Logan's 1st Birthday

Logan turned one on December 18th, but we celebrated on December 13th with family so that it wasn't too close to Christmas. It was great! I wanted to keep it small so he wouldn't feel overwhelmed; he's going through that stranger anxiety phase right now and even family that he doesn't see often enough are "strangers" to him. I know he'll outgrow that soon enough, but I wanted his big day to be special for him, not just us. He warmed up to everybody really quickly, though, and enjoyed his first taste of Chick-fil-a nuggets.

He didn't really open his presents. I felt silly opening presents I wrapped, but I have a feeling I won't be doing that again next year. Plus, he got a lot of great presents from other family members. Once the paper was off, he was very curious about each gift and would get so engrossed in a toy that he didn't even notice I was opening a new one. He was a little overwhelmed by all the new toys, books, and clothes and so were we. We are so blessed with such generous and loving family and friends.

This is the first gift he opened (I opened) and he was so fascinated that he couldn't focus on anything else.

Then we opened a Build-a-bear dog from Aunt Holly. She recorded a message so you hear her say, "happy birthday, Logan" when you push his paw. He thinks it's pretty neat, but you can see he's still got his hand on that piano.

So I just took the piano away so he would pay attention to me opening other presents and then we opened a lawn mower and it had his undivided attention. Uncle Rick couldn't get it put together fast enough. They were trying to figure out how to get the handle to stay up and finally realized it's not supposed to. Logan didn't care either way, as you can see.

And here is your stereotypical 1-year-old playing with one of the boxes. (It wasn't a computer) :-)

We sat him in his high chair and sang happy birthday to him and he just loved it. He got this big grin on his face, like he was thinking, "all this, for me?" Then I blew out his candle and set his little mini-cake on his tray. He just looked at it and wasn't sure what to do. I guess he knew Daddy was watching and he had better not make a mess. I finally fed him some with a fork and he decided it was not half bad. The only sweets he had had before that was a few bites of pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving. Needless to say his little taste buds were in shock, but in a good way. There's no turning back now.

He eventually tried to turn the plate over, so we put his cake right on his tray and he went to town. He never really got icing everywhere, like I was expecting, but I did find blue icing in the cracks and crevices of his high chair the next day. He absolutely loved it and ate almost the whole piece, mostly cake not all icing, thank goodness. And the best part is he still eats his peas!

He wasn't too sure at first...

When he realized how good it was and how he had everyone's undivided attention and how we all laughed when he made this face after taking a bite, he did it every time.

Whoops!

I want to thank all of our family for helping me with Logan's party, including Michael's dad for taking the great pictures and letting me use them on my blog. His are the ones with the border. He says he's not good at indoors and photographing people, but I have to disagree.