Pirate Birthday!

Pirates: Enter if ye dare.
Scurvy Dogs: Keep out!
Merpeople: Don’t even think about it.

Ahoy maties! What is better than a pirate birthday party? I can’t think of very many things. Asher is only one, so he doesn’t quite get all of the birthday stuff, but he had an awesomely fun time today at his party… and that makes us very happy. We taught him to clap when someone says happy birthday, so that he would know it was a good thing when people kept telling him this. We also tried to teach him to show how old he was, with some mixed success (see yesterday’s post). It gave us such joy to see him happy.

Our friends came to celebrate the occasion with us, and it meant a lot to have them here. They were all around when Asher was born so it was nice to have them here to mark this milestone! Tonight as we were putting Asher to bed, I felt so grateful for our Cambridge friends. It’s on special days, like our first baby’s first birthday, when we really FEEL the separation from family and we start to miss them fiercely. But our friends here show up. They’ve shown up for us every step of the way, they’ve jumped in and have been family to us in so many ways, and today was no different.

For his party, we tried to do food and décor that matched the pirate theme. Even though there were only a few kiddos at the party and it was mostly our grown-up friends, it was good fun to play pirates for the day. It made it feel more like a one-year-old’s birthday. Here is the food stuffs:

And a little décor:

Asher sorta-kinda-maybe liked the cupcakes. He took a few good bites of it, but he certainly wasn’t scarfing it down. This was his first real go at cake of any kind, although mom couldn’t give him the usual white flour, white sugar, white frosting recipe that dreams are made of. This was a healthier version, but still sweet and delicious :).

We really couldn’t believe how much Asher loved opening his presents. He was very diligent to tear the paper off of each and every gift. We thought he might tolerate this for a gift or two and then get bored, but he was focused.

He got TONS of great toys, clothes and books from everyone. What sweet friends we have! (What? We already said that?) I couldn’t believe all of his fun stuff. Asher wanted to play with every single thing he opened before moving on to the next gift.

He even listened while daddy read him the cards:

Check out all the pirate booty!

It’s a been a fantastic year, and has gone by even quicker than people said it would. It’s hard to believe that he’s not a little baby anymore. He is SUCH a big boy now. He understands so much of what we say and do. Today he was fussing on the bed because we wouldn’t let him play with the stuff on the nightstand (a daily battle). We were trying to read him a book, but he wasn’t very interested. So we said, “Asher, you can either sit up on the bed while mama and daddy read you a book, or you can get down on the floor and play.” He promptly headed for the edge of the bed and threw his legs over, scooted down the side, and sat on the floor. SO.BIG.

One year down, Little Man. Happy happy birthday to you.