Liam's Birthday Celebration

Well, it's two months later, but it wouldn't seem right to track Liam's growth for most of his first year without reflecting a bit on his 1-year birthday.  I learned some big lessons with kid birthday party planning.  And that is - not to take on TOO much.  It was great.  But it was stressful.

My two favorite moments from the day were those that took no planning whatsoever.

On the eve of Liam's birthday, the husband and I lit a candle, read him a special bedtime story, and ended with the following poem from the Birthday Book.

“When i have said my evening prayer,

and my clothes are folded on my chair,

Mommy and Daddy switch off the light,

I'll still be 11 months old tonight.

But from the very break of day,

before the children rise and play,

before the darkness turns to gold,

tomorrow I'll be one years old…

One kiss when i wake,

one candle on my cake.

A goodnight kiss for the eleven month old

to send him to sleep and to dreaming.

And blessings to the one year old

who'll be carried from bed in the morning.”

Then I lay with him and snuggled him into sleep for a long long time.  I thought about our year together, our birth, and how much this little being has changed our lives in so many ways. 

The morning of the big day was a Friday.  Our out of town family had yet to arrive, and my husband went into work.  It was just Liam and me all day long.  And I was thrilled.  I made him a big batch of special pumpkin pancakes and we spent half the day in our pajamas.  

His birthday party was the next day on Saturday afternoon.  I did way too much and exhausted myself.  I had quite a bit of help from family, but still, it was too much.  The pictures below prove the party actually happened, but I honestly don't remember too much of it.  Instead, I'm happy to have the two memories above to mark his 1 year.  And I'm already thinking about how I'll simplify for his 2-year birthday party.