Iowa City Indoor Home Korean First Birthday Dol Portraits and Cake Smash

Watching my families grow is a blessing I don’t take for granted. With Theo’s parents, I was a part of their lives before they started dating, and now I get to see their second child turn one!

Theo is my third “nephew” and the one I got to see most often within their first year of life. He’s such a happy-go-lucky kid who’s easy to make smile and laugh. Except one time when he was hangry and I made him cry. But to be fair, he was hangry and was not up for my usual tricks. Thankfully, Theo woke up happy and we fed him many snacks throughout the session to keep the hanger at bay!

I love that Rose had a different hanbok for Theo instead of using the same one she had for Liam. The different colors of the two highlight the different personalities of the brothers!

One thing Theo had on that is another Korean first birthday tradition is a gold ring. It symbolizes a long and prosperous life. It’s usually given to the child on their first birthday and kept until they reach adulthood. Then, the ring(s) are melted and created into a larger piece of jewelry or sold for money. Sometimes, they’re treasured as a keepsake; I still have mine! The ring is called a dol banji (literally dol ring) or han don, which means 3.75g in Korean measurement of weight. So they are always 3.75g of 24k gold!

Big brother wanted in on the cake and it was a sweet (pun intended) moment to capture him two years after his own first birthday cake smash.