Juliet's 2nd Birthday Celebrations

For Juliet's second birthday, we decided to celebrate at The Most Magical Place on Earth - Walt Disney World! This was fitting for a couple of reasons, 1) obviously... we all love Disney! 2) Our family already had an early October trip planned 3) we also celebrated Olivia's second birthday at Disney World and I just love the symmetry of both girls celebrating their second birthdays at the same place!

We stayed at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, along with my parents and my sister and her family. The first night of our stay, we invited everyone over to our cabin to enjoy a little party in Juliet's honor.

My sweet friend, Emily, made an adorable Mickey Mouse birthday banner. We brought cake and cupcakes with us from a local Savannah baker and continued the Mickey Mouse theme there. 

Cousins

We brought in dinner from P&J's Southern Takeout (at Fort Wilderness), sand and ate cake, and then opened some presents. 

Juliet enjoyed her gifts and being with her favorite people. It was a low-key evening and I'm so glad we were able to celebrate with family.

Even though we celebrated early, I couldn't let Juliet's actual birthday day go by without any celebration! I asked a couple of friends to meet us at the neighborhood playground for some lunch and cake on Juliet's birthday. However, it downpoured day of, so we quickly switched plans to meet at the local toddler-play business, Giggles. 

Juliet was obsessed with Moana around this time, so we had a Moana-themed birthday cake... which for some reason Publix wouldn't put the actual decorations ON the cake. But that's neither here nor there. Juliet was thrilled. 

 

Juliet just wasn't up for taking photos at the end of the party... Crashing HARD.

 

Our good friends Maddie, Penny, AND Emilia were all sick on Juliet's birthday, and they were very missed!

Later in the day, once Miguel was home from work, we opened one more present from Mommy and Daddy. JuJu decided it was a great idea to wear her bike helmet to open her present.

We gave her a Pottery Barn Kids doll bunkbed with bedding I attempted to sew. 

I think Juliet really enjoyed her second birthday celebrations! So grateful for our sweet two year old and all those who helped us love on her and celebrate her birthday!

Juliet One Year Old!

Can't believe I'm writing your ONE YEAR blog!! WHAT?! This year seriously flew by!! Juliet, you are so so so much fun. I just absolutely adore you. You are a homebody and prefer to be with mommy at all times. I love being wanted and I love your cuddles. Sometimes, though, it's a bit hard to leave you with someone else or to get things like making dinner done because you literally want to be attached to me at all times. But, I know one day you won't need me or want me as much, so I'm cherishing this stage of life with you. 

You can be quiet and hesitant in situations that aren't familiar to you. But at home, you are a bubble of laughs and joy. (I kind of love how you only open up around the people who you know love you and who actually know know you.) 

You are curious and on the move. You book it towards the stairs anytime the gate is open for a chance to climb up the stairs. You've become very quick with your walking. I think, in part, because you are motivated to catch up to and run away from Olivia. 

For the most part the two of you play well together. We have run into some of the "No! Mine!!" problems that come with siblings, but Olivia loves you so much and she often showers you with hugs, kisses, and "i love you"s. 

You've started to try to copy Olivia whenever she dresses up and will walk a pretty dress over to me, put it in my hands, and then babble until I dress you in it. I have to tie up the ends so that you don't trip since they're WAY too big for you, but once you are dressed up you seem quite content. 

Other games you enjoy are knocking over towers that mommy or Olivia build, climbing under blanket forts, bouncing lap games with mommy, being pushed in the Little Tikes baby car, being held upside down, and playing with shape sorters. 

Recently, over the past month and a half or so, you've started to engage when we read to you. You love turning the pages of books and seem to really enjoy books with flaps and texture books. You bring me books often throughout the day and love to sit on my lap and help turn the pages.  I read to you before bed each night too. Your favorite books seem to be: Llama Llama Valentines, That's Not My Bunny, A Little Piggies book that goes with the toe game, the Sandra Boynton Doggies book (you "bark" at the dogs and it cracks me up), Goodnight Moon (you wave goodnight to everything... adorable!), and Peek-a-boo Zoo. 

No bookshelves are safe from your path. You loveeeeeee to pull books off of them. I cannot count the  amount of time I spend each day putting books back on shelves from various bookcases. You haven't quite learned the concept of "helping" clean them up, though Olivia is a big helper in cleaning up your book messes too. 

 

Your hair has started to curl up in ringlets on the ends around the nape of your neck. I'm pretty confident you're going to have curly hair like your sister. 

