More Birthday Fun

Before I talk about Saturday’s festivities, I wanted to include Charlie’s stats from his 1-year checkup at the pediatrician. Charlie weighed in at 19 lbs, 9 oz (10%) and 50% for height and head size. I am SO shocked he is only 10% in weight!! But he is a big mover, so I guess the baby pudge is falling off fast.

He is still my squishy, substantial little baby. I am grateful he’s not much heavier at this point, because my arms get so tired when we’re running errands and I’m carrying him in one arm and holding Eli’s hand with the other – my arm starts to burn!! We’ll wait a little longer to turn the car seat around, which isn’t as fun but I figure it’s safer to be rear facing longer anyway.

On Saturday we had my family over to have Round 2 of birthday fun for Charlie’s 1st birthday. We busted out the party hats…

But Charlie’s hat didn’t stay on his head for long. He was more interested in the food. Round 2 with the birthday cupcake/candle went a little better, but this time Eli blew it out (instead of me). At least Charlie wasn’t trying to grab the flame like last time. He was cracking up at Eli, which made me laugh too. The best part of this video though is after the candle was out, I told Charlie to dig in – and Eli thought that was great and kept saying, “Dig! Dig, Charlie, Dig! Take a bite!”

Charlie's 1st Birthday - Cupcake with Stuarts (Jan 2010) from Sarah on Vimeo.

I made these carrot cupcakes and they definitely weren’t as sweet as what we picked up from the bakery on Charlie’s actual birthday. But he still ate a good amount.


After lunch, my parents were helping clean up the dishes and Gram sat with Charlie, looking at his birthday cards from the Severson grandparents, grandma Judy, and cousin Adele (and family).


Here’s a video of Charlie enjoying the cards – this is for those who gave him cards :) You can see how much he liked them!

Charlie's Birthday Cards (Jan 2010) from Sarah on Vimeo.

My parents and Davey gave Charlie some new books, and he loved this book with lots of soft textures. My mom knit sweaters for Eli and Charlie, which were very cute! I love Charlie’s high, happy voice when he feels the different materials in the book.

Charlie Reading and Eli's New Sweater (Jan 2010) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Davey was SO excited about giving Charlie a gift. In the weeks leading up to Charlie’s birthday, Davey would call and ask us for gift suggestions.


Here’s Charlie wearing the sweater – we do thing he looks a little professor-ish in it :) I love the knitting pattern though – the cabling is so nice.


Gram’s gift to Charlie was a big box full of fun stuffed animals. She wrote labels/tags for each one with a story behind each animal. Most of them were bears, but there was a gorilla and puppy too.


Here she is, reading the tags to Charlie (the tag for the red bear is the funniest one – she said the red bear looks like my dad with his long limbs). Charlie loved the stuffed animals (he was squeaking with excitement) and all of the soft textures. Eli’s had a lot of fun with the new animals too, playing with them, walking the puppy on a ribbon leash, etc.

Gram's Gift for Charlie's 1st Birthday - box of bears (Jan 2010) from Sarah on Vimeo.

And finally, we got Charlie the singing Elmo balloon, which is the same one we got for Eli’s second birthday. Charlie LOVES this balloon and drags it around the house, bopping it up and down with a big smile on his face. He is such a sweet, sweet 1-year-old!

Charlie's 1st Birthday balloon (Jan 2010) from Sarah on Vimeo.