Birthday bonanza

It's been an entire month since Evelyn's birthday party, but you know the saying "Better late than never..."

Since August, it seems like we've been in perpetual birthday mode. Tis the season for all of Evelyn's little friends (i.e. the babies of the couples that we've met in birthing classes, moms' groups, etc) to turn one. It's party season, from here on out.

The party to kick off all parties was Evelyn's. The day started inauspiciously, with Evelyn taking a short 45-minute nap instead of her usual 1.5 to 2 hour nap. She was also working on cutting 3 new teeth at once. This did not bode well, as there would be 20+ people in the house shortly and she can get overwhelmed in such situations even when she is in good form. And sure enough, as the first batch of guests trickled in, Evelyn was clingier than saran wrap on a plate of leftovers.

(Yes, we'd heard the advice from others that a big party would be too overwhelming for the kid and a lot of work for the parents. But knowing this, we went ahead with a big party anyway, well, just because. We felt like we deserved the celebration after this big, monumental first year. We felt like Evelyn deserved to have a big cake and many well wishers. So, there you go.)

Luckily (and somewhat miraculously), Evelyn snapped out of her funk soon enough, with some help from Mike. After that she was the life of the party, teetering around in her pink party dress with her then-newly developed walking skills, playing "in parallel" with her little baby friends (Rhea, Chloe, and Nicolas), hanging out with the adults, and spinning happily.



It's not a kid's birthday party without cake, and while Evelyn didn't get any, she did try to blow out the candle. I think she would have succeeded if she weren't so intent on touching the flame at the same time. All that blowing at random things, starting with the paper fish hanging from the ceiling, is finally paying off. (We had a second, equally big birthday party with just my family the week after, and she got even closer to blowing out her own candle. I think we just need a few more cakes and she'll get it...)

After opening many wonderful presents, including a snazzy pair of shoes, some gorgeous outfits, fun books and toys, and the sweetest dolls from Nana and from Paula, Bert, and Rhea, we called it a day. It was totally exhausting from start to finish, but like all things baby, it was worth it in the end.

Here's a video from the end of the party, after Evelyn changed out of her party clothes, and everything was winding down into general mayhem: