OMG I'm a Mommy?!: April 2015

Ian's rosette smash cake with Paddington Brown bear

When our Baby Beary turned 1 initially my hubby and I thought we would throw a party similar to his older brother, but utter exhaustion, winter, and my sanity obliterated those plans. I felt badly about this, but Ian is born in the dead of winter and I’m from a tropical climate and grew up in Florida, I’m just not built for this type of cold. I know, I know, get over it, well I simply can’t. I hibernate during winter and the thought of trying to plan and host a birthday party with two very young boys was not going to happen. Normally I would sacrifice my mental sanity and do it, but this time I opted out and it was the best decision for us. Let’s face it, the 1 year old birthday extravaganza is for the parents. The basic tenets are about creating great memories and celebrating this milestone with loved ones. In going along with that, I decided to get professional pictures taken of our nugget with a smash cake and to have a simple and sweet bday celebration with our little family at home with cupcakes.

Once I came up with a game plan I had to find a photographer I liked, pick a theme for the pictures, order a smash cake, figure out the attire/décor, and get the whole fam on board. Through internet research I found a photographer very close to where I live who has a studio in her home. This was important to me because it would allow us to give Ian a quick bath after his smash cake indulgence. And she had a really fun play area next to the studio that we could use as a distraction. We also decided that we would use this opportunity to take a couple of family pictures beforehand, take some pics with the boys, change Ian into his smash cake outfit, get pics of him in that, introduce the smash cake, and have him delve in.

We came up with Paddington bear theme because one of our nicknames for Ian is Baby Beary and while there is Winnie the Pooh and Corduroy, we liked the idea of Paddington because he is known for loving his orange marmalade. With this is mind, when ordering Ian’s smash cake I knew I wanted it to be an orange rosette cake. I personally like how they photograph. I found a really cute Paddington print smash cake outfit on Etsy. I ordered the hat with fluffy tassle, the diaper cover, and a bowtie. I wanted his little belly out and knew this would make for easier cleanup, so it was a win win. One of Ian’s aunties also bought him a Paddington bear and book that we used in the photos to carry through the theme and we bought colorful balloons to add some simple flair.

The morning of Ian’s smash cake shoot was very hectic. Actually, whenever you’re trying to get everyone ready, looking nice, and out at a set time it is very stressful when you have kids. By the time you feed them, have them dressed and ready to go, they either need a diaper change, need to potty, are hungry again so you have to feed them, cranky because they’re sleepy, or in our case, all of the above lol. It was a chilly morning as would be expected in the middle of February and by the grace of God we left on time. Luckily, the photographer was only 10 minutes from our home and when we got there she was ready to go because she knew it would only be a matter of time before the meltdowns began (she has young kids as well).

We tried and tried to get a nice family shot, but the boys refused to cooperate. Trying to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time and smile was just not happening. After about 10 min of that I was like eh let’s move on because our mission was to capture cute bday pics of Ian. We also tried to get cute shots of the brothers together and that was a hot mess as well lol. Isaac was cooperating, but Ian decided he wanted to run everywhere, so after 15 min, that was that. Then when

we changed Ian into his smash cake outfit our little Isaac’s attitude took a turn and Mr. Grumpy Pants made an appearance. We suspected this would happen because the attention was not focused on him, so daddy took him out of the studio and into the play area. Praise God for that!. Meanwhile, I was trying to get Ian to stay on the white backdrop to take pics without him running off. It was a serious work out! I was sweating and the amount of squats I did was simply ridiculous. No wonder I was incredibly sore the next day! Taking these pics were definitely not easy like his newborn shots where he stayed put. I honestly wish we could have done the pics outside, but alas it was too cold and I didn’t want to risk our boys getting sick for the sake of pictures.

It was worth getting these shots of our sweet beary

After the pics were done and we were all packed up, I remember I sat in the car, looked at my hubby and was like, “That was straight up torture.” Jon told me he knew it was going to be like that and had mentally prepared for it. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be all sunshine and flowers lol. Must have been the chocolate flavored coffee I downed that morning. Turns out I wasn’t the only one exhausted, when we got home, after eating lunch, the boys were knocked out and I had a “mommy drink” to unwind.

That week, we celebrated Ian’s bday on his actual birth date by getting 4 cupcakes and singing to him. Isaac became really upset when we did that because boyfriend doesn’t like it when you sing happy bday to anyone besides him. He then proceeded to blow out Ian’s candle and had a huge grin afterwards. All we could do was look at one another and smile because well, that’s our Isaac and Ian doesn’t know how to blow out a candle, so no biggie. You honestly just learn to go with the flow and don’t sweat the small stuff. It was a cute and quaint bday for our little guy and man oh man what they say about the second child is so true lol. That’s something I’ll discuss in my next post. Check out the bday pics below as well and you'll see I don't exaggerate when I document our experiences lol.

He started off sour then got super sweet lol