Birthday Monster!

Dear Monster,

   You turned ONE! How insane is that? You have beat every single odd that has been placed against you and you SO deserved to be surrounded by your loved ones and smash your face with cake! You did SO well throughout the day. You didn't mind being held and loved on by a ton of different people and you smiled for all of the important pictures. Such an angel! Congrats on the big birthday, Son. You made it an entire year with nothing but successes. You're father and I are so proud of you and we can't wait for many many more birthdays!
~~~

Hello Readers! I'm gonna say, right off the bat, thank you for your patience with me over the last few weeks. Between Liam's surgery (my next blog), his first birthday, and his one year wellness check, things have been a little intense around here. Liam has now figured out that if he makes a painful sounding cry his father or I will race right into him. We're having to break that habit (as he is clearly no longer painful from his surgery and he starts laughing and smiling the minute we see him) and it's looking like it is going to be a long and winding road. At his wellness check it was determined that I have a 17lb 28in long monster that is happy and healthy! Such amazing news! We couldn't imagine a better first birthday present. We are currently in the process of transitioning to whole milk. We were told this should take around 3 weeks. We can hardly believe that in 3 weeks we will never again have to buy formula! We were also told to start giving him fatty foods (i.e. pasta w/ alfredo sauce, sweet potatoes with butter, full fat cottage cheese) while we start weening him off of a liquid diet and onto regular food. I can't wait!

Now that the lovely update is done, I get to move onto my real reason for this blog: Liam's 1st Birthday! Oh my goodness! I did NOT realize how much work went into a birthday party. I was overwhelmed from the evening before the party through the morning after it. It was fun and utter chaos from the moment I decided on the theme! I immediately went online and did so much research I thought my eyes would start bleeding! I chose a Rock theme and I was suddenly and completely overwhelmed by great ideas for food, decorations, goodie bags, and games! In the end, I shut it all out and went with what I thought would be fun, funny, and yummy!

Let's start with: FOOD! I started by sitting down and listing out all of the bands I could think of that could be made to sound like food or actually had names of food in them. This was a LOT harder than I thought it would be. My final menu included: Meat(loaf) Balls, Kettle PopKorn, Sea Salt PopKorn, R.E.M.'s Orange Crush Jell-O, Drum Styx, Bread Zeppelin (this was where we kept the buns for the burgers and hotdogs), Pink Floyd Lemonade, and 5 Finger Death Punch (the punch with alcohol in it).

Pouring the orange Jell-O the night before

Melting the chocolate for the Drum Styx

Laying out the Drum Styx to cool over night

The tags for the different foods

While the food was incredibly fun to create and put together, the decorations were probably my favorite!

I used unneeded or old discs

I put tape on the front and taped them to the walls. Cheap and easy!

Pretty much everything I used I purchased at the Dollar Tree, including this set for Liam's high chair

I found these cute plastic boxes, everything inside of them (fun glasses, "sleeve tattoos", and silly little instruments), and the wrapping for them at the Dollar Tree!

My husband brought out some of his old albums and we propped them up all over the house. I also listed each guests name on a yellow or orange star and had them sign them when they arrived (walk of fame). The stars were all over the house and worked as a tour of the house while people looked for their star to sign! You can also see how the CDs that I taped up looked in this shot!

The game we decided on was Mad Libs. We handed people cards with lists of the words we wanted as they arrived then we inserted those words into well known rock lyrics. It was tons of fun. These are the trophies we gave to the winners! (Also purchased at the Dollar Tree)

I used a red and black color scheme for the party to go with the theme. Everything on this table was purchased for under $5 at, you guessed it, the Dollar Tree!

Balloons and streamers were Dollar Tree purchases as well! You can also see more of the stars and CDs in this one.

I made a trip to the Goodwill near my house and found 10 of these old albums for around $5. I used this one as a door hanger. I also scrubbed others with dish soap and used them as serving plates for some of the food. So much fun!

In the end, I kept it simple and small. I tried to make it fun for the adults that would be there, even if it was cheezy fun. :P Number one lesson I learned: There is never a party small enough for a stressed out Mom. Even with under 20 people I still felt like a chicken with my head cut off! There just wasn't enough of me to go around. My husband was amazing and held it all together during times that I was unavailable and Liam entertained the crowd for the rest of it. All in all, it was a rockin' first birthday and I learned SO many lessons for future birthdays! Liam has so very very many people who adore him and he got SO many wonderful presents. He has NOT stopped playing with them (literally, my son is completely ignoring me these days)!

So, I'll wrap this one of up with a couple of my absolute favorite pictures from the Monster's 1st Rockin' Birthday! Thanks for swinging by and we'll have a surgery update in the coming weeks!

Payday Friday #7

Dear Monster,

   You are a Teething Terror right now!! AH! Fussy fussy fussy fussy fussy! Everything needs a fuss. Everything. You're currently working on your top two teeth and they must be a couple of doozies. Normally, when you fuss, I cuddle you up and you eventually calm down. Not this time. You don't want people to touch you but you don't want to be left alone. No toy makes you happy and nothing holds your concentration for any substantial amount of time. Currently, days with you consist of desperately trying to find something to make you happy and trying to make you comfortable. I wish I could make the pain and discomfort go away. I really do. Man, I can't wait until these days are over. I bet you can't either.
~~~

