ONE

One is certainly not the loneliest number when you are Noah Retchless. We have been in celebration mode for about three weeks now and the man of the hour has been blessed with so many wonderful gifts and visitors as a result! I think we were all on auto-pilot/hyper-drive because as soon as the bounce house (yes, my one year old had a bounce house....just hold on!) came down, we all pretty much collapsed.

Now that I am free (can I get a Hallelujah?!) from weekly Noah updates, I have some plans for posts about motherhood, relationships, body after baby, and more, in the coming weeks. That leaves this post to be fully dedicated to PAAAARTIES!!!

Party #1 - October 26, 2012
We were very lucky to get to celebrate Noah's birthday a little bit early with Scott's family. His brother, Jim, and his family were in town from Austin so it was an extra special day of family fun. The weather Gods were with us and we were able to spend a fair amount of the day outside (Noah's favorite place on earth).

Theme of party #1 was simply blue and white.

Noah was cool with it. He enjoyed his first lollipop.

Clearly being the center of attention suits him.

The first tear!

Trying out his new hoop!

Our little family. At what age do the smile on command?!

There was so much present opening! Luckily, our boy is a trooper and participated in each and every one.

The Retchless siblings

Cousins. Just a small age differential!

The first frosting swipe

Enjoying.

Contemplating going for the grab.

And, ALL DONE ALL DONE. He was not ok having frosting all over his hands and was flailing to get it off (my walls have the stains to prove it).

Birthday Cake #1. I give Safeway about a 3 on decorating. Guess that is what you get for ordering a cake from Safeway last minute?!

Party #2 - November 9, 2012
This was a bit more low key (although, much less sober for the adults?!) as it was a party of 7 instead of 32! My dad whipped up his famous margaritas (the reason for the less sober state) and we celebrated the man of the year, Noah. It was fun to reminisce about how a year ago we were delirious in a hospital room soaking up the first hours with our new baby boy...and here we were a year later watching him RUN around the house. A huge thanks to my parents and Jess & Kirk (and Hoffman) for helping us ring in the 1st year.

In between parties we picked up Grandma and Grandpa at the airport. Could you just die from cuteness overload? I mean, look at the elbow patches!

Happy Birthday to my favorite little man on earth!

A little stroll with Grandpa.

Scott decided Noah needed a special gift just from Dad. That's when this exploded all over the floor.

Turns out, Noah loves it. We even took a walk around the block and he rode the whole way in his 4x4.

Party #3 - November 11, 2012
The final party could also be named "most ridiculous party ever", "noah's circus", or "what on earth got into us?!". This party was amazing, but also a little above and beyond. Of course, as the party planner, I thought it was perfect, but could also be objective when the hot dog man rolled in with his cart to complete the day that we might have gotten carried away. Oh, and the jet flyover...too much?! You think I'm kidding? There actually was one by two fighter jets (but I didn't arrange it, I took credit though!). That said, I got to actually enjoy the festivities instead of spending the day in the kitchen prepping food for guests. While next year will absolutely resemble party #2, I wouldn't have changed any of it for the world!

To begin, we settled on a theme. Noah's Ark. This will be the theme of Noah's birthday for at least the next 10 years. Sorry, kid, but mom built you an ark so you are stuck with it. Yes, I built an ark. It was a Pinterest find gone crazy. I started out with visions of crepe paper and some elmers and ended up with wood stain and exacto knives.

It started out innocently enough.

But quickly took on a life of its own. I might be more proud of this ark than planning my own wedding.

If anyone is looking for an ark building tutorial I would be happy to post it. Just know that I do not guarantee your sanity intact upon completion. Let's talk more decorations...

This is the amazing banner that Allie made for Noah. Close up is below but I just love that Noah cruised outside mid photo shoot (for the record, I was still in my robe taking these pictures...my neighbors must think I'm crazy).

Amazing. I am so glad we'll have this for all of Noah's birthdays!

Goody Bags.

Goody Bag contents. The water bottles varied because I made a rookie mistake and ordered too few the first time around.

The cake table. (there are animals coming out of the other side of the ark too)

Beverage station. The Sangria was a special recipe from my favorite Spaniard, Tatiana!

Tatiana and Olivia. They are leaving us for Europe. We don't talk about it.

Flower arrangements with a few special friends poking out.

Tables. You can't see it in this picture but the bows on the table were animal print.

The world's largest bouncy (or smallest backyard?).

Animal masks for the munchkins.

The kicker. Our hot dog stand. For the record, they were gooooood.

We went with cupcakes instead of cake this time around.

Noah's special cupcake...of which he ate one finger dip of frosting. He seriously doesn't like sweets.

But he LOVED his bounce house.

"Seriously, we have to sing and have cake again?!?!"

He was pretty much over family photos at that point too.

Must have been a plane flying over. He is obsessed.

More presents. Noah was definitely spoiled!!!

And, if you are still with me, Noah's 1 year stats:

• Food -While we pretty much threw most "rules" about food out the window around 11 months, we officially got the green light for Noah to eat anything and everything he wants. Current favorites: PBJ, mandarin oranges, blueberries (back after a short strike), quesadillas, guacamole, anything he can eat with a toothpick (hot dog, chicken nuggets, meatballs), and well, anything with starch and cheese involved still.  



Chowing on his hot dog with his toothpick.

• Sleep - While I not-so-secretly wish Noah would sleep in a little later, he sleeps from 7:30pm-6am. I would be willing to cut down nap times (GASP) for an extra hour in the morning. Unfortunately, this doesn't work...I've tried. Noah also still takes two naps a day. One about an hour and half after waking and another around 2:30pm.
• Teeth - 6! 2 on bottom and 4 adorable chompers on top. He has finally figured out what to do with these little biters too and will actually bite pieces of food instead of jamming giant pieces in his mouth.
• Length-29.5" (50th percentile) 
• Weight-19.6lbs (a little under the 10th percentile).
• Noises - Mamamamamamama, Dada, ByeBye, and GA (which means airplane 99% of the time)
• Favorites - Outside...he hates our house I have decided, throwing pacis out of his crib, airplanes, marching, balls, other kids, and, well, pretty much anything that involves play play play!



Noah got this bat for his birthday...he insisted on carrying it around everywhere for days on end. It was a rather interesting conversation starter at Crate & Barrel.

• 

  Everywhere I tell ya. It even came to dinner.

• Not so favorites - Breakfast, sweets (i.e.-cake), long car rides. He is a pretty standard one year old. His likes and dislikes changes pretty much every minute! 

Cheers to one great year!