Daddy to change his diaper.

We ventured into the living room where his gifts from us were waiting! We got him a push wagon, a stuffed lion (because he loves lions!), and Happy Birthday to You pop-up book by Dr. Seuss.

I think the first words out of his mouth were, "rooooooar"!

He likes to point to the wheels.

Checking it all out with his daddy

Uncle Adam showed up a few hours before the party and he was very helpful in helping keep Sid entertained while the rest of us party prepped.

This was the scene the night before the party! I was determined to bake the cake from scratch! I made cake and cupcakes for the party guests, and a special vegan cake for Sidney! It was such a mess - and a lot of trial and error - but I really had a great time doing it myself!

I decided to give Sid a little special taste of his cake icing on the eve of his birthday. The boy loved it. It had fresh blueberries in it, his favorite! He wouldn't stop sucking my finger! He wanted more of that sugary goodness!

My decorations were extremely simple. I bought a colorful table runner for the table, blew up some balloons, and made a banner! We had brisket sliders (thanks daddy for smokin' that brisket {and blowing up the patio - a story for another day!}), deviled eggs, cole slaw, chips, and fruit kabobs. Well, and obviously cake and ice cream :)

Sid had fresh blueberries on his, but I forgot to put them on before the picture!

The tastiest, most unleveled cake you ever did see! I had fun trying :)

Tea, Lemonade, Sangria, and Beer

Nana and Grandpa came over a little early to help with last minute things!

Choppin' that brisket!

Jack is a great supervisor ;)

Keeping the birthday boy happy!

This banner is by far my favorite thing about the entire day! I saw it on a blog moooooonths ago and just knew I had to make one for Sid! (we are almost a month past his party now and we still have it hanging up - he just loves looking at it and giggling!)

Here is the birthday boy with his Grandpa, Nana, & cousin's Asher (5) and Caylum (almost 2)

Sid got excited when he saw all the fun stuff on the fireplace! We had to keep him out of the presents until after we ate lunch!

...but after we ate, the boy got busy!

Smooches for Pooh!

Asher and Caylum helped Sid open his gifts and then they showed him how to play with his toys. So cute!

I think Sid might be showing Asher what's up in this picture! "Put the ball here, Asher."

Grammy made him this special quiet book - he really loves it!

He got so many great new toys! It looked like a bomb went off in our living room! (all those new toys and the boy wanted in his bouncer, haha!)

 The Beadles' crew sippin' on some juice ;)

Aunt Jennifer showing him the good stuff!

After presents, it was time for CAKE!! Woo Hoo! I decided to strip Sidney into his diaper because I didn't want to ruin his outfit!

(we FaceTimed with Aunty A and OliMax during the cake!)

We all started singing happy birthday to him, and before we could finish, he was already reaching for the blueberries off the top of the cake! I think the song took a brief pause while we all got a good laugh at that!

He has no idea what is so funny. The boy just wanted his blueberries!

Reaching for more fruit!

It didn't take him long to dive on in to the yummy cake! But, not before eating all the of blueberries off the top first, haha!

His belly was about to explode about halfway through eating it. As you can see from the bottom right picture in the collage above...the boy was d.o.n.e.!

The party was a huge success! Sid was all smiles the entire afternoon. He loved having all of his family there to celebrate his first birthday. He was comfortable with everyone and I just couldn't be more pleased with any of it.

The best family photo we were able to get. Who needs to see my smile anyway? Everyone knows it's there ;)

That evening, we were all whooped! Grammy got Sid laughing so hard at these silly pop up bugs! It was a perfect sound to end the day with.

Tired mama. Tired Louis!

Happy happy first birthday, sweet Sidney. You are so loved. Thank you for making this past year one your daddy and I will truly never forget.

{Side Note.} A Quick Funny Story!

Weeks before Sid's birthday, I purchased his gifts. I stuck the wagon in the box under the guest bed and the lion in the corner of the room on a tub of outgrown clothes waiting to go to the attic. One day, Sid was in there and before I even realized it - he had already spotted BOTH gifts. HAHA! Who would've thought I'd already need to hide his presents better than this! I quickly distracted him and he never saw them again until June 6. Silly boy!

he threw it down and said, "Roooooar!"

Sidney Loyd - 12 months

I don't know how it happened. It happened so quickly I am not sure I've fully comprehended it. Oh wait, no, that's a lie. 

It's hitting us smack dab in the face! Our baby is a toddler. He is 12 months old! We have been saying bye bye to the baby phase lately and hello to a whole new world of bumps, bruises, and...a very determined little boy whom we couldn't love more!

SIDNEY LOYD IS ONE!

I'm still convinced he is the cutest baby in the entire universe! His personality is so fun. There is no doubt he is the master of the house. I give his daddy a hard time about letting him do/play with absolutely anything he wants, but the truth is, I'm not a whole lot better. No, I don't let him play with the light switches (mostly b/c I don't want to stand there and hold him up to reach them), but this boy leads me anywhere and everywhere, and I can't stop him! He is quite convincing.

Sid points to everrrrrrrrrything! He communicates through pointing non stop. And sometimes, he just points. Just to point. He loves to point to our eyes, nose, and ears. He points to the balloons in his room. He points to the pictures above his changing table that I drew. He knows one is an elephant, one is a fox, and the other is the world. I love his pointing :) It helps with his frustration sometimes because he can show us what he wants or needs.

This is one of those times that he is just pointing. No real reason, haha!

