Logan's Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party

My little man's first birthday has come and gone....It makes me a little sad to know he only has a little while left to be a baby. I procrastinated a little in planning his party. I should have started a couple of months beforehand, but I only had a few weeks to get everything together. We threw him a Dr. Suess themed birthday party at our house with 60(!) of our closet friends and family. I found a lot of inspiration from other bloggers, so I thought I would share a few of the details. 

The Food:

We originally were only going to serve snacks, but we ended up doing a whole meal. Everything served had a Seuss inspired name. We served "Thing 1 and Thing 2 BBQ" (BBQ sandwiches), "Poodles with Noodles" (Mac and Cheese), "Yot in a Pot" (Baked Beans), "Praries of Prax"(Coleslaw), "Green Eggs and Ham" (Rolled deli ham and deviled eggs, dyed green), "Truffula Fruits" (fruit skewers), "Cheese Trees"(Cheese cubes served on styrofoam trees), "Diffendoofer Salad" (Potato Salad), and "One Fish Two Fish, Goldfish" (Goldfish crackers served in a fish bowl.  We also served "Pink Ink Yink Drink" (Pink Lemonade) and "Beezlenut Splash" (Sweet Tea) for beverages. I had custom water bottle wrappers made for the bottled water.

Cake and Sweets Table:

The cake was a three tiered cake made to look like one I saw online. I loved all of the colors and patterns. I also had a little "Cat in the Hat" smash cake for Logan to eat all by himself. We had a variety of other sweet treats on the sweets table with the cake. I made marshmallow pops dipped in chocolate, "Hop on Popcorn" (Paper cones filled with sweet popcorn), "Who Pudding", "Star Bellied Sneetch Treats" (Rice Krispie Treats) and "Horton's Fluff" (cupcake liners filled with cotton candy).

Table Decor: 

For the tables, I alternated red and turquoise tablecloths and paper goods. I placed all of the plates, utensils, cups, and napkins on the tables. I wrapped the utensils in matching napkins tied with bakers twine. I Dr. Seuss coloring pages were placed on all of the tables for the kiddos to color while the parents were fixing their plates. Two of the tables had a Dum Dum sucker tree centerpiece, two had hand painted pots with pinwheels, and one table had a centerpiece made from Dr. Seuss books and a "Sam I Am" stuffed animal. Dr. Seuss silly bands, books, and candy bars with custom wrappers were scattered on the tables. For the sucker tree centerpieces, I used plaster of paris to hold a painted dowel rod in a painted pot. I stuck a styrofoam ball on the top of the dowel rod and covered in suckers. If you attempt to make these, please note that it takes a lot of suckers. There are over 400 in the 2 centerpieces I made. For the pinwheel centerpieces, I filled painted pots with play sand. I made pinwheels from old Dr. Seuss book pages and attached them to dowel rods and placed them in the sand. I covered the sand with paper shred. 

Other Decorations: 

To place over the food tables, I made a photo banner with pictures from Logan's first year of life. There is one from each month from birth to 12 months. I attached them to a ribbon using smaller ribbon and a hole punch. We had this sign (and one that was at the driveway) made. I made the tissue poms from tissue paper using a Martha Stewart tutorial. It is a lot harder than it looks. I had originally planned on making 6-8 to hang from the ceiling, but I ran out of time. 

We had a welcome table and a table for gifts at the entryway to the house. The welcome table had a copy of Dr. Seuss's "Happy Birthday to You!" that we used as a guestbook. We also had a guessing game and a framed copy of the invitation on this table. 

I made this "One" banner for his high chair using old book pages and my Cricut machine. There was also another banner like this with his name in the dining room, but we didn't get a picture of it. I also made his party hat :)

For the entryway: I printed some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes and attached them to colorful cardstock. I used tulle to hang them from the ceiling. 

