Heberling Adventures: Happy, Happy Birthday

It's been the longest year, but also I'm shocked he's already ONE!

We started off the month of February with a TON of snow. Literally we had several feet fall in one day. My car was buried. There were people xc skiing and snow mobiling down our street. And we were stuck.

Matt stayed up late to make a big snow hill

1st snow angel

Look how big he is getting!! At his one year appt, he was 22lbs (born 8.5 lbs), which puts him in the 75th percentile. He was 30.5 inches tall (born 21 in), putting him in the 75th percentile. And his head was 19.1 inches (15.5in at 1mo), putting him in the 90th percentile. He is growing consistently and a very healthy boy. Yeh his 18mo clothes aren't even that big on him.

Look at those cute teeth

he can drink from a straw now

I'd told Matt that I'd consent to having Carsen's haircut after his first birthday. Well I let it happen sooner. :( His little curls are gone for now. But it's probably for the better because he was looking a little shaggy and had to style a comb-over because his bangs were too long.

Grams did the honors

Now that's a sharp 'do

At one year, his personality is really coming out. He is a generally happy, sweet, friendly, silly and active boy. He's just starting to get a bit opinionated and will fuss at bit if I take something away from him, or if he doesn't want to nap. Most of the time though, aside from being into EVERYTHING and very quick and strong, he is just a little sweetie.

Dancing with Daddy to Super Bowl 1/2 time show

in "his" cupboard

We gave him a cupboard hoping to occupy him while we're cooking. Otherwise he's either right under foot wanting to be picked up or he's messing with the pets' water bowl. We've finally broken down and put baby locks on most of the cabinets, though he can still open drawers. He is crazy about the dishwasher. We pretty much have to rush to unload and load when he's gone into the living room or put up a baby gate so he can't come in the kitchen. He tries to pull the shelves out and/or crawl into the dishwasher. He also loves to take the silverware bins and throw them.

I multi task going up and down the stairs by carrying C in the laundry basket; I also sing an awful original song titled "Baby in the Basket," which is very off key

Carsen also LOVES technology of any kind. It's funny- Matt bought him a fun little plastic "phone" that has fake "apps" you can touch and make noise and sound. He is not at all interested. But he carries around our old ipod, cell phones and remotes we've given him. He is just starting to figure out though that his remote does not control the tv but Daddy's does. I occasionally have let him try my iPad; there's a "Bubbles" app I downloaded for him. But he's more interested in pushing the iPad along the floor than anything else. I mistakenly let him hold my work cell recently, thinking he couldn't get the keylock undone, and he set a daily alarm to go off at 11am that took me a few tries to disable.

he LOVES technology

He also pretends everything is a phone and holds it up to his ear and "talks." It's hilarious. Case in point- the pizza "phone"

The best part is that Matt and I really don't talk on the phone much; in fact, Matt uses an earpiece. Plus when Carsen talks on the "phone," he gets this deep voice and kinda barks "yaa, yaaa, ahh dahh." It's like he's selling stocks in a foreign language. Who is he imitating? And now whenever I talk on the phone, he yells and tries to grab it from me. But he hangs up on people if I actually had him the phone because he really only wants to push the buttons at this point.

Gramps & Grams get clever without a stroller on hand

At one year old, he loves stroller rides. If I go for a walk or run, he'll either sit silently observing or he sings to himself. He started waving goodbye. He's not a great napper; most days it's one 30-60min and one 60-90min nap, but at least he sleeps at night 7:30pm-6:00am roughly. That is awesome. I still rock him before he sleeps, which I'll probably need to break soon and teach him to just lie down in his crib and fall asleep, but that's the best time to cuddle him. He is so sweet and mellow then- best part of my day.

He loves any kind of ball, especially now his basketball. He's not into books (yet!); he barely sits still long enough to get through a whole book, even before bed. His favorite book so far seems to be one called "Fire Engine Freddie," I think because it has shiny wheels on the pages. Carsen's really into dunking things now in his little basketball hoop, probably because we make a HUGE deal of it every time. He also loves to pat the dogs and cat; he either squeals or growls when he sees them. His eyes are now an unique green-steel-brown color; in most lights they look either green or a light brown but in some outfits, they looks steel blue. He seems to love anything physical - climbing the stairs, pushing chairs/stools across the floor, standing on tiptoes to grab things off a table... He hasn't started running yet, but I think he's actually slowed down now that he's walking more than crawling. He also loves watching videos of himself.

Matt titled this picture: things Carsen has dunked

He loves to eat: crackers, bread, hummus, spaghetti, pizza, cheese, cream cheese, peanut butter, yogurt, squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, any fruits but especially banana, mango and blueberries. And anything (almost) from a squeeze bag. Luckily he hasn't been very picky and will generally eat most things we offer. He's just started to spit food out. He loves to use his hands and has almost used a spoon successfully.

He says (in a way): mama, dada, dog, done, up, milk, more, banana, bye. He's becoming quite good at imitating sounds and trying to match consonants.

