Hellobee

We decided not to celebrate Iris’s birthday with a big party, but to spend the day celebrating here in Northern Virginia, just the four of us. All of our family and friends live in New Jersey, and we had just moved to a new apartment one week before. The idea of traveling away for the weekend sounded stressful and stressed was the opposite of the way we wanted to feel on Iris’s birthday this year. Judging from her usual behavior in groups of people, I imagined a big party would have been stressful for her too.

I come from a big extended family and celebrated every birthday and holiday with lots of people. Big parties were my idea of celebration. I distinctly remember feeling sorry for friends with small families, not understanding what made Christmas or Thanksgiving so special. Roman had two big 1st birthday parties so I was feeling a little guilty that poor Iris the second child wasn’t getting any. But now I get it. There are lots of ways to mark a special occasion and bring a different level of enchantment to the day.

I made decorations and set up the apartment the night before so that as soon as the kids woke up, they would see something new and special to mark the occasion. I was quite surprised by how interested Iris was in her birthday banner! She honestly woke up in this mood like she knew exactly what was going on. It was as if she remembered Roman’s 2nd birthday celebration and had been waiting all this time for it to be her turn.

She was born (via emergency c-section) at 8:05am, so I decided this year at 8:05am she could eat cake! We found the cutest little mini “birthday cake” at a local market and bakery Society Fair. She picked the whole thing right up and made a picture perfect mess devouring it!

It is really a lot of fun watching a baby react to being allowed to make a mess with cake. Her brother surprised us with his enthusiasm. He sang “Happy Birthday” over and over again with the help of some musical instruments. He kept saying “happy birthday again?! happy birthday again?!” I had bought him a “cake push pop” but he never even asked for cake for himself; he seemed to understand that it was his sister’s birthday. We ate donuts from our favorite local spot. I think for us, doing all this in the comfort of our home without a big audience allowed them to be themselves and have the most fun with it.

After the “cake for breakfast” kickoff we took a leisurely walk along the river. There’s a beautiful path we can now reach by foot and it was our first time wandering it. The babies fell asleep and it made for a nice calm pause in the day. After the walk and their naps we grabbed a quick lunch and drove out to Frying Pan Farm Park. I’d been meaning to take a trip there all summer, but as it turned out it was an ideal fall activity on what turned out to be the most beautiful fall day. November 6th was 79 degrees here this year; Iris didn’t even need the sweater and tights I picked out to match her birthday dress!

The 1920’s fully functioning farm had a little antique carousel and mini tractors to play on along with all its happy farm animals. Roman even got to milk a cow! He loved the whole thing so much we left feeling guilty that we do not actually live on a farm ourselves.

As my husband commented at one point, it was really nice to have an excuse to just have fun all day. There was nothing to get done except whatever made everyone the most happy, like spontaneous dance parties with Roman playing DJ on our record player, because he is currently obsessed with it! It was like a little gift of time. A whole day just to put life on pause and celebrate Iris as a family. We didn’t need a lot of hoopla and presents, just some shiny decorations, cake and happy spirits! It was a good lesson for me in what celebration is all about and I look forward to spending all our special occasions doing exactly whatever it is that makes us happy!

How do you like to celebrate your children’s birthdays? Any special traditions or tricks for making the day feel extra special?