Activities: 

Since most of the kids we know are pretty young, we didn't do any games. But we did have a giant inflatable slide and two little bouncy houses! And since it was during the beginning of the fall season, we decided to do a little hayride for the kiddos. They had a blast! 

We had such a great turn out! All of our family and friends were here to celebrate our little man's big day! I can't believe he is growing up so fast! He is learning new things every day and has such a big personality! 

We love you, mister! 

We've Got Some Catching Up To Do...

 

I have obviously been slacking on the blog front. These past few months have been insanely busy. I thought life would get easier and slow down a little as Logan got older, but I was mistaken :) Now that he is mobile, I am constantly chasing him around and he keeps me pretty busy. Nap time is spent trying to catch up on housework and sewing, so I haven't really had the time to blog.

Logan has had so many milestones this summer...He can now say "bye-bye", "ball", "da-da", occasionally "ma-ma" and most recently "ach-oo." He is so funny. He can walk pushing a walker, he can stand up and walk around the table. He climbs everything. He can clap. He can high-five. He can comb his hair. He is like a little sponge, learning new things every day. Every day is an adventure and he makes me laugh a million times a day.

On the down side, he has also had ear infections and we have had several sleepless nights. Most recently, he has been on an antibiotic for a bad infection and has been acting like a little monster. Throwing fits and screaming. I think its the medicine (Bactrim), but the pediatrician says he might just be coming into his own personality. Lord help me if thats true.

I can not believe that he will be ONE in 2 weeks! I have been busy planning a big Dr. Seuss party for him. Here is a little bit of my inspiration:

There are so many adorable Dr. Seuss parties out there in blog land and I have got a ton of great ideas. I cant wait to share ours!

Logan's Baby Dedication

Sunday was Logan's baby dedication at church. We go to a fairly large church, so there were probably 40 other babies being dedicated at the same time, one of them being my best friends little girl. So many people came out to support us and participate in his special day.

Logan and Lylah even matched. We did not do that on purpose, in case you are wondering.

We are so very blessed to call this little guy our son. I pray that we set a good spiritual example for him and that he grows up to know the Lord as his Savior.

He shows his personality more and more every day. He is the most animated and curious baby I have ever met, such a people person. He is going to give us a run for our money. He is wild already. 

We love you little man :)

Where does the time go?

Seriously...How can it be that Tyler and I just celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary? And I have a 7 1/2 month old baby? Time really does fly by...even more so after you have a baby.

We celebrated our anniversary at home, eating take out on our new patio furniture (our anniversary gift to each other) and watching a movie.  Tyler even let me pick the movie, "No Strings Attached", a rom-com. It was fabulous. The in laws watched the monkey for us, and even though we had our $300 stroller stolen out of our driveway, it was a great day. I am truly blessed to have married my best friend.

This week was also my very first mothers day! Not only do I have 2 fabulous mothers, but now I get to celebrate this day in a whole new way. You really can't understand the love a mother has for her child until you become one yourself. I have a whole new respect for my mom, now. I love this picture of us from my wedding.

We also had Logan's 6 month pictures taken this week. Yeah, I know he is 7 months old, but like I said, time gets away from you when you become a parent. They turned out so good! Tyler's cousin's wife, Sara, took them. He was so fussy but they turned out fabulous. Here's one of my favorites:

Logan has also been trying to get over a double ear infection. Doc says we will see teeth in the next few weeks. We thought it was just teething, so we put it off for a couple of days. When we finally went in, his ears were terrible. He hadn't slept for 3 days. We were exhausted, but I think he is finally on the mend. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin, the pink bubble gum tasting stuff, and I spilled the entire bottle on the carpet in Logan's room. We now have a huge stain right in the middle of his carpet....

