First Birthday!!

Our little baby is one year old!! His birthday was Tuesday, and we took off work to spend the day with him. We had great weather (well, great for St. Louis in August - about 88 degrees), so we took him on his first trip to the zoo! We saw lots of animals and Jack seemed to really enjoy himself.

Elephants:
Carousel ride:
How old is Jack?
Phew! The Zoo is exhausting!Tuesday night our families came over for pizza and ice cream cake. We sang happy birthday to Jack and then let the fun begin...


THEN, we had his big birthday bash on Saturday. We had about 40 adults and 20 kiddos in our average-sized house. Luckily the thunderstorms that were in the forecast stayed away, so we were able to utilize our patio with the help of some tents and some super strong fans (it was close to 90 degrees again). We did a Cardinals theme: the invitations looked like baseball tickets, a lot of us wore our Cardinals gear and we served ballpark food (brats, hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, peanuts, Cracker Jack). It was a good time!

Jack in his new Chucks:
Baseball smash cake:
Yum!
Our family:Carrying my messy man to the bathtub:

Here are a few of the gifts Jack received - he is one lucky guy!!

New wagon from Grandma & Grandpa:
Mia & Lily trying out his new ball pit:
One of the 3 Bubble Mowers Jack received (that's what happens when your daddy is a lawn jockey!):
Cozy Coupe:
Grill, complete with chef's hat (please ignore the naked bottom - we're battling yet another case of diaper rash):
Baseball tee:
Had to throw this picture in - just looking cute wearing Aunt Kelly's watch:

Surgery

Jack had surgery this morning to get tubes in his ears. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm glad it's over! I tossed and turned all night thinking about it - for some reason I thought we were going to accidentally give him water this morning even though he couldn't have food or drink after midnight.

He was quite a trooper when we arrived at 6:15 am and talked to two nurses and the anesthesiologist. Then our doctor was running late, so our poor hungry guy started getting a little impatient. Luckily, some genius hospital worker decided they should keep a wagon in the pre-op area, so he had fun taking rides.

The doctor finally came at 7:15 and they took him away. We all cried! At 7:25 the doctor came out and told us everything went fine and a couple minutes later we could hear our very angry guy crying. They waited about five minutes before coming to get us, and when we got to him he was still pretty mad. He cried for the next 30 minutes or so, but by the time we got out to the car, he was doing much better.

He took a short nap when he got home and I'd say he's back to about 90% now. He'll be good as new in no time and hopefully ear infection-free!

Play Date

Jack had a play date last night with Addison and Reghan. Other than a few temper tantrums (this is new this week, and Mommy and Daddy do not enjoy them), we had a nice time. Melissa had some jumbo crayons and a jumbo coloring book for them to play with. I was so excited for Jack's first time coloring, but turns out he'd rather eat the crayons than color with them. Maybe next time...
Jack showing off his new shoes (and still walking with arms up)
Sharing a popsicle with Daddy the other day

A Night at the Clayton House

Our weeknights are pretty much all the same. Jack and I get home, we all eat dinner, usually take a bath, then we all play until bedtime. Last night I took a couple videos of playtime.

Jack loves his stuffed animals:

Getting tickled is SO much fun: