Jack's 1st Birthday - It's Sarah Lilly

Duck themed 1st birthday party - duck pond themed cake

Last week we celebrated Jack’s first birthday. I’m still in shock at how fast the last year has gone. Time is such a funny thing with kids as they feel like they’ve been in your life forever and you can’t remember a time without them, but at the same time it just feels like yesterday that they were so tiny.

I knew Jack wouldn’t remember or even care about his first birthday, but we still wanted to do something special for him. On his actual birthday he was surrounded by his family, and then in the weekend we threw a little first birthday party for him. It was just family and it was such a special day. He got well and truely spoiled by everyone!

We went with a duck theme as Jack loves ducks. I got some balloons and some little duck cake toppers off AliExpress. I didn’t want to go too crazy with decorations or balloons as I feel like they are such a waste and so bad for the environment, so we just had a couple that Jack could play with. Scroll to the end of the post for links to all the duck themed items!

I made some duck cupcakes, duck shaped biscuits and a duck pond cake. This was my first ever birthday cake and I’m so pleased how it turned out! It was so simple to make, just a banana cake with blue cream cheese frosting and Kit Kats around the outside. So simple and quick to make, yet it looks really effective!

So Jack is now one and he is so close to walking! He did take one step the day after his birthday, but hasn’t tried again. He just needs to build up his confidence to let go and I know he can do it. I’d say within the next month we might have a walking toddler!

He seems to have grown up so much over the last month. He is so co-ordinated and spends hours putting things into other things. He loves his stacking cups and his rings, and he can actually stack and use them. He loves rolling and throwing his ball and we will sit and play ball for ages. He says daddy a lot and can also say mum, and his first proper word is car. He also tries so hard to say duck and dog. If I ask him “what sound does a dog make?” he will reply “ah ah ah”, which is him trying so hard to go “ruff ruff ruff”… it’s so cute!

Jack knows what his favourite toys are and he knows 20+ words and items. He knows ball, car, sloth, chicken, panda, duck, bottle, nappy and more. I’ll say, “Jack where is your duck?” he will go and search it out. I’ll then say “can I please have your duck”, and hold out my hands and he will bring it to me. He’s so clever! He’s also obsessed with investigating things. He loves the fridge and dishwasher, and is always trying to get into the pantry. Everything is new and exciting and he just wants to explore it all!

His eating is going really well and he literally eats anything and everything! He has three meals a day, and two snacks. We still do a formula bottle on wakeup and a small one right before bed. We’ve also just changed from formula bottles to cows milk at his snack times, which he drinks from his sippy cup. We also offer him water throughout the day and he’s already mastered drinking through a straw and using his Camelbak drink bottle.

Sleeping is still going well, although we are currently back to an early wake up time of around 6.30am. He’s still going to bed at 7pm and is having two naps during the day. A slightly longer one in the morning and a short one in the afternoon.