1 Year Pearl and Axel

They were both so desperate to get the party hat off.  I gave up on the hat with Pearl.  I managed to get a few decent photos with Axel in it though.  It's probably because my baby wrangling skills are more refined now.  Also, the fact that I still had that homemade paper hat 20 months later is proof that I am a hoarder.

-Kira

1 Year Old!

Axel is one year old!

Buddy has seven teeth now.  He is working on a couple more as well.  The poor guy constantly has his hand in his mouth and has been more whiny than usual because of it.  I'm hoping he gets a bit of a break from the teething soon.

He still doesn't sleep through the night.  Most of the time he wakes up twice, but sometimes only once.  It doesn't seem to work to let him cry it out and the only way to get him back to sleep is to nurse him.  He still gets breast milk about five times a day (including night time feedings.)  It's funny how different kids are.  Pearl was down to just two quick nursing sessions a day at this point.

Axel can stand on his own.  He has done it a few times, but immediately sits down when he realizes he is doing it.  One of his favorite games is to hurl himself forward at us if we try to get him to stand.  It makes him laugh a lot.  He also walks around like crazy if I let him hold onto my pointer fingers.  Buddy has no interest in walking without holding onto me though.

Axel holds the phone up to his ear now and says "haaaa" which clearly means "hi."  He knows the sign for "more."  He really likes to point at people and bursts into giggles when they point back.  He also loves pretend feeding us with his spoon.  Musical toys are still among his favorites, but he has started to gravitate toward cars as well.  Sometimes he makes a high pitched howling sound while listening to music.  I think he is trying to sing.

He had a ton of fun with family at his birthday party.  We also took the kids camping on his actual birthday this weekend.  He and Pearl had the best time screaming and crawling around like crazies in the tent when they should have been sleeping.

See how much he has grown!

-Kira

Axel's (Music Themed) First Birthday Party!

We had Axel's first birthday party on Sunday.  I decided to go with a music theme because all of his favorite toys are instruments.  He loves playing with Jeremy's djembe and has recently started climbing up to play with the piano on his own.  He also loves bouncing around to music.

I went overboard with Pearl's first birthday.  I think a lot of parents do that with their first born.  We just get so excited.  I also had more time to plan back then.  We decided to keep the guest list for Axel's party only to family and I sent the invitation out through Facebook.

All of the little cousins were going to be here so I wanted to do a photo booth for the kids.  I love putting together fun graphic decorations.  I just didn't have the time to work on it though.  I found a ton of cute options on Etsy.  I opted for this one because all of the printables were perfectly sized for kids and it was extremely affordable.

I made the garland by tracing the silhouette of an electric guitar in Illustrator.  I printed them onto brightly colored card stock and cut them out.  If you want to make a garland, you can find a printable PDF here for the guitars.

It was a simple party.  A lot of family members brought food so I didn't have to do much.  I made cupcakes from a boxed mix.  It was relaxed, but everyone had fun.  The kids all had a great time playing together.  I love having our whole family over.

I still can't believe our sweet boy will be one this week!

-Kira

I only took Photo Booth photos with my phone so if you want to see a few, visit my Instagram account @kiraprov.