19 Apr
T1 Day
Though there are millions of bright shiny exciting toys and gadgets out there, I knew that there was one thing I could give T1 that would mean more to him than anything else:
time
So chose a day when That Husband had only a few school responsibilities and declared it “T1 Day”. No housework or computer time for mom, this was a day of following T1 around and giving him all the attention his little heart could possible desire.The plan included a cake of strawberries, present opening, and family time at the park. I have no doubt that T1 forgot the day happened the moment we put him to bed that night, but it set a lovely precedent for a gift I’d like to give each child for their birth anniversary each year.
We started with breakfast.
T1 makes this hilarious half-constipated face whenever he gets really excited about something.
A big pile of presents waits expectantly in the background!
After my run and his first nap we went on a walking adventure downstairs to get some heavy cream for his cake. I’m normally hyper vigilant about him making handprints on the glass (as I had a job once where I had to clean fingerprints off of glass) but some other kid had already been there and done some damage so I let him go to town on his special day.
We met another little friend wandering the halls along the way.
I took the strawberries I had cut up earlier and layered them in the shape of a 1 with some whipped cream on top. Now you see why That Wife isn’t a craft blog. 
I’m pretty passionate about the topic of kids and sugar, and though I did sweeten the whipped cream I didn’t want to set a sugar bomb in front of my baby when he doesn’t show any indication that he appreciates it otherwise. There will be plenty of years for that, but I plan to make this a tradition for each of our kids on their first birthday.
We set up the webcam so my family could watch the present opening and strawberry devouring.
I have years of experience “helping” my little sister rip open her gifts at Christmas and birthdays, so I dove right in with no problems.
Finally, it was time for dessert!
I have a video of the beginning moments of the strawberry dive that I’ll put together later. He certainly enjoyed himself!
We had to take the tray away before he flipped the whole thing upside down on the carpet. There were a few untouched portions and so TH and I dove in with our fingers and polished them off.
After a bath and a change of clothes, we headed to the park!
Love love love this! My boys.
After he ate a few handfuls of sand, T1 was done and so we headed hiome.
I wanted to get some pictures of all of us on this special little day, so we found a nice patch of light next to the park.
Whenever I ask TH to take my picture I have him take a few, then I look at the back of the camera to see how close it is to what I was thinking. After I saw this I asked him to come a few steps closer.
I adore these pictures of me and my baby!
I think his forehead was itchy with sand, and so he leaned in and scratched his forehead on my cheek. It was so sweet!
We spotted a nice looking Asian couple and asked them to take a shot of the three of us together. He took three, one was out of focus, one had T1 closing his eyes, and the other was perfect.
We came home and watched T1′s favorite show…
Jon Stewart.
Ha! Something about the intro gets him really excited.
I loved this day. After dinner T1 and I walked the halls some more until I wore him down and he was ready for bed.
T1 we love you and we’re going to have a fabulous time together on your second birthday!
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
Lovely pictures. T1 is so cute!
Random question — where did you get that teal tray table?
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Jenna Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 9:33 am
CB2
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I LOVE that swing photo with TH and T1. Also, you look absolutely beautiful in all these photos.
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2Jenna - He is such a sweet boy. It looks like he had the best day ever. What a lucky kid! And you look fantastic in the pictures as well, keep up the good work!
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3What a special day for T1, it looks like he had a great time! Jenna, you look wonderful!
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4What a wonderful birthday!!
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5I love the strawberry idea!
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6Cute! The only problem is the pictures are taking a really long time to load (as in about half didn’t make it in 15 min over my superfast work connection) so I missed a lot. Just an FYI.
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Cécy Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Ditto here. I reloaded the page to be able to see some that didn’t load the first time.
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Sounds like a wonderful day
And the pictures are AMAZING!
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8You look SO SKINNY jenna!!!
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9What a fantastic idea for a birthday celebration. This seems like the best thing to do for your children. I love the strawberries and whipped cream idea too!
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10That looks like so much fun! I love all the pictures. P looks so happy! He is so adorable.
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11So fun! I want a strawberry-whip-cream number for my next birthday. I don’t care that I’m turning 27. All the more strawberries I suppose.
BTW you look just beautiful in these photos!
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Natalie Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 11:39 am
I was thinking the same thing! That cake looks absolutely perfect!
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OMG, your stomach looks so FLAT! I am 5’4″ and about 140-ish lbs and I am legit jealous of how you look! GO GIRL!
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13What a wonderful day! I love the idea for T1′s “cake” (I realize it isn’t a cake at all) how perfect! I agree with Sarah For Real-I want that for my next birthday! Heck, I want that tonight!
Also, you have such a gorgeous family, and you are looking super!
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14Amazing photos! And what a wonderful way to celebrate your son’s birthday!!!
You have SUCH a lovely family, Jenna.
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15What a cute idea Jenna! And even if T1 forgot it, you and TH won’t ever forget it! They grow up so fast and now you have these solid memories.
Those pictures of you and T1 are gorgeous too! He’s such a cutie.
