My Bits and Pieces: The Birthday

Here's my theory on first birthdays: kids don't remember them. But parents do. So while I hate to sound like I'm bashing all the parents who go nucking futs with themes and gifts and over the top parties for their kids' first birthdays, well , this is me being judgy. We didn't go big. We kept it small and full of the stuff our kid loved. Balloons and streamers. We started the birthday prep late the night before his actual b-day. I pulled out the balloons, streamers, and more balloons. I went ball(oon)s-to-the-walls and attempted to make our house look like a party store threw up. And, for the most part, we succeeded. Everytime M said to me "Uh, I think we have enough balloons", I'd blow up some more. And then he'd give me the side eye for hanging another banner of streamers - double sided in two tone colors to be exact. But then something happened. All of a sudden M was all "wait, we need just a few more balloons" or "are those banners long enough, maybe we should get the far wall too?". And then we had trouble walking in our living room because of all the balloons, so we decided we probably had enough. And the final touch? Creeping into the Goose's room while he was sleeping and hanging balloons from his ceiling fan. So that he knew from the moment he woke up that morning, it was going to be a special day. It took about 15 bucks in balloons and streamers to make the Goose's face light up and straight up make his day. (don't mind the lighting on some of the pics, the Goose was waking up bright and early back then...we're talking 5:30am - so it was DARK).

After we opened his gifts (wooden block set, some jumbly rubber things, and this truck from ikea) we had chocolate chip pancakes. Cuz the Goose is a LEGIT chocoholic. He inherited all of his dads looks, all of his mom's milky white skin tone and ALL of his parents chocolate addiction. No joke, this kid shakes if I'm across the room with a chocolate chip cookie and he can't get to me. Literally shakes, I've seen it.

We hung around the house, played, napped and then headed to a diner we love for lunch. Food and more chocolate ensued (bad parents?...or BEST parents? EVER). We got back home and did a little more playing, napped and then headed to a park to play. He doesn't like to do much but climb the stairs and try to walk off the second story slide, but he has a hell of a lot of fun doing it. We came home, had a nice dinner, and then came the ice cream cake. See, M knew I was making a pretty sick cake for his party taking place the next day (more in a separate post to come). But he just couldn't let the kid go without a cake and candles on his actual birthday. So he ran out and got a mini ice cream cake. TROUBLE. The Goose luuurrvved it.

And this is what happens when M tried to take the cake away. SADDEST face, I almost cried.

It was bathtime and then off to bed. We started prepping for the party the next day.
It was just both of our immediate families - M's parents, sister and hubby and two boys, brother and wife; my parents and brother. Small. Perfect.
M cooked up the Goose's favorite - lasagna. We had lots of appetizers and plenty of fun. Gifts were opened (one of our nephews had a birthday just a week later, as did I). It was overall a really great day. I couldn't help but wonder how I had so quickly gotten from having an infant to having a toddler in what felt like a matter of weeks. How could a year have gone by so fast? And how, on earth, had I lived the first 27 years of my life without this part of my soul? Not to get deep, but a day to celebrate the birth of your child, your first no less, is one where you can't stop feeling like the luckiest person in the world. That kid is my heart and his first birthday was such a deep reminder of the miracle my life is, that his life is.

What a sap!
Enough words (aka I can't type anymore because I'm crying)...here's the rest of the pics.