Jasper's 1st Birthday

Piper was determined to make a party hat in celebration of Jasper's birthday, so that's what we spent the morning of the 5th doing, while Jasper was asleep. Pat, Dar and Jayden came over for lunch, which helped make the day feel festive. I videoed Jas opening his presents from Mum and Dad, Anna, and Pat & Dar, but hadn't pushed the record button, darn it! So I don't have any photos of the lunchtime/present space. Here's Piper in her princess hat!
Jas sometime in the afternoon...

John and Anne came over for dinner (roast chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, maple-drowned parsnips - a hit, roasted beets - not such a hit, peas and salad). I felt like I spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen, even though a roast is a relatively simple meal, but I wanted it to be a feast. Worth the effort, that's all I'm saying...

Opening a present with Gramma.

Washing up.

Post-dinner space. We went for a walk to a nearby park - the weather was lovely. Found some other kids to play with, that's always fun...

I made a party hat for Jasper too, although he was quite determined not to keep it on!



Ugh! Good riddance!

First birthday cake (I made a pumpkin orange cake - I wanted something soft, and I'd found this recipe a while ago and had been meaning to try it, but dunno if I'd make it again.... it was okay... Man, you didn't know this blog was actually about my culinary explorations, did you?!)

Happy Birthday to you, Jasper!

When I was journalling on Wednesday, I made a list of all the things I could think of that Jas could do/has achieved in his little life so far. It's far from comprehensive, and these are hardly the most important things in life, but here goes:

JASPER

- has 6 teeth

- can walk by himself and is doing so more and more

- can say: mama, dada, piper, bang, miaow, boo, duh-dle (cuddle), ah-ah (amen) and bye bye

- waves his arms to communicate 'all done! no more food!'

- bestowes kisses upon request (most of the time)

- has a great giggle

- gets into funny games with Piper

- likes clapping and dancing

- watches everything - keeps his eye on us and his sister! Learns so fast that way! So wants to ride Piper's bike and trike and brush his teeth and hair

- feels compelled to shut some doors around the place, especially the hallways closets

- can climb onto the couch, and then the armrest, and has fallen from there at least three times

- has undertaken the Canadian rite of passage and fallen down the flight of stairs at Jeff and Sharon's house (I wasn't there, I only found the carpet burn on his nose later! Gord wasn't there either - I think that was part of the problem! He was talking to Sharon somewhere!)

- has managed to log in to the guest account on my laptop (thanks to its handy proximity to the couch and his new-found agility!)...finds keyboards fascinating!

- can crawl backwards

- waves bye bye and blows kisses

Pretty cool what a one-year-old can do and communicate!