ONE Is always such a sentimental birthday to celebrate but honestly celebrating Ford turning one just felt like total celebration. It's crazy to think he's no longer that squishy cuddly, fuzzy infant I once held, but I know and love him more now than I did then and that makes it all so much sweeter.
Every good party needs a theme, and for our little bambino we decided to roll with one that would truly make him happy. When he was around 8 months old I had the old Dean Martin Italian music playing while the kids and I made pizza. The song "Mambo Italiana" was a favorite for the kids to dance to and it was played several times throughout the night. Days later it kept playing in my head and while changing a diaper that involved lots of hysterics and tears I started singing that song to him. Immediately he stopped crying and began to smile, this quickly became our Ford whisperer. Anytime he was upset I could sing that song and he would become calm again. Over the summer we were on a trip back from the lake that involved 40 minutes of tears, I had told B about that song and so we decided to play it in the car. BOOM just like some magical italian recipe that sweet boy calmed down. The song goes off, he cries, it comes back on calm. We were in stitches at the hilarious little boy who just couldn't get enough Mambo in his life.
Fast forward to him at 11 months and starting to eat real food; he wasn't impressed by much until he met a strawberry. His entire body quivers and shakes at the sight of them and he shouts for more. We also found he has a deep love for pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, and boy can he ever dominate a slice of cheese pizza!
I couldn't think of anything more appropriate for our sweet Italian loving bambino than to say Buon Compleano!
Starting the day with presents, relaxing, and strawberry jam made for a great start to his big day.
With lots of family and friends out of town for the weeks surrounding his birthday we opted to celebrate in a small intimate way on his actual big day. Turns out it was the perfect way to honor our guy and I enjoyed every second of it.
I've never seen a more adorable birthday cake encounter. At first sight he squealed and jumped, and couldn't stop moving his arms and legs till we sat the cake in front of him. I made a strawberry cream cake, and he picked almost every slice of berry off and quickly crammed them into his mouth. After several minutes of fruit picking I picked off a piece of cake to make him try it. He sat chewing and thinking for a minute before deciding there was only one way to go at this new tasty treat.....face first.
So neat, so tidy, so calculated in his bites, until he wasn't......
Watching him be 100% Rutherford and soaking it all in was such a perfect way to spend his birthday. He was loved on in the biggest of ways and though he's officially one year old, he still has plenty of baby left in him. :)
