Twelve Months of Knowing Heaven on Earth

 Please don't make me stay on my back.   I can't stand being on my back guys! 

 Yes I'll sit here if I can hold the "boon".

 Where is he going? 

 Say hello to my little "boon".

 I will sit upon the balloon in a wild balancing act. 

 Oh this pillow has such wonderful color and texture. 

 Let's climb Mt. Pillowoficicas.

 Gotta pause and get stabilized. 

 Someone give me a flag so I can stake a claim on this new moon land I've found. 

 For God, my country, and All mankind I name this land..........

 Whoah I don't think this world is round after all.......

 Someone try to stop me now. 

 As I wiggle

 and giggle

 and show my true self.

 Look out world there's a 12 month old on the prowl and I'm coming after YOU!

12 Months brought us:

• A little guy who weighs 19.4 lbs and is inches long
• a little parrot who enjoys saying bye-bye, apple, bottle, bubble, Dada, ball, up, duck, moooo like a cow, ROOOOOORRRRRR when asked what a lion says, baaaaaa for a sheep, began signing and saying more when eating or nursing.  
• Sleeping through the night more than waking!!!! Woooohoooo
• Creating a game of hide and seek by going into your room and shutting the door.  Hiding behind the ottoman or the kitchen island.
• Still in size 4 shoes, 9 month onesies, 12 month john johns, size 3 diapers.
• Playing more independently with toys and enjoying them in a whole new way as he began to stack and put things together.  
• Found a new love for foods like pineapple and kiwi.  He enjoyed finger and table foods over baby food most meals and really loves spinach, garbanzo beans, broccoli, and grilled cheese.  We dropped down to nursing 3 times a day and of course introduced him to sugar as a sweet treat.  
•  

• Pulling up on furniture and cruising.  You like to walk circles around the coffee table.  
• A fast little crawler who likes to chase and be chased all over the house.  
• Holding fingers and walking around the house is still a favorite past time, only now you enjoy walking with one hand at times.
• Balance, you are able to stand on your own and have been seen doing so while clapping or playing with a toy.
• A new game of up/down we say the word up and you pull up on furniture we say down and you squat down.  
• Two and a half weeks of sleeping through the night.....it didn't last but I think we're on to something.
• More interest in table foods.  You've decided you like the taste of things you despised in the past.  You like to feed yourself peas, cheese, bread, and cheerios.  You are still eating two meals a day and having a good snack in the afternoon.  Snacks are usually yogurt, cheese, crackers dipped in hummus, apples, pears, or bananas. 
• Size 4 shoes, 6-9 month onesies, and 12 month john johns.
• Screams, some of delight some out of anger.
• You learned how to throw small fits.....I'm pretty sure that only gets better with time. 
• Started taking baths in the tub like a big boy.
• 11 months going on 1.  It's so hard to believe, and you just keep getting better.

April 2, 2013 the way we celebrated Your day.

We felt like kids on Christmas morning as Barry and I crept into our sweet baby boy's nursery.  Balloon in tow we softly sang Happy Birthday as we watched his eyes light up and his cheeks lift with a sleepy grin. 

 

Awaiting his arrival in the living room was a room filled with "boons" and his new set of wheels. 

Starting off with a special treat of banana pancakes with syrup, the birthday boy new it was a special day. 

Every well respected one year old knows that you can't celebrate without strutting around in your birthday suit.  

What's a birthday without a mid morning pony ride?  

As a girl I grew up a birthday meant always awakening to streamers tied to my door.  It's never to early to start a tradition. 

 The three of us hugged happy tears as 10:07 appeared on the clock and the flood of emotion from one year ago filtered through our memories. 

 A special visit from Pop was a bright spot in the day.  Opening up handmade wooden cars made with love from Pop.  Vroom Vroom. 

A visit from Gran and Pops brought even more delight to his sweet and special day. 

 A little spin around the house on the new ride.  Feeling like a big boy.

Some squeezes from Gran and Pops.

He wasn't sure what to think when everyone broke out in song staring at him, dangling a large amount of flaming food in front of his face.   

He quickly caught on.  

And began devouring his way into the center of his momma made carrot apple raisin cake, it was a sugar free alternative and I'm pretty sure he had his fair share of sweetness from the cream cheese icing.  Mmmmmmmm!

Oh yeah, he has a sweet tooth or two......

 And apparently a sweet toe too.....

 He was quite pleased with his new "hat" as he called it.  We mainly thought it was good for him to have when we go on bike rides and put him in the carrier but I think he will be happy wearing it for any occasion. 

 It was an all around amazing fun day spent loving this little 1 year old who has changed our lives completely.  We did a lot of reflecting and thinking back to the great feeling of meeting him for the first time.  What a sweet joy it is knowing you little Henry Thomas Cooper. 

 

this little voice

Three weeks ago Henry and I went for a long evening walk together before bedtime.  It was a cool night as the clear blue sky quickly gave way to hues of grey.  We walked and talked, as I held his little hands to keep them warm.  

A little arm soon began to stretch upward towards the trees around us.   

Yes, those are trees, I explained.  

We kept walking, and the little arm stayed up.  

In the silence of my footsteps on the pavement I heard his sweet voice say, ball.

A tiny tear found it's way to my eyes as I smiled.  Yes Henry, ball!  A special ball we call the moon.  

He Kept his arm outstreched and even found a pointer finger to make sure I knew as he repeated ball, ball, ball.  I wanted to reach up in the sky and grab it for him, bouncing it all the way home. 