Sid is getting stronger every day. He has mastered the art of pulling up on things, and also has figured out how to sit up from a laying postion. One day, I put him down for a nap. A few minutes later I turned the monitor on to find him standing up in the crib! I had to do a double take because I was certain that wasn't my baby in that crib! Sure enough, the mattress was lowered shortly after he woke up. Sid is basically not happy unless he is standing. This is great for him, but no so much for us. I didn't know my back could hurt so bad! He loves holding our fingers and walking us alllllllllllllllllllllllllll around. Pretty much non stop. If he's awake, he's trying to move. He still loves his books, but he'd rather fly right through the pages so that we can move on to the next thing (and I mean that literally, move!).

When Sid was younger, everyone called him Mister Serious. As he has grown and developed, that couldn't be farther from the truth. This kid has his daddy in him and is totally silly! He makes us laugh so much. When daddy is around and playing with him, I tell myself I should go lay down or take a break and do something that I want to do. But when I hear them from the other room I can't stand to be away because they have so much fun! (Seriously, mama? I need to work on this one!).

Wearing his Grampa's hat!

Sid mostly eats with his left hand we've noticed. He uses both hands plenty, but when he's eating, he is primarily shoveling with his left. We discovered that he has an egg allergy :( We gave him about half of a scrambled egg. Next thing we know he started breaking out in a red rash. Then, 30 minutes later he threw up. I put him in the car and ran up to the drug store for some Benedryl. It helped clear up the rash and he was ok.

We weren't sure what to do about this allergy. Sean's brother had one but he outgrew his. We are really hoping this will be the case with Sidney. We took him to a Homeopathic allergist. We had an open mind, as a friend had her child's ear infections completely cleared up from this man. So we went in with an open mind, but a bit skeptical. It was $75, so we figured it was worth a try. He did some tests on all of us. For example, he had Sean lay on the table with Sid on top of him. He had Sean hold a vile of egg in his hand, not touching the vile to Sid. Then he had Sean hold his other arm up in the air and he created resistance with his strength and asked Sean to push as hard as he could and try to push his arms down. Sean couldn't do it - he was stronger and unable to push the doc's arms down. Next, Sean held the egg vile next to Sid's skin, and then Dr. Waters did the same thing. Sean immediately went weak and couldn't push. This showed the doctor that Sid is in fact allergic to the egg - as it was making his body weak. Then he did some tests like this with me and Sid. He ended up doing a treatment with Sidney (he put vile next to Sid's skin, had Sean hold him, he did some pressure point massage to Sean and then kept the vile next to Sid for 30 mintues). This was supposed to cure Sid of his allergy after waiting 25 hours. Well, it didn't work. We tried again and Sid broke out in a rash. The doctor said it might take several treatments. We haven't been back. I know you're probably laughing - because it sounds nuts! At this point, we may go back to try again, or we may just keep giving Sid little bits of egg to try, or we may put it to rest for a while and hope that he outgrows it! Fingers crossed!

Sid is a talker. My goodness this boy talks. His latest is "c" for car, or cup. He is very good at sounding out things when we say them. He is a really quick learner and it just blows my mind! I will show him something, for example, "Here is a tiger. Here is an elephant." on a puzzle. Then, a day later I will ask him where the tiger is, and he remembers! He's just so smart :) (says every mother about their baby).

He loves the pool! We've only been in it a few times, but he loves it. Our next house will definitely have a pool! 

We've started letting Sid sleep with his baby Louis when he naps. I don't leave Louis in his crib at night, but he has him for every nap. And it's so cute because if he has trouble falling asleep or when he wakes up, he just sits and quietly plays with his puppy. Then, when I go and get him, I ask him each time, "Did you and Louis have a good nap together?" and he then looks down at Louis in his crib and smiles. Did that just melt your heart, too? It sure did mine!

Check out his wild hair!

He has finally started to crawl a little bit. We keep calling him the bulldozer because he drags his head a lot. But the week before he turned one he mastered the art of crawling...finally! 

He has a very strong daddy attachment. I'm talking throws a fit when he leaves the room. It's sad. Thankfully he gets over it soon and settles for playtime with mommy! Oh the horror ;)

The week before his birthday, he mastered crawling, finally got a tooth to break through his tough gums, and took a few steps! His balance is improving every day, and I just know any day now he will be walking solo. He is really good at balancing while standing and he can walk with us while only holding one finger. 

This sweet boy is our everything. This sweet boy is who made us parents. This sweet boy changed our lives forever. This sweet boy is our boy. And we love him. Dearly.

Weight: 20 lbs

Height: ??

Medical Issues: allergic to eggs

Naps: I am holding on to 2 naps as long as possible! Usually 1.5 hrs for both. 

Night Sleep: We put him down between 6:30 & 7. He wakes still around 5 or 5:30 on most mornings and I nurse him then he goes back down. But he's been skipping that wake up and sleeping until 6 or 6:30 more lately.

Clothing Size: His 12m outfits are starting to get tight, but he can still wear them.

Diapers: BG 4.0 w/ cotton or bamboo inserts during the day / nighttime BG 4.0 w/ 3 bamboo inserts.

Diet: introduced red bell pepper, cucumber (not a huge fan), chick peas, oatmeal, green smoothies, zucchini, coconut oil, earth balance butter

Favorite Baby Gear: Do mommy and daddy's fingers count? His crocs because that means he's going outside!, his music table, balls 

Personality: Silly silly! He loves to bounce and shake and clap his hands

Milestones/Firsts: Crawling!! a tooth (still not fully through the gums), and a few steps

Likes: He LOVES the outdoors! He kicks with excitement the second we get near a door to go outside. 

Dislikes: He doesn't like it when we make him sit down if he wants to get up and walk. And he doesn't like it when he can't have our phones.

Nicknames: Sid-Sid, bud, and we've been calling him Sidney a lot more

OUTTAKES