Our Party!

On Sunday we had a huge party...for Dave and me! Since first birthdays (and usually second birthdays) are more about the parents than the oblivious child, we figured it was best to throw ourselves a party. Why waste all that energy, effort, and money on a baby's birthday? He has no idea what's going on anyway. So the "theme" of the party was Congratulations-to-Julie-and-Dave-Because-They-Survived-Their-First-Year-of-Parenthood. Clever, I know.

We really wanted to take a bunch of friends out to dinner while Eddie stayed home with a sitter. But since we're not billionaires and can't afford to do that, we instead decided to throw a party ourselves at home, since a little money for groceries can feed a lot more people than at a restaurant.

I started cooking on Saturday afternoon and made TONS of food. We decided to have a gyro bar--so I made filafels (out of black eyed peas and grated zucchini instead of chickpeas), two kinds of hummus, basil/mint/dill tzatziki, grilled lamb, and grilled chicken. We also had Mexican bean and rice salad, Chinese chicken salad, sangria, and cakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes...and a special cake for Eddie. I made sure to have vegetarian food and gluten free foods so everyone could have something to eat. The gluten free cupcakes were even dairy and corn free!

Our nights/weekends baby sitter, Jacob, came back to Davis from Berkeley for the day (he's at home for the summer) so he could help at the party. The idea was that Jacob would whisk Eddie away to the park after we did his cake and sang happy birthday so Dave and I could have some adult time alone with our friends...but Eddie didn't nap well so we just kept him at the house with us. And Dave missed the party. Oh well. I still had a great time.

Dave didn't feel well (dizzy and his ear was bothering him) so he actually missed 80% of the party because he napped almost the whole time. Poor guy, I feel bad that he missed singing happy birthday to Eddie and watching him with his cake...but at least he got some rest.

We had something like 25 adults, 4 babies, and 3 big kid here. It was really touching how many people took time to come over and celebrate with us.

When I gave a little "thank you" speech to everyone I actually choked up a little, especially because Dave wasn't out there with me. It seems unreal to me that:

1. We have a baby in the first place.
2. He's soooooooooooooo cute/wonderful/precious/makes my heart melt every time I look or think about him.
3. He's already ONE year old!

But then as explained Eddie's cake to everyone and I laughed at how silly and weird the whole thing was.

It seems that parents always choose a cake shape/decoration based on their child's current cartoon character or hobby obsession. For a one year old, the choices are quite limited. In Eddie's case, the choices were me or my breasts. He loves to be in my arms all the time and he also loves breast feeding. Being the weirdos we are, we chose the latter. And it just so happens that we have a breast shaped cake pan left from a bachelor party a few years ago.

Turns out I'm not the only person who has made boob shaped cakes for their child's party--weaning parties as a rite of passage for older kids to stop breastfeeding are not uncommon and there are oodles of cake and frosting recipes online using breast milk. So Eddie's special cake contained breast milk (but the cupcakes the rest of us ate did not).

Eddie was HILARIOUS with his cake. After we all sang to him and I blew out his candle, he paused to survey his sugary treat. Then he fondled the pink marshmallow "nipple."

Then he dove at it with both hands. It was such a guy thing to do.

The rest of us ate boobie cupcakes (cream filled, of course). They were delicious!Lots of special people came to celebrate with us. It was especially great to have Dyani here so we could gab with all the other mamas about her own bundle who will be here in January.

Once Dave was feeling better, he came outside and hung around with the other daddies. (Nothing is more attractive than seeing men care for babies, especially your own husband caring for your own baby. Seriously sexy.)

As always, there was a lot of prep work for the party (all the cooking) but it was totally worth it. Even though our invitation said "no gifts," several people made donations to Eddie's college fund. I haven't tallied up how much we'll be able to invest this year but Dave and I are already talking about coming up with some equation involving Eddie's age to calculate how much we'll give him each year for his college fund. He'll always get a fun gift, of course, but we're hoping the monetary gift will help him learn delayed gratification--and the joys of being nerdy like us since we'll get him to do the calculations each year once he's old enough. I bet Dave will even having him calculating out the compound interest earned to date and the total value of the fund for when he's 18. Haha!

So congratulations to Dave and me! We did it! It was a great year by any estimation.