So needless to say, it has been a very eventful couple of weeks.... I am hoping to get back into the swing of things after this weekend. We have Logan's dedication at church on Sunday :)

Logans New Ride

I have been searching for a walker for Logan for a couple of weeks now. We have a lot of wood flooring in the front part of our house, so I thought he might like to glide around on it while he is learning to walk. I went to 3 different stores on Saturday and the only walkers I could find were really unattractive. If I have to have a huge baby toy in my house, I at least want it to be somewhat cute. I am super picky about baby things. Finally on Sunday, I found a super cute one at Buy Buy Baby. We ended up getting the Combi All In One Walker, special edition black Mustang GT.  I LOVE that store, but its kind of far away. They have the best selection to choose from. It was a little pricey, but I had a 20% off coupon.

He loves his new ride. He hasn't figured out how to walk in it yet but he can scoot in it a little bit. His favorite thing to do, though, is honk the horn. But he doesn't honk it with his hands..He honks it with his face. I have a really funny video of him doing it but for some reason I can never get videos to upload on here. If you know why it will not work, please let me know :)

Teething and Vomit and Poo, Oh My!

I was right about the teething. I took Logan to the doctor today because he didn't sleep AT ALL last night. He screamed all night. He was only content when I was rocking him, and as soon as I put him back down he would scream. He was due for his 6 month checkup anyway, so I figured they could check him out while we were there.

The doctor said his gums are really swollen on the bottom, and a little on the top as well. He may get several teeth in at a time. He also has a double ear infection. Thats why he screamed all night. Poor fella.

The nurses at our pediatricians office just love on Logan every time we are there. They are so sweet and we love our doctors. Whenever we have to come in they always load us up with free formula samples. Today they gave us 4 small cans. Thats $40 we are going to save in formula. They are fabulous.

 Even though he has a double ear infection and they had to give him 3 shots, he was so happy the whole time we were at the doctors office, laughing and cooing. He cried for maybe 10 seconds after he got his shots, then it was back to playing.

They took a look at that rash on his back, and it is eczema. She said to just keep putting the Aveeno eczema lotion on it and if it gets really red I can use some over the counter hydrocortisone cream (1%). He is in the 90th percentile for height and 60th percentile for his weight. He is almost 18 pounds now. He is growing up so fast. I never understood why people were sad when their babies grew up, but I sure do now. Where did my tiny baby go?

They put him on Amoxicillin for the ear infections and they said it could be as long as 72 hours before he feels better. Tonight he is pulling at his ears and threw up for the first time all over the couch and he has had 2 more blowout poo diapers since yesterday. It's going to be another long night I'm afraid.. My poor baby...I hope he gets a little sleep.

My Little Jumping Bean

Today was my first day back to work since Logan was born. I only work a couple of days a month, but I can already tell it is going to be hard being away from him on those days. My aunt, who helped raise me, watched him, though...so I know he was in good hands!

I guess he missed playing in his jumperoo today because he has been happily jumping away for the past half hour. He only started actually jumping in it a couple of weeks ago. Before then, he couldn't really touch the ground and just kind of sat in it and played with the toys...But now its one of his favorite things to do.

He has developed a weird rash all over his back. It kind of looks like it may be eczema or really dry skin, but it is getting worse every day. I thought he might be having a reaction to something he is eating, but the rash is mostly on his back and not anywhere else. He has a few spots on his legs and chest, too.

I am trying to not be an overprotective first time mother and call the doctor...The first few months after he was born, I feel like I called the doctor every week or so. He had colic then he had reflux, then he wasn't sleeping, then he got bronchitus and wouldn't eat....the list goes on and on. But there has never been anything they can do for him, so I am trying not to waste the money going unless we really need to. I have always been a worrier. Im going to put some cream on it and see how it looks tomorrow.

It was a rough night...