Hello again readers! As I'm sure you read above, Liam is teething right now. Holy guacamole is he miserable! I think there is definitely a reason that women don't remember birthing pain and that all human beings don't remember being babies. Between growing pains, teething, head bonks, and building up those crawling calluses, I can't even imagine what Liam is struggling with right now.

In our desperation to help him, we have tried freezing bottle nipples and binkies, massaging gums, teething tablets, Tylenol, frozen wash cloths... everything but "Rum on the Gums" (though we've been tempted occasionally *wink wink*). In my search for further ways to help my son, I stumbled upon this underground "Amber Teething Necklace" movement. Of course I immediately dove into research and started asking around. Almost everyone that I talked to loved theirs or were planning on buying one soon. (PS How had I not heard about this until NOW??) A couple of the reviews that I found stated that they hadn't noticed any serious changes but there were no negative reviews so I figured, why not? So, I found a dependable distributor on Amazon Mom and ordered one for Liam. I was told it would be here no sooner than August 7th so I've just been trying to maintain a happy, comfortable baby.

WELL GUESS WHAT CAME TODAY????

It came in a little silk package for future storage!

That's right! Liam's Amber Teething Necklace came today!!! SURPRISE!! So, I am using the necklace as a "At Times of Desperation: Payday Friday" as that's what this purchase was for me. I am just so desperate for Liam to be comfortable and happy again that I am willing to try anything! Keep in mind that, at this time, I do NOT know if this is going to work for Liam. It has been on him for about 5 hours as of now.

Whether it works specifically for Liam or not, it has helped thousands upon thousands of Moms and kiddos around the world and throughout history. So, welcome to Payday Friday:

Baltic Amber Teething Necklaces

The theory behind these necklaces boils down to two basic theories. Both theories begin with the necklace being worn against the skin and they both end with a happier baby! Theory number one is that when the skin brings the amber up to body temperature the amber begins to release miniscule amounts of healing oils which are then absorbed by the skin and eventually absorbed into the bloodstream. These healing oils permeate throughout the body and make baby more comfortable all over. The second theory is based on scientific studies which show that amber is electromagnetically alive and that it produces scientifically significant amounts of purely natural energy. This energy is used by the body to help boost the immune system which helps baby all over as well!

One thing is for sure, the best of the best teething necklaces are made of Baltic Amber. This is because Baltic Amber is known to contain the highest levels of Succinic Acid which is scientifically proven to reduce inflammation, stimulate the thyroid glands (this helps with drooling), accelerate the immune system's natural ability to heal wounds, and reduce inflammation in the ears, throat, stomach, and respiratory system. At this moment there is no medication known to man that can do all of these things without drastic side effects and amber has no known side effects (unless you have an allergy of course!).

There are obvious risks with any child wearing a necklace. The necklace is only meant to be worn while supervised so as to eliminate chocking hazards. Some children may have an allergy to Amber so for the first 2 days that the necklace is worn, you need to watch your child's skin very closely. Every company that makes the necklaces advises that the necklace be rinsed frequently with clean, non-chlorine water. They then ask that you dry the amber immediately (bead by bead) and only place the necklace back around your child's neck once it is completely dry. The necklace can be worn around the neck (it should be worn against the skin so under clothing is best if it's around the neck), around an ankle or around a wrist. From my personal experience with the necklace, around the neck is easiest when it comes to Liam forgetting that it's on his body. Around the wrist or ankle, he is constantly pulling at it and it is frequently getting caught on things. Liam's necklace has been on for around 5 hours and he has completely and utterly forgotten about it.

I look forward to seeing if this necklace is a help or a hindrance to our teething cause and I will keep you updated when a final decision is made! Meanwhile, here are some super adorable pictures of Liam wearing his new Amber Teething Necklace!

Before I put it under his shirt

Peeking out from under the onesie!

So what do you all think? How to you feel about natural remedies vs medication? What have your personal experiences taught you? Any personal experiences with Amber or the teething necklaces in particular?

Thanks for swinging by! I've got another great one in the works so stay tuned!