Jack's First Birthday

Our first baby turned one recently and I still can't believe it! How has a full year already passed since that crazy day when our lives changed completely (read Jack's Birth Story here)?!

While the day wasn't entirely what I had envisioned for my baby's first birthday due to COVID-19, we still had a wonderful day celebrating our sweet boy, and I wanted to share some of the special details here.

As you know, my family lives in Vermont and my husband's family as well as many of our friends live in Massachusetts, so before the pandemic I had planned on having two parties for Jack, one here and one there. Unfortunately this couldn't happen anymore, but I still wanted to include those who couldn't be here in this special day. So the first thing I did was create a Facebook invitation for a virtual birthday party via a Zoom video call. While it certainly would have been nicer to see everyone in person, I was so happy with how many people took time out of their day to join the call and wish Jack a Happy Birthday. Plus, we got to see so many people from many other states who wouldn't have been able to come to an in-person birthday party anyways, so that was definitely a silver lining.

I knew I still wanted to go all out and decorate for his party as I normally would. So, since we couldn't go to stores, I went online. I ordered a "one" balloon and a variety pack of blue, white, silver, and confetti balloons from Amazon to make a balloon wall. I also got blue and white streamers to decorate his highchair and the ceiling with and a Happy Birthday banner from Target. I repurposed his monthly photo blanket that we got as a gift from family friends into party decor too (I couldn't find the exact one we have, but here are some similar ones: 1, 2, 3). I printed out a monthly photo from each month and attached them next to the corresponding number for each month (except 12 as we took that one later that day). (Side note: I am super impressed with myself and my husband that we actually took and posted every picture on the exact day he turned another month older. Of course, no judgement if you don't this, but it was a fun challenge for us and such a great way to look back at Jack's growth. Also, you can tell the one month I wasn't home to take the photo and my husband took it by the fact that he's wearing socks in only one of his photos.) I used the "Cards and Gifts" sign that sweet friends made for our wedding (similar options here: 1, 2, 3, 4) and also put out the beautiful growth chart ruler (similar options here: 1, 2, 3, 4) that another friend made for us as well. Finally, I had a bunch of pictures that I had printed from Shutterfly back around Christmas when they were running a promotion for free prints on the app (they very often have really good deals, especially with the app and their quality it great!), so I decided to place many of my favorites around the room.

I also knew I wanted to make him a smash cake. I looked at recipe after recipe on google and finally found this one. Why I chose an angel food type cake that required whipping egg whites to soft peaks for the first time, I don't know. But I am happy to report that it turned out perfectly! I wanted to make several layers, but didn't have small enough pans, so I used one 9 inch spring-form cake pan and cut out 3 small circles to stack on top of each other. I made the whipped cream frosting the morning of the party and frosted it right before I served it.

For our wedding 4 years ago I bought these beautiful laser cut cursive table numbers that I always knew I would use again for future babies' birthday cakes (similar options here: 1, 2, 3, 4). I've also used them in birthday photos for our puppy Scout. Since most of our things are still in boxes in my parent's basement, I searched and searched. In a funny twist from the norm, I sent my husband down and he actually found them within 10 minutes, and I'm so glad he did!

Here's what the table numbers looked like at our wedding. Photos by the incredible talented Kristina Nalette Photography!

I also made our usual spread of food for my family to eat, which was made a bit more difficult by the fact that our oven is not working. So my husband, Jack, and I went to my grandmother's house in the next town over and baked his cake, pizza bread, and started cupcakes, which my sister finished when we had to leave to get Jack home for bed. Then the morning of his birthday my mom, sister, and I finished up making buffalo chicken dip, cut up fruit and veggies and made dip for them, dumped chips into bowls, and frosted chocolate and vanilla Funfetti cupcakes. Yum!

After we got Jack to bed, Jon and I kicked it into high gear. We decorated the dining room, Jon finished a video of Jack's first year, I updated Jack's baby book and finished his birth story blog post, and made sure everything was perfect for our sweet boy's special day.