I am so tired....Logan fell asleep at 8 last night which is much earlier than he normally goes to bed, only to wake up at 9 nad refuse to go back to sleep. We let him hang out with us until 10:30 when he FINALLY fell asleep. We went to bed about 12 and he was up again at 1 crying. I let him cry it out for a half an hour (Which seems like an eternity!) and he finally soothed himself back to sleep. I knew he want hungry because he had just ate before he went back to bed at 10:30. He woke up again at around 4 and after 20 minutes of screaming, I got up and fed him a bottle. I tried to only give him a couple of ounces, but he was not hacing it. After I gave him 4 he was fine.

He woke up for the fourth time at 6. It had only been an hour and a half since he had ate, so I let him cry it out again.... 20-25 minutes later he was asleep, only to wake up again at 7:30 for good.
I am not a morning person, so this schedule does not work for me. But at least he naps during the day (a little).

On top of that, this morning when he woke up he was all red around his diaper area. I just stripped his diapers yesterday, but evidently, if they have a lot of ammonia build up, you need to strip them twice. One time just brings all the ammonia to the surface and can cause a rash :( Poor fella. He didn't act like it hurt him too bad, but needless to say. he is in a 'sposie this morning while I am re-stripping his diapers.
I used a new method this time. The BumGenius manufacturers, as well as a lot of people on the web, recommended using plain blue Dawn dish soap and chlorine bleach to strip stubborn microfiber inserts. You need a half a cup of bleach and a teaspoon of blue Dawn (Yes, it has to be the original blue formula) for a high efficiency washing machine. So thats whats happening as I am sitting here writing. I will let you know how it goes.

Transitioning my baby to his own room :(

My little guy is almost 5 months old and has been sleeping in his pack n play bassinet in our room since he was born. I just havent been ready to move him down the hall. I still wake up several times a night and check to see if he is breathing. I am such a worrier. He is still a terrible sleeper at 5 months, though, so we are trying to get him to sleep better through the night. He still wakes up 4-5 times a night. Sometimes I can soothe him back to sleep by patting his butt or turning on his white noise Sleep Sheep (AMAZING invention), but he still wants to eat 2-3 times throughout the night.

This is bittersweet for me. On one hand, I am ready for him to be in his own room and I think it will help get him to sleep better through the night... but on the other, it makes me a nervous wreck to have him across the house and it breaks my heart to try to let him try to cry it out in the middle of the night. We tried this tonight and after 30 minutes we gave in and went to give him a bottle. His little eyes were so swollen from crying that I almost started crying myself. But it is definitely time...

So, last night we put him to bed around 9. Kind of late for a baby, I know... But we are night owls and would rather have him sleep in a little later than go to bed super early. My husband works late sometimes, too, so if we put him down earlier, he wouldn't have any time with him. We gave him a warm lavender bath, read him a book, gave him some cereal and a bottle, and then put him down. He fussed for about 20 minutes and then went to sleep. He woke up again around 11:30 when we were just laying to to bed. We decided to try to let him cry it out because we knew he wasn't starving, and it was a success. 2o minutes later he had soothed himself back to sleep. We were not so lucky at 1:30 when he woke up again. After about 20 minutes of crying we realized he was not going to go back to bed and I went and gave him a bottle. I only gave him 2oz, though, and he normally gets 4-5oz. This seemed to satisfy him and he went right back to sleep.

He woke up AGAIN at 4:30 and I had to give him another bottle...This time I gave him 3oz hoping it would fill him up enough to sleep the rest of the night. He went right back to sleep again and woke up at 8. He cried for about 5 minutes and soothed himself back to sleep and woke up for good at 9.

I have had several people suggest the Baby Wise method to me in the past couple of days. I haven't read up on it yet, but evidently you feed them like clockwork every 3 hours during the day. I guess the theory is that if you keep them full during the day, they will be satisfied enough to sleep through the night. So I gave Logan bigger bottles throughout the day today 5-6oz hoping that it would do the trick. Tonight he fell asleep at 8 in his daddys arms, only to wake up again at 9:30. We gave him a bigger bottle and some cereal and he went back down without fussing. Heres hoping it does the trick! I'll let you guys know tomorrow :)