We celebrated Mary’s first birthday yesterday morning, right after her baptism. Yep, kid number three gets a birthday and baptism combo party and I’m proud of it. In fact, I’m currently launching a “We don’t need a party EVERY year,” campaign for the other two. So far, they’re not buying it. This is probably because they’ve been spoiled by all the specialized attention they used to get. Don’t worry, though, I’ll chip away at their collective sense of entitlement yet.
The baptism itself was fine. Although we hauled ass to get to the church for the 9am mass that immediately preceded the baptism and it turns out we didn’t need to. The other two families who were baptizing babies at the same time arrived after the mass was over and therefore didn’t have a baby who had already sat through an hour long mass. Of course, we’ve done this twice before at the same church, but I seem to have lost all ability to retain information. Seriously, if I didn’t sit down and type all this stuff up on this blog right away it would be lost forever.
At one point Mary was arching her back so severely, eyes rolling back and letting out a sort of strangled cry and I wondered if she maybe thought we were there for an exorcism instead. Babies can’t keep anything straight. Then, as part of the ritual, the parents and Godparents are asked to reject the “glamour of sin” and the influence of “the Prince of Darkness.” Hold up. That right there sounds pretty alluring. Note to the Vatican: you might want to play down the appeal of a life full of sin in the old baptismal rite. I don’t have the stats on how many Godparents have left the ceremony and immediately booked a trip to Vegas, but I have to assume it’s not a small number.
We then had our families back to the house for brunch. I made a ham and broccoli strata which was a hit. There was also a “toast bar” (yes, I invented it) that I was particularly proud of. It didn’t seem to garner quite as much praise (because it was just a toaster and some jams and stuff set out, I guess) as I expected, so I might have to dedicate an entire post to it later this week. Then I’ll pin it and it will become a runaway Pinterest hit. That will then bring so much traffic to my blog that it will probably crash and you won’t be able to go back and read about that weird smell from last week. Be forewarned.
The pictures of the birthday cake and candle kind of suck. And there’s none of her with icing all over her face either because I served lemon coffee cake instead of birthday cake. What? It was brunch! And, really, she had zero expectations and the coffee cake was on sale and, you know, third baby.
I do love watching one year olds open their presents, though. They are pleasantly surprised by every gift bag and box that is put in front of them. They are just old enough to appreciate that they are getting new toys (but they still don’t care about the clothes). And, really, there is nothing more fun for a 12 month old than putting things into a container and then taking them out, over and over again.
Is that? A big box full of balled up newspaper?
Oh baby. This is the stuff.
Who’s with me on the “not a party every year” campaign? We can do restaurant dinners or whatever instead, but three kids equals party fatigue. You know?
6 replies on “Happy Birthday! Let me just wash that original sin off … There!”
Camryn has not had a birthday party in years. She prefers to go to Niagara Falls with the family on an overnight trip. But you’ll miss these parties when they become teens. Eryk just went to the movies with friends and asked for a McCain cake at dinner.
I’ll definitely miss it when they want to celebrate with their friends instead of family. I don’t know if I’ll miss hosting a party for ten to twenty of other people’s kids. I love the idea of a Niagara Falls trip, though!
In my family, there are so many of us, that we do mass birthday parties. One every month or two. But I don’t generally have to clean my house for them, so I don’t mind. I also usually offer to bring the rolls, so I don’t have to cook either.
But yeah, for the kids, we tend to go to a restaurant or let them pick an activity (like mini golf or a movie) instead of a party with friends. So far so good, but the oldest one is only six, so we’ll see.
I’m so pushing for the restaurant or activity, but they like a party. At least we keep them simple. Cake and pizza at home with a few activities.
I LOVE throwing a good kid’s birthday party! However, I have only 2 kids and we usually invite just a few friends and have something simple at our house. I do enjoy a good theme though!!
I wonder how long it will be before they notice that no one else has birthday parties at home??
And hey, at least kid number 3 got baptized! I know a “kid number 4” that is going to be 5 soon and he’s still walking around covered in original sin. :)
Hey, we still have parties at home! I don’t *hate* them; I just think one or two per year is plenty.