Like many other moms/parents, I had a debate over what to do for baby’s first birthday. One comment I heard often was “they’re not going to remember it anyway!”. At first I agreed, and thought there shouldn’t be much fuss to it.
After we got back from our travels in January, Kai returned to his usual Gymboree class and he’d advanced to Level 3. My big boy! He was SO HAPPY at class that I decided to inquire about availability for his birthday. Someone had already booked March 26th so I took April 2nd.
I had two reasons for booking this. 1) Gymboree was clearly his happy place that you really saw his true personality and happiness come out. 2) We were in the process of purchasing our home and I didn’t know how things would be and all I had to do was provide food – less stress for me.
Now, I also did this because, regardless of whether or not he’ll remember it (he’ll get to see pics too!!), we’ve had our little one for a year. A year that flew by so quickly that made us grow as parents, showed us that there is a whole other level of love and, seeing our little one in his element just brings so much joy to us that we want to share it with others.
NOTHING prepares you for parenthood. Not being a nanny, not being a babysitter, not being an aunt… NOTHING. I’m an aunt and I helped my sister a lot. I also babysat a bit before moving to America. Nothing prepared me for having my own child.
Now I’m not telling you that you must have a birthday party for your little one, but consider how much has changed and happened in that one year and see it as a cause for celebration, in any form or fashion. Celebrate it. We see everyday how short life can be. We see how quickly our lives change once we’ve had a baby and how quickly that baby grows to be a toddler.
I love to celebrate birthdays. I love the opportunity to celebrate reaching another year with my loved ones. I’m not able to celebrate it with all of my family and friends now that I live so far away from them so I will do the most with whoever is near and dear to me.
Just a little food for thought 🙂 .
:: One of my favorites from a mini shoot we did at home with our friends for his 1st birthday. ::
Just a Dash 