It's The Big One!

. . . Since this week has been full of makin' things, how about a celebration of making one very cool, very important thing: Mabel. If you can believe it, she'll be ONE tomorrow.

I know those big fancy first birthdays are more for the parents enjoyment, so C and I decided not to do anything extravagant. Still, I'd been thinking of fun decorations and little party favors M could enjoy. A simple, colorful and low sugar event.

We tried asking what everyone wanted to do, but that didn't work. We tried saying this is what we're going to do (see invite above), but that didn't work. So we're having 2 separate family get-togethers and all of my plans are out the window. I'm a little jaded and grumpy, but what do I know about what would make Mabel's birthday special for her?


Mabel would be happy with her bare feet in the grass, a green bean in one hand, a banana in the other and a bowl full of Goldfish crackers within arms reach, surrounded by her cousins running around screaming and playing.

Luckily a one year old is a pretty resilient little critter. It's been a hard year with C's freelance work, so we've done a good job of resisting plastic crap lined toy store shelves. Actually we've really resisted buying a lot of the over-stimulating battery operated toys out there. They just don't mesh well with our beliefs. I've made her a few things as gifts, including a pretty pitiful excuse for homemade crayons from beeswax and soy wax. But M won't mind and will scribble away because that's what she sees her older cousins do. . . and these crayons are safe for her to put in her mouth. I bought a few nostalgic to>ys at thrift stores: vintage Fisher Price stuff I had when I was a kid. They're all wrapped up waiting on the paper shredding fest. There are a couple more crafty ideas in the works, but who knows what will work out and what won't.

The one lesson I've learned from parenthood is that if you expect something, it probably won't happen and that's not always bad. Seems appropriate for this whole party saga.

When the day begins maybe I'll finally get my attitude in check. When the day is done we'll probably go through her old toys and put them away, to bring out again in a couple months when she gets tired of the new-old ones. Hopefully it won't end with a toddler sugar high melt-down. Certainly it will be one spent celebrating with family, smiling at all the perfectly silly awesome things our one year old does.

Then tomorrow night we'll cuddle into the family bed, M safely tucking herself at my side and drift off into sweet dreams about what the next year holds in store for us all.