Of course, after many nights of sleeping through the night, Jack woke up just an hour and a half after I finally went to bed and was up for an hour and a half after that. While it would have been nice to get more sleep, it was also nice to get a little more time with my 11-month-old, and then he slept in an hour later than usual. When he did finally wake up we did our normal routine of nursing, changing his diaper, and brushing his teeth, then we headed downstairs.

When I was growing up my mom would always decorate the night before our birthdays and it was so magical to come downstairs and see all of the streamers, balloons, and decorations. I was hoping that, even at one, Jack would enjoy it as much as I did, and he certainly did not disappoint. As we walked into the dining room his eyes lit up and he looked at everything! He would look from the streamers to the balloons to the monthly photo blanket to the Happy Birthday banner to all of the photos and back again. It was the sweetest, most special moment to see the aw and wonder on his face. I can't wait to see it again next year and for many years to come.

We continued with his morning routine of breakfast then back down for his morning nap and I quickly tried to get ready for the day. Of course he didn't take the longest of naps so I wasn't able to fully get ready or get the food ready that I needed to. I'm not going to lie, I got a little stressed and I was also quite upset by the fact that COVID-19 had taken away what I had envisioned for my baby's first birthday. But eventually I rallied and enjoyed the day.

While my mom, sister, and I worked as a team to get the food ready, Jon and Jack started the virtual birthday party Zoom video call with Jon's parents and sisters. Once the food was ready I got to join in on the video call. Then I fed Jack his lunch then ate lunch myself with everyone else.

Then it was time for the smash cake! We stripped him down to his diaper and put him back in his high chair. I quickly frosted his cake and placed his number one in it. We sang him Happy Birthday then I took the number one out and placed the cake on his high chair tray and let him go to town! At first he wasn't quite sure what to do and started by just putting his fingers in the frosting. Eventually he started taking pieces off and smashing them onto his tray. Then he started taking bigger chunks off. While he did taste the frosting and take several bites, he threw most of it off of his tray toward our dog, and honestly Scout probably ate more cake than Jack did. He even threw the whole cake onto her at one point! She was covered and thrilled.

The smash cake was probably the best part of the day. He had a great time and we had such a great time watching him. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! After we got him cleaned up and dressed again we had a few minutes before his afternoon nap so we decided to give him our big gift to him, a swing! My dad hung it from the apple tree in the front yard for us. As soon as he opened it, we put him right in it and he loved it! I could just imagine many afternoons spent pushing him in this swing for many years to come.

My parents were also dying to give him their big gift, so my dad rolled it out of the garage. It was a turtle sandbox, which I got for one of my birthdays when I was little too! We put Jack right in it and he was so excited! My parents were excited to put some water in it for a little pool this summer and a sandbox once he won't immediately put it in his mouth.

At that point in the day is was time for Jack's afternoon nap. So we said goodbye to those who were still on the Zoom call and put him down for his nap. After his nap we opened his presents on the front porch in front of my relatives who live locally and came to sit on the lawn and visit for the day. Jack got his first pair of sneakers from us, books from my sister, lots of homemade cards (which are my favorite kind of cards) and lots of clothes from my mom, sister, and us (Carter's had had a great sale)!

After presents I wanted to get a few more photos of our little family and the birthday boy as well as his final monthly photo. My goodness those photos got difficult to take in these last few months. It took my mom, sister, Jon, and I to get this last 12 month photo, but we got it!

Finally it was time for dinner, bath, and his bedtime routine. The cherry on top of such a special day was that Jack let me rock him to sleep. Usually he gets fussy and I end up having to walk around the room bouncing and swaying. But that night, the first night after he turned one, he just layed in my arms calmly and let me rock my baby to sleep.

While it wasn't the day I had envisioned, it was the most special and memorable first birthday. Jack has blessed our lives immeasurably. He has been the bright spot in a very difficult year full of so many changes. He has made this pandemic and staying at home so much better than it would have ever been without him.

We do plan to have one more small birthday party for him when my in-laws come up to visit later in the summer and we have one more big birthday gift for Jack from both sets of grandparents!

Happy First Birthday Jack! We love you more than we could ever say. You are one!