Baby Boy and Baby Girl Pounds: MONTH 12-14: 1st Birthday Pics, Beach time, William is now 14 months (Part 2 of 2)

Months 12-14 Part 2 of 2:

Here are the rest of the pic's and videos to officially catch-up to where William is today...14 months old!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY WILLIAM!!

William's First birthday was just as I had read to expect....you can only plan so much. Nap times, hunger, diaper changes and excitement make for an interesting combo in general, let alone for a one year old. Overall, I think it went really well. Hap Maghee park is a place we have come to love going to with William, and where most of our family photo shoots have taken place, including my pregnancy shoot. I had to book the birthday space last October because it's such a popular spot. There was actually a very cute outdoor wedding going on at around the same time in a different area...definitely a demand at this adorable park.

William was born on a friday, so it was a really awesome coincidence to be able to celebrate his first birthday on his actual day :) I've read that the baby ages a one year, but parents age about 5 and I can for sure relate to that. If it wasn't for the lack of sleep the first couple of months, and my stubbornness to continue to exclusively pump, it may have made for an easier year. But looking back, I think it was all worth it.

Susi made this adorable board. She drew all the really cute chalkboards throughout in my weekly pregnancy pictures, so it was perfect that she made one for the birthday party. All her idea, by the way :) We also used them for his first birthday photo shoot.

Monthly pictures placed on flags. My Mom and Suz helped put these together, stenciled in "William's 1st" and put the pictures up. These pic's don't do the banner justice. It was pretty adorable.

Birthday food, and Gare on the BBQ. We thankfully had help from family with everything including the food and BBQ.

We set up an area with blankets and two canopies. It was nice to have a shady area for all the babies to play and hang out in. The park was probably a bit grown-up for most of them, with the exception of the baby swings of course.

Pic's with family and friends. Uncle Omar flew in that morning, after finishing his first year of med school, so we were all extra excited to have him around :)

Yummy birthday cake!

Some of our college friends and their babies :)

William was super tired since he was due for his afternoon nap, and my Uncle Carlos is really great at soothing him down. Here his is, getting William to relax.

W finally passed out on his stroller. His Great Grandmother Edith, Great Grandfather Harry (Not pictured here) and Grandmother Doris all happily strolled him around the park until he finally fell asleep! He woke up a couple of hours later, ready to continue with the party :)

Was loving this toy! He wasn't walking though, he was more like running! My back was sore the next day from bending over to turn the toy round after it came to a dead end.

We opened presents at my parents' place because it was just too overwhelming at the birthday itself. W had much more fun opening presents this time, versus Christmas. He loved the wrapping paper, the cards and of course all the presents!

First time at the Beach

The day after William's birthday, we drove to L.A. for a couple of days of beach fun. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best thing to do, since we were so exhausted from the party. But, my parents were going to leave that day and my brother was only going to be in town for so long, so we decided to make it work. Garrett also had a two day meeting in L.A that week, so it worked out.

When we first got there W was in a great mood. He was loving the hotel room, the view, etc. Unfortunately, he caught some sort of cold at his birthday. So not only was he sick, we found that he had his first molar poking through a couple of days before we left. Not a good combo. The first two days were rough, and then it got a little better.

Napping on the beach was tricky. If I didn't get him down into his little napping tent right on time, then he would just cry and cry and not be able to sleep. It may have been the most stressful, relaxing vacation I've ever been on. I lost almost two pounds that week. It was a lot of work to go the beach with a toddler...lots of equipment required too! I would do it again in a heartbeat though, because when he was happy it was amazing. Especially now that he's closer to being 14 months, I think he would have a better time since he can walk and is obsessed with sand :)

Pic's of our Resort in Huntington and Playing at Huntington Beach

We went and hung out next door at the Hyatt to grab breakfast and W loved the nice fountains.

Sleeping in his little beach tent..love those feet! When he napped on time, it was amazing!

There was a baby girl behind us at breakfast and W was of determined to see her. She was kind of hidden behind her Mom.

Nutella waffles..YUM!

Cruising the beach...

Hanging with Uncle Omar

Hanging with Hamdy

Practicing his wave

Getting our beach wagon at the concierge with all our beach equipment. The license plate said smores..ha

Gare headed to his meeting and we headed to San Diego with the rest of the fam. Here we are at Del Mar beach.

Playing around at Coronado beach the next day, W needing a nap :(

Hanging at our hotel lobby in La Jolla

Susi and Loli roomed with W and I while Garrett was gone in L.A, and I don't think they were prepared for W's 6 AM wake-up calls. Ha

Garrett back from meetings, and feeding W with a lovely view of the golf course.

Our drive back from SD was rough. William is more mobile by the day, and it was a LONG drive home. We wouldn't usually make a long lunch stop, but W needed to stretch his legs, and he loved hanging with daddy in the booth.

Can't decide between his two favorites, so he tried pushing both together for a while.

Waiting to be called-in at the Allergist's office. He's loving the toys in the waiting room

"Helping" his Daddy put together the car that my parents got him for his birthday. Thankfully, this material doesn't scratch the floor because he loved pushing the wheels around the house.

