Kaden's First Birthday!

 On Wednesday, August 13th, our baby became a toddler! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Kaden was born, but nevertheless - our boy is one year old!

Over all, I'd say he had a great birthday. My Ajima, Mrs. Yang, came to clean for us that morning and brought Kaden his first birthday gift. It's an adorable baseball cap. If I can ever get him to wear it for more than 2 seconds, I'll be sure to get a picture of it. The two of them played together all morning while I went out and ran errands. Kaden LOVES his Korean grandma. ;^)

Around lunch time we got the birthday trio together for a play date while Jordan, Jenny and I finished planning their big birthday party, slated for the weekend. Kaden was a little over excited and rough with his friends. He kept tackling Jack and trying to climb up on his back. Good thing Jack is bigger and can take it. Riley was a total ham and would stop playing and smile any time she sensed I was about to snap a photo on my phone. I love these three babies!

Needless to say, Kaden took a great nap that afternoon. When he woke up, I decided to treat him to a birthday movie. (That seems to already be a holiday tradition in our household.) I had tropical seascapes on the brain after our party planning meeting and decided to introduce Kaden to my favorite Pixar movie: Finding Nemo. He LOVED it. Normally, he enjoys watching TV for about 5-10 minutes and then gets bored and wanders off to play with his toys (or mommy's iPhone, or the remote controls, or whatever other gadgets he can get his hands on). But he sat there for at least 30 minutes and laughed and pointed at the TV as the fish swam around on the screen. It was a fun bonding experience. Daddy made it home from work in time to take over movie-duty so I could cook us a delicious dinner.

Making the same face. Hahaha.

 After dinner, it was time to open presents! Kaden received quite a few gifts from family members. He was very excited to rip the paper open, and had a hard time surrendering whatever he opened in order to start on the next thing. If only he could keep that trait forever - we'd only have to give him one present a year! Haha.

Kaden received a whole new library from his grandparents and cousins!

"Reading" his cards

YAY! Kaden finally has some Dodgers gear! Thanks for taking the not-so-subtle hint, Grandma Nancy!

Looking at the beautiful maps and illustrations in the books from the Portugal Wentzels

Daddy's favorite gift from the pile!

It went well with his gift from us: a Star Wars hooded towel!

 After Kaden was finished opening his loot, it was time for the birthday cake! I didn't want to give him anything too sweet, so I put some relatively healthy blueberry pancake mix in a small cake pan and iced it with vanilla yogurt. Not super pretty, but it worked.

He was much more interested in the fire than the cake

It took him a while to get into it, but he did eventually enjoy a few handfuls of his birthday bundt-pancake

 After dinner we wound down with a cup of milk and watched the end of the movie. It was so cute how my men were snuggling on the couch, I had to take a picture. James tolerated my shutterbug tendencies because it was Kaden's birthday, and I'm grateful. Sweet memories from a bittersweet holiday. Thankfully, I didn't have to get too emotional just yet because there was much more birthday fun to come on Saturday!