January 24

After church today, I finished my preparations for something I've been wanting to do for a while now: a cake smash photo session for Eli.

In case you aren't up on trends, cake smashes are the big thing to do for a baby's first birthday. Lots of photographers charge upwards of $150 for a photo shoot like this, so I have been anxious to give it a go myself. Granted, I don't have dedicated studio space or background paper to make cleanup a breeze, but still. I wanted to try.

Last night, I made his cake. I'm no cake-decorating expert, but I was happy with it. When it was finished, I put it in the fridge. That was Rookie Mistake #1. I totally forgot to pull it out a few hours in advance, so when I had everything ready for the pictures and pulled the cake out, the buttercream icing was rock solid. Oops. I tried my best to make it work, but part of the fun of a cake smash is seeing how messy the baby gets. Eventually, I put it in the oven at its lowest temperature to take the chill off, and we tried again.

Can we talk about that banner hanging on the wall behind him? I made it out of fabric scraps, and each piece has a story to tell. Four of the fabric scraps were leftover pieces from various baby carriers I've made over the years: my very first ring sling when Caleb was a baby, my first linen wrap, a second linen wrap, and the ring sling I'm currently using for Eli. One scrap is left over from the seersucker vests I made for the boys this past Easter. One scrap is from the fabric bag that contained the very first set of sheets I bought for Caleb's big-boy bed, when he was not even two years old. Two scraps come from a fabric stash I inherited from Chris' mom, who inherited them from her mother, who died in 2011.

I'll use the banner as a decoration at Eli's party, and then hang it in his room. It makes my heart happy to know that he will grow up seeing these scraps of fabric that connect him to the stories.

Anyway. Back to the pictures. 

Eli was thrilled with the cake, which was decorated with little sugar snowflakes, not flowers. The problem was that he didn't really know what to do with it!

I think mostly he enjoyed being the center of attention.

Eventually Chris (aka my photo assistant) broke off a piece of icing and fed it to Eli.

(Yes, he had to "break off" the icing, because it was still pretty firm. Live and learn.)

That got Eli interested enough that he began exploring.

Mmm...

He likes it!

He really likes it!

And then he lost interest. He crawled right over that cake, and it mostly survived. I'm going to say it didn't spend enough time thawing in the oven.

"What? I wasn't supposed to do that?"

Finally we repositioned him and he got a bit more interested in eating the cake.

I love this one. My sweet, happy boy.

Can you believe that exactly one year ago, a bagger at the grocery store told me I looked like I was due any day, and I was so offended? After all, I was only 34.5 weeks pregnant. 

And then I had a baby 4 days later.

And now he is nearly one!

Can you see those little teeth working so hard to break through Eli's gums? There are definitely two there, and it is going to be a close call whether the teeth or Eli's birthday will come first.

Cutie pie. He just didn't have the desire to do much damage to his cake.

Luckily, Lily and Caleb were right there, eager to "help" their brother.

(They really just wanted to eat cake.)

(Daisy was napping.)

After Eli stopped making progress and the cake smash devolved into Caleb and Lily eating icing off the floor, I put the cake away for after dinner and Chris gave Eli a quick bath.

I really wanted to take a cute picture of Eli wearing the same "1" shirt that Caleb wore in the photo on his first birthday invitations, but Eli wasn't feeling cooperative. 

It seems the new rule is: no cake, no cooperation.

Whatever, Eli. It's a good thing you're cute. Happy early birthday.