Playing with his first train set

Celebrating Lila's Bridal shower in SF.

Everyone went to my Uncle's house after to continue the celebration, and this is a picture of William on his way home....exhausted. Omar kept him company :)

Garrett's been traveling a lot lately for work, so we've been going to the Bay Area and staying with my parents. William loves going in the backyard and playing with my Dad.

Looking so much bigger than the last time I took pictures of him on the baby swing.

Picture of William and Omar before he took off for school again. Bye-bye.

Playing with his car :)

Steve drove all the way from SFO to hang out with William. W was very into being held by his Uncle Steve and kept crawling towards him to be picked up. Obviously, with Ava and Camila at home Steve was a natural and W really enjoyed his visit. :)

Backyard BBQ with some pool action for William.

Luke celebrated his 3rd birthday and we thought we would give William a fun hairdo for the party. Garrett is always doing this to his hair in the bath, so it was fun to see it during the day.

Susi and I took William to a kids place in the Bay Area and he had the best time. These giant wheels were some of his favorites.

I was cooking on Monday of the week we were going to leave W for the first time and go to Vegas for our anniversary, and it was like he knew that we were going to go. He was extra huggy and clingy and wanted me with him 24/7. I was trying to make dinner so badly, I went and grabbed the baby carrier so he could be with me. He loved it. I even made a dance out of chopping the veggies and he had a great time. It slowed me down quite a bit, but it was nice to cuddle with him before leaving too. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

The best view I've ever had while chopping veggies :)

Vegas for our 5 year

Ideally we wanted to go somewhere a bit more exotic for our 5 year anniversary, but having a "little one" at home changes so many things. We didn't want to go super far, and we didn't want to go for more than two nights for many reasons, one of them being that I'm still pumping. So Las Vegas was kind of perfect. We honestly had the BEST time! Way better than I expected- it was one of the best Vegas trips. We stayed at the Palazzo (The Venetian's sister hotel) and the rooms were gorgeous. We had some amazing food, we partied, and we even got some awesome R &R at the pool. So we couldn't ask for much more. I even got to go to the gym, which most stay at home moms know is a luxury. It put me in such a good mood, that I brought Garrett breakfast in bed on my way back...because of course he slept in. We each did what our idea of a vacation was and it was fantastic :)

View of Encore form our suite.

Our awesome room, might be the nicest room we've ever had in Vegas.

Hanging out at David Copperfield's before the show. Garrett got chosen before the show started and got to go on stage and helped him make a goose appear from a bucket. It was really funny, but we weren't allowed to take video or pic's which was a huge bummer. The show was a bit cheesy, but entertaining. We would recommend it.

We didn't have plans for a nice anniversary dinner until the following night which was our actual day, but we ended up at Olives which is one of the more "casual" restaurants at the Bellagio. Long story short, we ended up getting a table on te terrace that overlooked the famous fountains. So we hung out longer than we originally planned, had a little food, some drinks...it was so fun and romantic!

I was so into our actual anniversary dinner at prime, that I forgot to take any pictures. The whole thing was perfection. I think it was the best steak of my life! It was also at the Bellagio, but we chose to sit indoors since the restaurant was so stunningly gorgeous and we had views of the fountains from the windows. Our waiter was nice enough to take pictures of us at on their outdoor patio deck post-dinner.

We were so full, we decided we should hit up a lounge (and later a club) to burn off the calories! This was at a lounge that had a live band and then we went dancing. We felt like our former young, partying selves! So fun!

I wore my lovely wedding shoes on our anniversary night! I know it's silly, but it felt really special to be able to celebrate in such a fun way. Not only our five years ,but our little guy too that we love so much :) We stayed just long enough.

The Disney Store Strikes Again! Ugh

As William gets older, I am more ad more of a sucker for the Disney store. This time I thought it was be "so fun" to let him out of his stroller so he could walk around and explore a little...I thought wrong. He went to stuffed animal area and started throwing everything to the floor, more like up in the air and then they hit the floor. I couldn't keep up with trying to put them back in place. All I kept seeing was poor kermit up in the air! Then, he thought he would go around huggin random adults' leggs until he saw a kid with a ball, and then freaked out because he wanted to play with it. So below is also a picture of him with his new ball...whew!

Loving the lettuce

Hanging at mistlin park, by our house and loving the fountains

Having fun in a bounce house with mini balls in it. He loved it!

Enjoying his crib toy he got for his birthday :)

Playing with Daddy

We are really enjoying the park that's right outside of our house lately. There are daily soccer practices of little ones running around, so we let William run around too, usually when Garrett gets home, the 3 of us head out there.

Still loves sleeping sideways, but is starting to not fit length wise.

We went to go visit Garrett at frito on Friday (William had just tuned 14 months here) and I thought it would be fun to dress him up for Daddy. At first he hated the jersey, so I took it off until we got there. He was so distracted by everyone at the plant, that he forgot about it and looked super cute. One of the ladies there even called him "beautiful." Ha. I know I'm biased, but I have to agree ;)