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16What a wonderful gift you gave T1 (and I’m sure you didn’t mind it either)…time together! The resulting pictures are so beautiful. I think my fav is the one of TH pushing T1 in the swing. The hardware on the swing frames T1′s face so perfectly.
There are so many things I love about this day/this post/these photos but I’ll need to cut it short there. Too much to do! Someone need to give *me* the gift of time!
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17That whole day looks like it was SO much fun! What a wonderful way to celebrate his birthday!!!
I know I keep saying this, but you look SO SKINNY in all of these pictures!!
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18I love the idea. I always tell my husband I’m against big giant first birthday party because I feel the child is too young for it to make a difference anyway. Having a T1 day is a sweet idea and I love the pictures.
I’m also 100% behind you on the fruit “cake” I will likely copy that idea. Whipping cream is really good flavored with a little maple sugar by the way.
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19I love everything about this post. It’s so great that you gave him time instead of a bunch of gifts he’ll never remember or care about 2 minutes later. The strawberries and whipped cream looks sooo delicious. You my dear are looking beautifully awesome! Love all the pictures!
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20I also love the picture of TH and T1 on the swings. Such a good picture. The pictures of you with T1 are sooo adorable! You look absolutely stunning!!
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21Oh, Jenna, this post just made me smile like crazy. T1 (and any future children you may have) will never ever doubt how much you live him (them) with beautiful pictures like these around!
The second picture of T1 looks like he is doing your happy/excited clapping thing. I had to look twice to be sure he wasn’t actually doing it, but now I’m on the lookout for it, haha!
Also, I adore the second whipped cream covered picture of him. It looks like he has one eyebrow raised all sassy like. SO stinkin cute. What a happy day.
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22I did a nice size party for Bean’s first birthday. It was about 20 people there. I did cupcakes (with not so sweet icing or cake), a candy bar, and ordered sub sandwiches for our guests (which were all family and two friends). I was so tired and I barely have any pictures of the entire thing. I will not do that anymore!
Next birthday party for Bean will be extremely simple and for our newest baby due in July- his first birthday will consist of a cake and some hotdogs, lol.
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23This is so sweet (in more ways than one, haha). What a nice birthday for him.
Did using the webcam work well? We will be moving to another country in a few months but I’d like the grandparents to see birthdays too.
Happy birthday T1!
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24Absolutely adorable!
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25You look soooo skinny in those pictures of you and T1 at the park! Way to go girl!
You’ve given me a lot of ideas, even though this isn’t a craft blog, I like the idea of having fruit and whipped cream instead of a cake. This looks like a fabulous way to spend a first birthday, and the love and attention will do more towards your relationship as a family than any toys ever could!
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26You look gorgeous in all of these pictures!
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27I love that you did strawberries instead of an actual cake - what an awesome idea!
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28I love this post! I tend to skim over T1 pics (mostly because my hubby and I are waiting a few years to have kids … baby pics inspire envy) but today I really took the time to scroll through and appreciate each photo. He looks so so happy and so do you and TH. It would’ve been funny to take photos of me looking at your pics, I was smiling so much.
And not to take attention away from T1 on his big day but … you look amazing. Esp. the pic of T1 scratching his forehead on yours, you’re beautiful. Cheers!
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29I know it was about T1 but you look amazing! Beautiful!You’ve done so well!
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30You look fantastic!
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31Those photos of T1 and TH, and of you and T1, are so incredible! Sweet and loving — something to treasure.
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32He’s such a cutie - what a great day
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33Happy Birthday T1!!!! I can’t believe that it’s been a year!!
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34I knew you had gotten bangs, but they were never very visible (due to the way you do your hair, I think). But in the photos taken by TH, you can really see the bangs and they look amazing. You look amazing. You should definitely do your hair so that your bangs don’t blend in with the rest of your hair!
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35Love the idea, love the pictures, and I LOVE the bangs. You look amazing in these pictures. Radiant!
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36looks like T1 couldn’t have asked for a better day:)
and yes, your weightloss progress is really impressive!
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37What a lovely birthday
He’s so precious.
And I might add, you look stunning!
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38That’s kind of the amazing thing about babies/toddlers… You know they won’t remember, but they live just in the moment! And you gave him a lot of great moments for sure!
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39Happy Birthday to T1
I just wanted to say that you look amazing in these pics - you can see such a big difference (I hope that doesn’t come out wrong). All your hard work is definitely paying off!
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40I wish I had thought to arrange the fruit in a number one-that was a really cute idea! When my oldest turned one, I didn’t feel the need to get a birthday cake (made my in-laws mad but he had never had sweets and as long as his actual food consumption was so low, I saw no need to take up space with sugar) but I did make sure he had his favorite things to eat, including avocado and watermelon
A bowl of watermelon made him so happy and he probably enjoyed it way more than a cake he had never experienced before :p (when he tried chocolate for the first time a few months later, he hated it…..at six now he loves choclate but it took a while to “grow” on him)
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