the one with a nursiversary

I may have just made that word up.

We are four days out from Ava's first birthday which means so many things. It means my baby is ONE. It means we survived year one of life as a family of four. It means I have NURSED MY BABY FOR ONE YEAR.

 

Guysssssssssssssssssssssss- I cannot even. Seriously. One year!!

One year of never leaving my babys side for more than 3 hours at a time.
One year of wearing clothes that made my boobs easily accessible.
One year of never leaving my kids overnight.
One year of watching what I eat so it doesn't upset my babys belly.
One year of watching what meds I take so it doesn't effect my baby.
One year of not washing bottles and nipples.
One year of wondering if I would be shamed for breastfeeding in public.
One year of planning my days around nursing my baby.
One year of planning work around nursing my baby.
One year of answering questions like "are you going to nurse her til shes 16?!"
One year of an intimate one on one connection with my baby.
One year of soaking in every nursing moment just in case this is my last go of all things baby.
One year of my body not really being "mine".
One year of nursing through sickness.

One year of nursing.

I survived the tears, the questions (so. many. questions).........

We made it. A whole year and Ava is going strong.

And now on that note: Anyone have any tips for weaning? Mom needs a break lol.

the one with Ava's first birthday party

Being that Avas birthday is right around the holiday crazy time I decided to host her birthday party ten days before her actual birthday. I'm glad I went with that date as it seemed that because of doing it early, almost everyone we invited was able to come.
We had the party at the Boettcher museum which is a rental we got through Manheim Township. It has a rustic feel and is in the middle of a park with lots of trees and trails around so it felt really cozy and went well with our FALL FEST theme.
The original plan included pumpkin painting, playing with balls/balloons out on the stone patio.. a warm apple cider drink.. and then life happened. I ended up with strep and it totally derailed a bunch of plans that I wanted to complete the week of the party. Throw in Tori getting ANOTHER double ear infection and the fact that Summer was the only person able to help me with set up and picking up the cake etc, the day of was a bit hectic.

DECOR: I got a bunch of red, yellow and orange décor. Fall leaves were spread out on all of the tables. My mom got me a bunch of cute pumpkins to use on tables also- so I used them for décor around the cakes and food table. I also made an adorable (if I do say so myself) banner using fall colored cloth and clipped some leaves on it.. then I had a banner of Avas "monthly" pics that we have taken over the last year (missing month 10 of course because well, me). Erica picked up a "1" gold balloon for me (which she pointed out looked like a penis LOL) and we blew up a few red balloons for the kids to kick around and play with.
CAKE: I got the cake from Oregon Dairy.. a spice cake with cream cheese icing. DELICIOUS. Literally, everyone was raving about it. I had two pieces (oops). And I would be lying if I didn't say I wish I had more so I could have had another piece today. It was decorated with pumpkins and Ava even got her very own smash cake which had a pumpkin on it and a #1 & was sparkly and sweet. I loved it.
FOOD: Dan smoked some pork a few weeks ago & froze it so we unfroze/reheated it for the party. It was AWESOME. Dan is so, so good at smoking bbq. It is his specialty. We also had pasta forno courtesy of my parents and an Italian meat and cheese tray, they also brought buffalo chicken dip and then Dans mom brought a veggie tray and my Grandma brought chips. Plenty of food. And it almost all was eaten, so we definitely filled everyone up.
PICTURES: I was way too busy to get my fancy pants camera out and honestly, I'm glad I didn't. I got to really take it all in, mingle with everyone and watch while my Ava girl was celebrated with everyone we love. The only bummer: my phone died while at the party LOL and the only charger was in the car, so I had to rely FULLY on everyone else which sucked and is why I didn't get as many pictures of the party as I had hoped.
PRESENTS: We didn't open gifts at the party because Tori was sick and Ava wasn't very interested in anyone or anything that wasn't 1-cake 2-Mommy. I did however open them all last night and today and man, girlfriend made out. She got some of the cutest clothes ever and a bunch of fun and loud toys.

Ava's first bday party = great success!