Just before his first birthday, he started walking. He'd been pulling up on things and furniture cruising for months. He would sometimes walk with us holding his hand but usually would just sit down and refuse to walk. We knew he was strong enough; it was just a matter of confidence. Then one day, he just decided it was time.

To celebrate his first birthday, we had a dinner with three other families I'd met through a Moms group I joined. Baby Katie is two days older than Carsen and Baby Oz has the same birthday so we decided to have a joint party. Baby Olive is 3.5 months younger but we moms have been having some lunch and play dates in the last 8 months so she joined in the fun.

mom Courtney & Oz, me & Carsen, mom Tara & Olive, mom Karen & Katie

My friend Karen made these really cute felt crowns but the boys would only keep them on for a few seconds at a time. I joked that the girls had gotten used to wear lil headbands so they didn't mind the crowns.

birthday buddies Carsen & Oz

telling jokes like old pals

The party theme was very loosely: books.

I made a carrot/apple cake with coconut oil, and also a few more carrots and most of another apple- which made it really dense. I baked in a bundt pan so it needed maybe 45mins to bake. I actually think I could've cut sugar to 3/4 or 1/2 cup and it still would've been tasty. Or added in something like boiled finely-chopped raisins or apricots. I thought the cake was quite tasty; Matt didn't think so and our guests were polite so who knows. But what matters is that Carsen liked it.

Now admittedly, I didn't care at all for the cream cheese frosting; first of all, I should've just bought plain apple juice concentrate (instead I thought apple/cherry sounded yummy but it was 1- tart and 2- pink). Secondly the recipe called for waaaay too much concentrate so it was super liquidy. Also I don't think the cream cheese was soft enough. I ended up adding as much powdered sugar as I had on hand (which wasn't much) but the frosting was still pretty soupy. And so much for the low sugar...

the cake had bookworms... get it?!
(I only added the apple because I needed somewhere to put the candle)

I can take right off the plate!!

Carsen liked the cake, a lot

yes, he's LICKING the plate; that's how much he liked it

After dinner and cake, we played a little in the man cave and Carsen showed everyone how to dunk. The funniest part is that Matt kept saying "with Carsen dunking at this early age, he's one in a MILLION!" Turns out, Oz, who's been walking at least a month longer than C, also learned to dunk in just a few minutes. So Matt said "I guess he's just one of two."

showing off his monkey chewtoy

I made these really cute "book" boxes as gifts. I tricked the moms into choosing "The ___ of" baby's name; I guess they thought I was writing a memoir (um, no, I just blog sometimes).

From Michaels, I bought plain wood boxes, then painted them with brown and black mixed paint, and gold for the edges. I tried to leave it pretty plain so the kids could decorate it some day. I found some cool scrapbooking paper and cut it to fit and printed one side with a "milestones" sheet that can be filled out at each birthday. It'll be cool to see how their interests change.

Katie - 2 days older

Oz - birthday buddy

Olive - almost 9 mos

For Carsen's actual birthday, admittedly we didn't do much. Matt and I had gradually given Carsen all of his birthday toys before his birthday. It's a little tough even though his birthday is two months after Christmas because we felt like we just bought him stuff. So, since he didn't know the difference anyhow, we kept it light. His favorite gift seems to have been a big ball my dad picked out for like $5. We did go out from some quality Chinese food. Carsen's fortune: the joyfulness of a man prolonged his ways. Lucky numbers: 11, 14, 25, 36, 45, 47
11- the year his parents married, 14- the current year, 25- the date of his birthday! ;)

Random comment about dinner: our waitress asked if she could give Carsen a cracker to tide him over and we said yes. But instead of just handing us the packet, she ripped it open and proceeded to break/crumble the cracker onto the table for us. Ummm thanks. Kinda gross.

poor Matt ordered milk and she brought it to him in a lil plastic cup

We celebrated his birthday again when my brother Joe was in town later that week. This time I made a banana cake and in my opinion it was pretty mediocre. Either Carsen didn't like it or he was tired, or both. This time I tried to make a better frosting out of just whipping cream and a little sugar. I really wanted it to be orange but turns out I only had yellow food coloring. So I tried to add red sprinkles to the frosting to make it more orange, and as a substitute for some white sugar. I also tried to add a few raspberries. My mom said the frosting tasted like carrots and Matt said it tasted like feet. So there you go. I am 0 for 2 on low sugar cakes and frostings.

see, it's a basketball, thus why it needed to be orange

Umm, I think not your best cake, Mama

cake tasted a little like this

this is about right

1st selfy

It really is amazing to think back on how parenthood changes everything. And it really does change everything. When I was young, I used to worry that I wouldn't make a good mother because I thought myself to be selfish, and I enjoyed having my focus on me. But when I became a mom, suddenly he just matters so much more. I'd give him anything. I do feed him before I feed myself. I would have a hard time putting the oxygen mask on myself before him. He's just this beautiful, precious, wonderful, amazing little person. It's such a joy and pleasure to be his mom.