As I said goodbye to the final days of Christmas 2011, I could feel my anxieties begin to ease; no more over-crowded shopping malls, last minute holiday cards for family members I completely forgot about, and more importantly, no more credit card charges. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted off my exhausted shoulders- that was until I suddenly remembered my son’s first birthday was three weeks away. [Sigh] Here we go again.
Up until this point, I hadn’t even given his birthday party a second thought. Blame it on the holiday stress, (I wonder if Scrooge was my distant relative), or the fact that this is my first time planning a party for my own child, it just was something I had put on the back shelf. Now it had pushed itself to the edge and demanded full-force attention. I immediately went to my trusty friend, Google, and typed in “First Birthday Party Ideas”. I noticed a slew of several websites and naturally, clicked on the first one. Written by a contributor for a popular parenting magazine, the article had several interesting suggestions guaranteed to be “stress free” including:
1. Give all the guests smocks and water based paints to decorate an adorable cardboard airplane keepsake, a la “planes, trains, and automobiles party”. 2. Hire a local baker to decorate cupcakes in my child’s favorite story book theme and have a storyteller act out the scenes from the book 3. Create a duck pond game and rent a barrel train for some outdoor fun.
I stopped reading after number three and went back to check the title of the article. Yes, the article was for ideas for baby’s first birthday. Ok. Let’s think about this for just a moment. First of all, my son is only twelve months old, he will not have “guests” at his party besides a few family members, and even if he did, I certainly would not give him water base paints to play, or should I say drink. My son puts everything in his mouth that he can get his hands on-he would even put the dog in his mouth if he could. So, paints, no thanks. Secondly, my son can demolish an entire book in twenty seconds, let alone sit still that long. Besides, I don’t need to have someone act out silly scenes from a book to elicit precious giggles, I do that on a daily basis as I attempt to perform my role as a first time mom. And lastly, a duck pond and barrel train?! I do not plan on spending his first birthday in the hospital ER. That’s a cute idea, but not for my curious little monkey that can’t even stand riding in his car seat.
Ok, moving on to cake ideas. I next did a search for bakeries near my home to see what types of one-of-a-kind cakes are available to me. Turns out, there are quite a few, for about fifty bucks a pop. This might be a great idea for my husband’s upcoming fortieth birthday, but not for a baby who wouldn’t remember it the next day. However, because the fondant cakes are so much nicer than your run of the mill grocery store sheet cake, I did a little research and found that I could make one myself for half the cost. Two sites I liked the best were www.wilton.com and www.duff.com ; they had some great suggestions for cakes, followed by how-to’s and product ordering. Wilton’s website even has recipes and forums that I found useful for baking tips.
Lastly, I needed to decide on a theme. Sesame Street? My son only likes the Spanish version (no, we don’t speak a lick of Spanish). Disney? He doesn’t have a clue who any of the characters are. Luckily, www.partycity.com has a great selection of birthday themes and décor that do not center around unfamiliar characters, and focus more on number “1”, which I personally prefer.
As a first time mom, I cannot blame myself for wanting to make my son’s first birthday one to commit to memory, but it is important to keep in mind that the one whom I want to remember it the most, won’t. One thing I did learn from this whole experience, however, is to just keep it simple and not feel guilty about it. [Relaxing sigh] A nice dinner with the family, a few balloons and decorations, and a homemade cake shaped like his favorite toy, a baseball. I don’t need to go all out; I can do that in the coming years. Then, I’m in real trouble.