At One Year Old you:

• Weigh 20 lbs and 10 oz (gaining a whole 12 pounds and four ounces since birth!)
• Measure 28.75 inches 
• Have 3 and a half teeth (two middle bottom ones, one front tooth, and a upper side tooth coming in)
• Wear size 3 diapers
• Wear size 12 month clothes and size 4.5 shoes
• Sleep through the night
• Are weaned (I weaned you right after your birthday)
• Favorite foods include any kind of carb, bottles with whole milk, and any kind of fruit pack like applesauces or baby food packs
• You say the words, "dada", "mama", and "baba"(bottle)
• Are still giving me at least two, 1hr naps a day!
• Nicknames include: JuJu, JuJu Bug, munchkin, nugget pie, sweetie, love bug, princess, princess-pie, idget

Juliet, you truly are such a joy. I cannot imagine life without you. What a blessing you are. You are cherished and SO loved. God certainly knew what he was doing by gifting us YOU. Happy ONE YEAR baby girl!

Happy FIRST Birthday, Juliet!!

Juliet Rose Amador! You turned the big ONE this past week!!! Woot Woot!! You are the cutest one year old and we were so excited to get to celebrate you and your birthday with family. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jared graciously offered to host your party at their house as it was much easier for our little family to travel to Atlanta than everyone else travel to Savannah. 

We affectionately call you "JuJu Bug" and decided on a bug themed party when I found this adorable outfit in your size! 

I had a lot of fun designing your party invitation. I added some glitter once they were printed and had fun with addressing the envelopes too. 

Aunt Sarah helped me decorate and set things up the night before your party. We had a lot of fun creating a fun scene on their chalkboard wall. 

I also made a coordinating highchair bunting to dress it up a bit. 

For party favors we gave each child a little picnic basket with some bug-themed items. The little kids each got a book (either bumble bee or bug related) and the bigger girls received some fun slap-bracelets. The baskets also had some antennas, bug tattoos, a jar of worms with oreo dirt, and a butterfly treat bag. 

For food we served a taco bar with beef and bbq chicken and various toppings, fruit, chips and salsa, butterfly shaped PB&J sandwiches, and your favorite: applesauce packs. (I may have almost burned down the Ray's house with a crockpot mishap the night before... so G-Daddy came to the rescue by getting chicken for the party last minute- thanks Dad!) Uncle Jared made and served some yummy coffee too. 

2BWhole Bakery made the most wonderful vanilla with strawberry filling cake! It was gluten and dairy free to accommodate your cousin Karis and Lolly, and it was delicious! I also made some regular vanilla cupcakes that I decorated with bumble bees and flowers. 

I didn't get great photos of some of the other party decor, but we had big bug balloons and some tissue paper puffs and things of that sort too. 

We kept the guest list to family and "family": Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jared, Karis, Evan, Charlotte, Lolly, G-Daddy, Abby, Papa, Uncle Andres, Great Aunt Linda, Great Uncle Peter, Sarah and Steven Hecht, Brian and Lauretta Kloer, Emily, Alice, and Joyce. Sadly, Aunt Jessie was out of town and Uncle Juan had to stay home with a sick Ella.  GG and Ruth couldn't make it either as getting out at 95 years old is quite the feat!

We hired a face painter for the kids (and okay, maybe for Mommy and Aunt Sarah too 😜) and it seemed to be a hit! I asked her to stick primarily to butterflies to keep in line with the bug theme. The kids enjoyed the face painter, and Aunt Sarah, Lolly, and I also had our faces painted. I think some others would have had their faces painted too, but the artist had to go to another event and couldn't stay. You didn't get your face painted (because we didn't think that would have been too successful) but you did have two little rainbow butterflies painted on your arm. 

After everyone ate and the face painter left, we sang happy birthday and ate cake. You did okay with being the center of attention and really seemed to enjoy your cupcake. 

Once we cleaned up cake we sat on the ground and opened presents. You had lots of help from cousins and Olivia. Our families were extremely generous and you received lots and lots of fun things! Lolly and G-Daddy gave you a Little People princess castle and your very own sterling silver charm bracelet with an precious ladybug charm, Abby, Papa and Uncle Andres  gave you a Little People Safari set, The Rays gave you a whole set of play toys (stacking balls, play phone, butterfly shape sorter), Sarah and Steven gave you a Dracula counting book and mermaid doll, Great Aunt Linda and Uncle Peter gave you a super soft donkey (that I kind of want for myself and that you adorably "bark" at) and a wooden puzzle, Olivia gave you a bug scooter/rider toy, GG gave to your 529, the Kloers gave you a whole set of star themed gifts including jammies (and a matching set for big sister too!), books, and glow in the dark stickers! You also received a custom wooded name puzzle from mommy and daddy. 

We had a fun day celebrating you munchkin pie! You are so very loved and I hope you can look back at these photos one day and see all the love for you and people that were there to help make your very first birthday special.