One of the reasons I was MIA on the blog for a few weeks was due to party preparations for my little boy.  He’s in love with Curious George right now (thank you Netflix!), so of course we did a Curious George party.  He’s only three, and he was a little freaked out by the happy birthday song, as you can tell by his face, but as soon as everyone stopped singing and he got his cake, it was all good!

For the cake, I took the easy way out and had an edible image of George printed at the grocery store.  It was $6—money well spent!  In searching for cakes, my favorite ones were either super-elaborate fondant ones or ones that used the edible image.  Unless one happened to have a kopykake (maybe someday!) or used a color-flow method, all the drawn ones just didn’t look very good.  You have to really be an artist to do a character cake freehand.  For Damon’s first birthday, I did a very detailed fondant jungle cake.  While that was great for his first birthday, I just didn’t want to put that much effort into a grandparent/aunt/uncle only party.  Besides, I think Damon liked this one better because George looked exactly like he was supposed to.  I wanted to put little banana candies on the border, but Walmart doesn’t sell runts, and I didn’t feel like making a trip to the candy store in the mall.

I also made Damon a birthday shirt.  I think I’ll make a habit of this.  I might not do the big number every year, but the shirt was so cheap, and even using printable iron-ons would be easy, and a birthday shirt certainly makes the birthday boy look more festive.  It would also help identify the age in pictures when we look at them later!

This was the first year he was able to really open his presents.  I think he got plenty of practice at Christmas!

Overall, I was quite happy with how the party went.  It was the first year that I had it at my house instead of at my parents, and everything was much more relaxed.  My dad wasn’t freaking out about whether his house was clean, and I didn’t have to pack everything up and transport it two hours away.  I also got to decorate with a birthday banner I made from fabric triangles—which I completely forgot to take a picture of!  Oh well—my other son will turn one in October, and it will be making an appearance then.

These photos were taken about a week late, but we all had colds when he turned 4 months old, so this will have to do.

This was the most difficult monthly photo session yet.  He’s just old enough that there were so many distractions—his own feet, the teddy bear, and the little assistant photographer who kept wanting to give hugs.

And for real-life family/friends, here’s a little growth progression:

Once again picture time has rolled around.  It seems like the months are going so quickly.  This month, I actually got a smile from him!

His eyes are still blue.  There’s still time for them to turn brown, but there are no little brown flecks in them yet as there were in Damon’s at this age, so maybe Bennett will keep his blue eyes.  Here’s a quick comparison from previous months.  I love using the little onesies for his monthly pictures.  They make it so easy to tell how old he is, and once I put these pictures in a frame, it will have such a nice cohesive look with all the colors the same—it will really make the baby stand out and not the background.

It definitely does not seem like I’ve had this little guy for two months already.  Things are mostly back to normal (hormones have run their course, I think!), and it’s starting to seem like he’s always been around.  He’s growing like a weed—much faster than his older brother did at this age.  I think he’s already two pounds ahead of where Damon was at 2 months.  Maybe we have a football player on our hands—it could happen.  His dad is 6’3”, I’m not little for a woman, and my dad is 6’7”, and my mother in law is almost 6 feet tall as well.  So, I’m interested to see what happens to both my boys once they hit adolescence.  We could be buying new pants every other week.  He really doesn’t look that much different from the first month picture, though, so maybe it’s all in my head.

I took lots of shots in his 2 month onesie so I’ll have plenty to choose from later when I’m making a big photo collage.  I have a onesie all the way up to 12 months, and when I have all the pictures, I’ll make one big print for his room.

He fell over a little partway through, and it looks like he’s cuddling the bear.  I just love this bear that my friend made from his bedding scraps.

And some outtakes, of course—there are more, but he was certainly favoring the eyes-wide-open look this morning!

My last post was October 3, 2012, and three days later, I had this little guy:

We named him Bennett Joseph, and he was 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 21 inches long.  This is the bedding that I made for him, which I have yet to post, but it will come one of these days.  His nursery still has many finishing touches left, but at least we have a place to change him, store his clothes, and his crib is set up, too.  Hopefully he’ll be using that in another couple of months.

I haven’t had much time for sewing lately, but I’ve worked in spurts here and there, so I’ll have some new stuff to post soon.  It’s good for me to do at least a little sewing/crafting.  It makes me feel more like myself again, which is always a good thing.  Still, most of the time sleep wins out, so I’ve been going to bed much earlier than normal, and late nights when my first is in bed were my prime sewing hours.

Today when I looked out on my front porch, I found a box from my best friend who blogs over at Super Sweet Life.   This is what I found inside:

Each onesie has a number corresponding to how many months old the baby is.  I saw these on Pinterest a while back and loved them, but I never found the time to make them—talk about a perfect gift!  It’s great timing, too, because Bennett is one month and three days old today, but I hadn’t yet gotten around to taking his one month picture yet.  So, I made time today.

I can’t believe it has already been a month.  To be honest, I love this time of a baby’s life—he’s still tiny and sweet, but I’ve healed from the birth, and he’s settled into a bit of a routine.   Of course, when I start getting a full night’s sleep again, that will probably become my favorite time!

And here he is with a super cute bear that another good friend made for me:

She used scraps that I gave her from his bedding and made a bear.  I’ve always loved her bears, so I was really excited that she made one for me, too.  My plan is to take a monthly picture with the bear to show how much he’s growing.  She did that with her kids, and I think it’s a really cute idea.

So, big thank yous to both of my friends!  I absolutely love both gifts!

For my little boy’s birthday this year, I did a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party since that’s his favorite book at the moment.  I think he only likes it because the book has holes to stick his finger through, but whatever.

I’ve had such a hard time with morning sickness that I planned to make a very easy cake this year, and what’s easier than cupcakes?  It was so simple and fast to throw together.  I was happy with the way it turned out, and I even liked it better than some tiered cakes I had contemplated before deciding on the easy way out.  Last year, I made this cake…and cookies, and cake pops:

I didn’t even want to attempt something on that big of a scale with my uncertain state of nausea.  Also, it was a smaller party– only immediate family.  However, he has five sets of grandparents, plus several aunts and uncles, so it really wasn’t all that small!

Anyhow, things turned out well this year, and Damon definitely liked the cake:

In this next one, the icing on his hands had been bothering him, so one of his uncles wiped them off, but he still had cake left.  What a little problem solver he is!