happy first birthday beau

Happy birthday little Beau,

Truthfully, I’m not even sure where to begin. Though you are much bigger than your brother at this age, somehow you have also held on to that baby status longer too, including those plump little cheeks. You were the most laid back, easy going baby for the first 8 months of life. Then, you started crawling and your true curious, daredevil personality began to shine through. The only time you are ever still is when you’re sleeping. At all other times you are doing your best to get into things and climb up as high as you can on any nearby objects. And when we don’t let you climb up on the table, you make your dismay known by arching your back and screaming. Sometimes, I can’t help but laugh because you get so worked up over not getting your way. 

But most of the time, you’re a happy little baby, quick to laugh at silliness, especially when it involves your brother. Life is just plain great for you right now, and walking has made it that much more exciting and adventurous. 

There’s a reason you’re nicknamed Beau the Bruiser and Hoss. You are as strong as an ox, built like a linebacker already and have a grip that is strong enough to pick up objects heavier than you are. Your big brother is so protective of you, especially when other kids get too close to you or want to touch you. But I have a feeling that in a few years, you’ll be the one standing up for him, possibly using your physical prowess, and that makes me just a little nervous. But maybe your good looks and charm will get you through; it always seems to work for your Daddy and there is no question you get your looks from him.

As active as you are, sometimes you just want to be held and cuddled. Those times are now limited to a few minutes directly after naps, but welcomed nonetheless. You love physical touch, and despite my growing belly, want to sit on me or in my lap all the time. You are still the baby, so that’s fine by me, but it does make me wonder just how you will react once your new baby brother or sister gets here in December. We’ll just take it one day at a time, and if you need more Mama time than you’re brother did, we’ll make it work.

Happy first birthday to you, little Beau. I’m so blessed to call myself Mama to such a sweet little boy.

On Sunday, we celebrated Beau’s first birthday a few days early so that family could make it to the party. We kept the party small (only inviting family) yet that still meant 14 adults and 5 kids 2.5 and under. I was running around all weekend cleaning, cooking and baking Beau’s birthday cake. And somehow come party time, everything came together. It wasn’t pinterest-perfect, but we had some great food (thanks to my mom, sister and mother-in-law for pitching in) and some wonderfully distracting kids who helped partygoers to ignore the little smudges on the windows and the fact that the kitchen was 100 degrees thanks to the oven.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the wonderful food or many of the event itself. To say I had my hands full would be an understatement. For James Michael’s first birthday, we held the party at my sister’s house, and I now realize just how smart of a move that was 🙂 Of course, that was before she had a baby of her own.

Before lunch, the kids played pirates with grandparents then ventured outside to the back deck, splashing around in the pirate ship water table (hence the lack of clothes) and zooming around on new riding toys from Grandma.

My mom also thought to make (and get both my grandmas to help) newspaper pirate party hats for all in attendance. We tried to get a family photo in ours, and you can imagine how easy that was. These pictures basically sum up this stage of our lives with two little boys.

While the kids were working up an appetite, we were prepping all the food. For appetizers, I made the Pioneer Woman’s Spinach Artichoke Dip–awesomely decadent–as well as Jalapeno Poppers; truth be told, we ate them alongside the meal. There was also citrus shredded pork loin, Asian slaw, Southern Living’s pimento cheese, corn and bean salsa, fruit salad, pickled squash and fresh tomatoes.

As we were cleaning up after lunch, I noticed it was a little too quiet and looked around for James Michael. I discovered him in the playroom, reaching up on a shelf to open the cake saver and ‘sample’ the birthday cake a little early. As I mentioned before, I couldn’t even get upset at him, because he was so excited about the party, apparently has Mama’s sweet tooth and because we basically skipped his 2nd birthday because both he and Beau were so sick this winter.

We did manage to get some shaky video presenting Beau his cake, and lucky little JM got to blow out his candle.

And as I had imagined, Beau could have cared less that his cake looked a little pillaged. He shoveled that cake into his mouth by the handful as fast as he could. He liked it so much that the tiny slice I gave him just wasn’t cutting it, so I indulged his sweet tooth and gave him another little slice.