Jacob's First Birthday

**Writer's Note -- I wrote this like, 3 weeks ago...  I just haven't gotten around to publishing it until now.**

I think that it's safe to say that Jacob's First Birthday party was a success.  I ended up keeping it fairly low-key and simple.  I had all sorts of grand ideas in my head (mostly thanks to Pinterest) but in the end, I just didn't want to be stressed out about trying to get these little details completed.  So I made a cake and some cupcakes, we put some meatballs and sauce into a crockpot and bought some sandwich rolls, my mom made he delicious macaroni and cheese, Erik's mom put together a veggie tray and cheese and cracker tray, and we had some chips, salsa, and hummus.  I kept the decorations simple -- blue and green color scheme, some tissue paper puff balls, garland, and first birthday cut-outs.  That was it.  And I couldn't have been happier with how it all worked out.

Jacob at 12 Months:

Height:  29.5 inches
Weight: 23 pounds


Likes:

• walking and "running" whenever he can
• playing with his blocks
• pulling out tupperware containers from the kitchen cabinets
• taking his books off his shelves
• pushing his toy cars and trucks around
• playing with Little People
• climbing onto the couch to sit with mommy and daddy
• getting snacks out of his snack cup
• saying any combination of the following: bababa, dadada, mamama, nanana, lalala, tatata
• shaking his head "no"
• sweet potatoes, squash, oatmeal, applesauce, peaches, prunes, apricots, pears, fish
• Puffs and Cheerios, rice cakes, crackers, animal crackers
• flap books

Dislikes:

• "slimy" foods
• foods that are out of his range of "normal" (so that's anything new...)
• arts and crafts that require paint or ink on his hands or feet
• being told "no"
• not getting his way

And finally...

Things I've learned in a very short span of time (like, 4 hours)...

1. Jacob hates "real" shoes.
2. Jacob hates to walk on anything that is not a hardwood or carpeted floor, or the floor at school.
3. It took me almost two weeks to write a Jacob's First Birthday/12 Month Update entry. (and another week to publish it)

But at least my kid takes out the trash...