Oh What A Year It's Been: RJ's First Birthday

It has been quite a year. Now, at 1 year old, RJ is 20 lbs. (10th percentile, which is up from 7th at his last checkup) and 30 inches long (50th percentile). He is toddling around independently and can push to a standing position without props now too. His verbal skills are awesome and his doctor said that he'll be talking very soon since he's trying to communicate verbally. He can say Momma, Dadda, this (usually pointing at something and wanting you to either name it or get it for him), cat (still sounds more like at), ball, eyes (while poking my eyes), nose (while pointing at my nose), lunch (sounded more like lunz), water (sounds like wa), the exclamation, "whoa" when enjoying a good swing, among some other words/wordlets, such as mooing like a cow. He has some very clear preferences now too, like swings, slides, climbing, balls, throwing things, running away from us, chasing and petting terrorizing the cats, dancing to music, playing with a stockpot and big spoon, and hugging stuffed animals, just to name a few.

All that developmental stuff is great, but you're probably wondering how we spent RJ's birthday. As you already know from previous posts, we spent RJ's Birthday in South Carolina , and started his birthday celebration with his first haircut.

Then after lunch out at Panera, where he gnawed on a piece of baguette (he LOVES bread), we headed back to the Bryson homestead for his birthday party preparations. I baked RJ his very own organic white birthday cake, complete with organic frosting (okay, the writing icing isn't, but it's not going to kill him). The rest of the gang got an organic (box) chocolate cake, with the same icing.


The party started with pizza - each guest got to make their own personal pizza atop pizza dough that we half-baked first.

After eating the pizzas, RJ opened some presents. We had a bit of a surprise in this area. RJ tore through his Christmas presents with great excitement and aplomb. He even got in on opening other people's presents since he loved tearing paper so much. He still loves paper now, but apparently not when there is a room of people to socialize with. He showed no real interest in the opening process and instead kept walking or crawling away to hang out with his audience. It also didn't help that he was fast friends with the stuffed frog that we opened first. Apparently frog was enough for him! (Thank you Audrey, August, and Gracie!) However, I think that all his new outfits are adorable and he has been enjoying all his other new toys that he received at his party or in the mail! A BIG THANK YOU to all!

Next up was a tradition in my family where the birthday boy gets to choose one of three objects on his highchair tray. His choice is a prediction of sorts regarding his future personality. The objects are a rosary, a dollar bill or coin, and a shot glass. We also added a heart pendant this year as a symbol of love. RJ chose love, and his second choice was the money. I'll leave it up to you to decide what it all means.

Then it was finally cake time. RJ seemed to really enjoy his cake (although he might prefer chocolate since his eyes lit up when we let him try a little piece of the big cake!) and definitely needed a bath following it!


Here is RJ's First Birthday, abridged into approximately 8 minutes of video: