Harrison's First Birthday (Part 2)

On Saturday 2/6, we had a small family birthday party at our new house. Mom, Dad, Grandmama Dreslaine, Great Papa Hugh, Great Grandma Peggy, Great Grandma Nancy, Great Aunt Shivonne with Great Uncle John and cousin Gillian, Aunt Alexis and his two teachers from school Miss Ashleigh and Miss Stephanie. Harrison enjoyed some bits of cheese pizza followed by presents which included lots of clothes and books and a fun toy from mom and dad. As expected, he loved the tissue paper best but also enjoyed the giant Pooh Bear and other stuffed toys. In the days that followed we have also enjoyed many of the books as well.

Opening gifts with momma

 

Making friends with Pooh while sporting his "Birthday Boy Cake" Hat sent from PoPo

 

Hooray for Harrison!

The best part of a one-year-old's birthday party is the cake eating. This event was so highly anticipated that dear old momma made a trial cake the week before, which dadda sampled nearly every night in between to ensure it was fit for his son. I had begun the quest for the perfect cake weeks earlier, seeking a low sugar, healthy alternative to the standard sugar, butter and oil found in most cakes. Dad implied I would be a bad mother and ruin Harrison's birthday to feed such healthy junk to our son. In the end I acquiesced with a couple compromises. I made a two layer yellow cake, sandwiching a layer of vanilla pudding and mandarin oranges (his favorite food, hands down)  and covered the whole thing in low fat Cool Whip. Methinks my future will consist of much giving in. Before I know it he will be eating Pop Tarts and Happy Meals and I won't even recall insisting on organic, fresh food.

Cake Co-Conspirators

When the time came, Harrison thought the candles were pretty neat and instantly tried to grab for the flames. Once we sang and the candles were removed, he didn't seem to know what to do so dad dipped his finer in the whipped topping and stuck it in Harrison's mouth. He puckered up like a fish at the taste of it, although that is not unusual for a first taste of anything. They tried again and I could almost see the wheels spinning in his mind... this stuff is pretty good. There is a lot of it in front of me. Are they going to let me eat more??

 The white candle in the middle was a big "1"

Dad that tastes weird!

 Second taste, dipping his own finger into the cool whip

Hmmm... not so bad!

 More please!

 15 minutes later... made it through the cool whip and scrapping the top layer of cake. Eventually dad removed a chunk so he could find the treasure trove of pudding and mandarin oranges.

 We taught Harrison to raise his hands above his head when we yell "Hooray!" so at some point, he would raise his hands and everyone in the room would respond with "Hooray!" in unison. What a manipulator!

Peggy, Shivonne and Dreslaine were hysterical with laughter. Evidently the idea of giving an entire cake to a one year old to demolish at will was too much to handle. Grandpapa Hughie flinched and shirked every time Harrison dug in his hand! Mid way through the spectacle, I served up some "adult" cake from Central Market (much tastier than any cake I could have baked). 

After about 25 minutes, he was done eating and we took the cake away. Remarkably, he was pretty clean and he did not throw chunks of cake onto the ground as expected. Aside from cake on his clothes and some in his hair, he was in pretty good shape. We stripped off his clothes, put on some fresh ones and a few wet wipes later he continued with the party, no need for a bath.

  Two pals, Harrison and Hughie, 85 years apart.

As mentioned in Part 1 of the Birthday post, Harrison had the stomach flu and we were concerned he might not make it through the party. Although a wee bit of a whiner, he held up well and did not throw up until well into the evening after everyone had left. A baby's first birthday party is certainly more for the parents then for the child but we think we were able to fulfill everyone's hopes without going overboard.  

At the end of a long day