On Sunday, March 8th, our last baby celebrated his first birthday! It was just days before life as we knew it came to a halt. Although we had to cancel his first birthday party due to coronavirus and social distancing, we were able to celebrate his actual birthday with our parents. It was a special day!
Coen's first birthday was probably the most bittersweet one we've ever celebrated. He is our last baby, so it was in our minds all day that this was the last time ever that we would be celebrating a first birthday for one of our children. That first year goes faster with each child that we add to our family, so we were reeling from the shock of having a 1 year old ALREADY!
That day, we introduced Coen to our favorite birthday traditions, and made sure he was properly spoiled. He was showered with attention and love, which is what makes birthdays so special. There is no doubt that our beautiful bonus baby is loved beyond measure!
When Coen woke up on his birthday, he was so excited to discover his crib was filled with balloons! He has been sleeping in our room since he started having seizures (it was only one week after he was released from the hospital), but he spotted his birthday balloons as soon as we passed his bedroom door. He immediately ran over to see them, and tried to climb into his crib to play.
After he played for a few minutes, I changed him into his special first birthday outfit. While we waited for the rest of the family to gather for Coen's birthday breakfast, I did a quick 12 month milestone blanket photoshoot. I'm not going to lie - I cried as I folded up the blanket and stored it away in the memory box!
After snapping a few pictures, I stripped off Coen's special first birthday shirt, in preparation for his birthday breakfast. (I kept Dylan's first birthday socks and bib, and Liam's first birthday onesie, so Coen wore those for a few hours!) Lexie came out to snuggle him. Because she was in the delivery room with us, and watched Coen enter the world, she was feeling very nostalgic as well. She cuddled him, talked to him, and looked at pictures from his birth day. She kept telling us that she couldn't believe how fast he grew!
Grant's mom stopped by just before breakfast came out of the oven, so she got to join us for his birthday breakfast, and sing Happy Birthday to him with us. Coen was excited to see his MawNaw, and had fun digging into his first presents of the day!
I had a mom fail, and completely forgot to pick up donuts for our traditional birthday breakfast, but I made do with cinnamon rolls. Coen didn't seem to mind one bit! He looked uncertain as we started to sing Happy Birthday to him, but soon, a smile was on his face. He LOVED his first cinnamon roll, and happily dug in!
If Coen's birthday had been one day earlier, we would have had a big party on that day. Sunday birthday parties are just too rough, but now I'm regretting it! Instead, we had a quiet afternoon after Grant's mom left, and time to kill before my parents arrived for cake and presents. After changing out of his messy outfit, Coen played with his new toy, then took a nice nap before dinner.
One nice thing about a quiet birthday, is that we were able to sneak out for a quick birthday photoshoot! Coen is too young for a birthday interview, so all I was able to do was take a few pictures. I did a few that I love, and will probably print one and hang it up on our gallery wall. He is such a little ham!
While we were taking pictures outside, we heard my parents pull into our driveway. We ran in to greet them and get the "party" started! There were lots of gifts to unwrap, and there was delicious cake to eat!
It was a bit stressful opening Coen's gifts. Liam was a bit jealous because Coen was getting all the attention, and kept trying to help him open gifts and taking his toys. He eventually scooted off on the Little Baby Bum bus, and the chaos ended!
FINALLY it was time for Coen's first birthday cake! We have the sweetest video of him reacting to the song. I just adore the little grin that spreads across his face!
We had a lot of previous experience, so we knew to strip Coen down to his diaper before we let him dig into his cake. He ate carefully at first, then REALLY dug in! It was a good thing we took off his clothes, because he was covered in cake! He even shared with his big sister, Lexie!
Lexie volunteered to give Coen a bath while we cleaned up the mess. (Thank goodness we have a dog that wanted to help!) While he was getting scrubbed clean, my parents headed home. We finished cleaning up, then curled up in bed with our now 1 year old!
Coen was one of the BIGGEST surprises of our lives! I was so scared when we found out we were going to have a fifth baby, and so worried about how he would fit in. I didn't need to worry, though. He is such a blessing, and completed our beautiful crew. We are so thankful to have had a "bonus baby" and we savored every beautiful moment of his first year. Now, we are blessed with a happy, healthy ONE year old who brings so much joy to our lives! Happy 1st Birthday, Coen!
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