I watched him curiously look behind him in the sky as we rounded the corner to our street.  I began to softly sing, a song I hadn't thought of since he was a newborn,  I see the moon and the moon sees me.   The mind of a child.....

 This little brain surrounded by Henry cuteness is beginning to show us what he knows.  He has begun experimenting with language and at times can be quite a little parrot.  His first words of babble were dadadadada and then intentionally saying "duck" for a stuffed animal he has, mamamamama He didn't really know the meaning behind his words but was happy to let you hear his little voice.

Then came bye-bye to accompany the cute little wave he had.  (usually said after we shut the door or walk away)  Then came the rest: "hi dude", bubble, ball, and his favorite word of all time........."apple", hat, bottle, and they continue to grow.  The interesting thing about him learning new words has been that the adorable name calling babble of dada and mama left his vocabulary.  Daddy found it's way back into his repertoire of words rather quickly and he would say it when B was around or he would repeat it when he heard me say it.   

It became a funny little joke in our house to try and get him to say mamma or mommy because he just wouldn't say it.  Choosing to say "apple" most times instead.  My favorite was the day I showed him our book with family pictures in it and pointed to people and said their names and he would repeat "Pop" or would point to Daddy, Gran, Keightley.  When asked, "Where's Mommy?"  he paused, slammed the book shut, said "apple" and crawled away.  

Sounds made up right?  This kid knows what he is doing.....what a little trickster.  

April 8th Barry had him in the rocking chair getting ready for bed when I walked into the room. 

 His little arms stretched up as he looked at me and said "MaMa, Mama". 

Heart melting, puddle of lovey mush, excited me quickly scooped up and squeezed the sugar out of our little boy.  

It's been said once or twice since then but I anxiously await the day when I am to the brink of being annoyed by "Mama", Mama watch, Mama come here, Mama help.  Watching him learn and grow is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. 

Henry's 1st Birthday Party!

 

 I had tons of fun planning this party.  The idea for a hot air balloon party theme was inspired by my favorite book to read to him at night, Go To Sleep My Love.  On one of the pages a magical glowing hot air balloon seems to take life as it flies up into the air with the dreams. 

So what a fun theme for a little boy who just seems to keep growing Up, Up, Up!

With an unseasonabley cool spring we were beyond delighted to have God bless us with a gorgeous 77 degree day.  We set everything up

We had plenty of finger foods and goodies for big kids and adults alike. 

I loved the way the colorful Trix Krispies treats and fruit kabobs turned out. 

These cookies were my first attempt at trying to be all Martha Stewart professional over here.  I used the 6 day schedule of making cookies, icing, coloring, decorating from Sweetopia.  Everything turned out completely perfect.  I won't say they were easy, the royal icing turne out to be a HUGE endeavor and I may have been up later than I wanted a couple nights but honestly I could see cookie making becoming a fun little hobby.  That is, if we didn't mind seeing icing on the counter for a week.  :) 

Not to mention I thought they were pretty darn tasty.  Mmmmmm



For the guest cake I kept with the colorful theme of our hot air balloons and made a rainbow striped cake.  Simple on the outside and a pure party of stripes on the inside.




The first thing I ordered were these adorable invites. 
They gave me an inspiration for lots of colors in the decor.

I had tons of fun creating and setting up all the party decorations.  It gave me a fun reason to get my craft on and wipe the dust off of my Cricut.

I made a couple hot air balloon models out of paper lanterns, scrapbook paper, twine, and a party favor box.  The banners were made from fabric jelly rolls tied to yarn. 

The bunting banners were created using card stock, bias tape and hot glue.   

I made a wreath using Henry's invitations and made a mini bunting with coordinating fabric and a burlap ribbon.  

 Using one picture from every month I made a growth banner by placing the pictures in order on coordinating card stock and hung with rafia ribbon.  

 It was really neat to see how much he changed from month to month and to compare the growth and personality that came out in the pictures.  

Henry's favorite decoration were the balloons.  He could have been entertained all day by watching them flap in the breeze.
Or.....Maybe it was the cake.....

The anticipation of its arrival.............

Whoah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A cake made by mommy with love for my little Henry Boo.  Carrot, apple raisin cake with cream cheese frosting.  I think he approves.

We invited family and a small number of our close friends and were blessed by the company of many.  It meant a lot to us to have such loving family and great friends (who are like family) their to let us know they care about Henry.

We were so happy to have his Great Granny and Great Pepaw there!!!

Proud grandparents.

The Birthday boy's day truly couldn't have been better.  It was everything I could have hoped for him.   First he took it all in and tried to figure out what was going on.  He soon warmed up (after some licks of icing) and became a non stop crawling laughing, playing machine.
After a bath of icing and cake was complete we wiped down the little man and set him free.  This basket was the only place he wanted to be.  Creating games as usual he began ducking down inside to pet the grass springing up betwean the weave and then popping up with a grin of peekaboo! 

This boy has truly captured our hearts.

My thoughts on this past year are overwhelming at times.  It's amazing what he has done for our little world already!

Thanks to all who helped make this party a success.  Thank you for everyone who came to show or called to tell us about your love for our little boy.  Thank you to Karen for helping with food and party set up.  Thank you to Barry for being a huge help and putting up with my crazy, glue gun using, fabric cutting, cookie baking, icing making, cake layering, party planning self.
Henry had such a grand day and made it apparent with a long hard nap following the days events.
Happy 1st Birthday love bug!