Last month, some good friends of ours invited us to celebrate their first child's first birthday. While I watched him play with the balloons and rip at the streamers that were intended for decoration, attempt to open his presents, and then in ultimate exhaustion cry while trying to figure out what to do with his cake, I was reminded of my own experiences with my girls' first birthdays.
When you're first-time parents, everything that happens to your child is a big ordeal, and you want everything to be just perfect. I remember planning for months and picturing in my mind exactly how that special day would play out. Unfortunately, I forgot to give the itinerary to my kids, and they always had "plans" of their own. =)
One of the biggest things I've had to learn over the years is to relax...go with the flow....it's okay if everything doesn't go just like I imagined. While I look through all of my old pictures and videos, I remember times that I was frustrated because the kids wouldn't hold still for the picture or they wouldn't "say their verses" or "sing their songs" correctly when I knew they could. The little "glitches" that I was annoyed with back then are the cutest things to me now and the things that I laugh at the most.
The picture in this post is of Sydney's first birthday. She was perfectly happy until we put her cake in front of her. She did not want to get messy, so we had to feed her and eventually gave her a spoon to feed herself. My friend pointed out at her son's party that as parents we try and try to keep them from grabbing at their food with their hands and try to teach them good table manners, but then expect them to dig into their cake like it's perfectly normal and acceptable. C'est la vie!
Click here to see some more pictures of Sydney's first birthday.
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