A 24th Month//A 2nd Year
Happy birthday, my little wonder. You are such a bright spot on our lives. Your arrival on this planet almost instantly made me a stronger, braver, fuller, more purposeful person, and I will never forget the powerful tide of perfect, comfortable change your new life brought my 26 year old life when you made me a mother. This second year has been one of so much discovery and growth. You are a walking, talking, rationalizing, demanding, energizing, exhausting little tyrant, and we love you so very much, little boy. I've never been more proud of anything in my life than I am of your father and I and you. We've all done a lot these past two years. It hasn't been easy, not in the least, but it's been happy and it's been fruitful. I couldn't ask for anything more. Here's to another year of all that and more. Hey, You – You're Two!
In lieu of a big old party, like we toiled away at last year, Adam and I decided to celebrate this second year of Bastian's life just the four of us: mama, daddy, Bastian Wilde, and meemaw (our word for grandma around here.) In 2012, we stuck to ourselves even more than 2011, the year the boy child was born, and it felt a little silly to get people we've lost touch with together to celebrate our little boy, who they barely know.
(It's funny though, just as Bastian was winding the last corner of babyhood, he really began to open up socially and start to show interest in connecting with others, so it's become my goal to socialize him more now that he's ready, but at his pace. Sometimes this feels like quite the intimidating undertaking, but most of the time it feels like I am fully prepared to embrace this part of the parenting process and trust that I will always do what's best for him.)
So, 2013 is the year of seeking out other parents who we enjoy spending time with, with children close to Bastian's age, who he likes spending time with. This must be possible – right? I mean, people look to be doing it all the time. Sometimes I marvel at how weird we can be, this little family of ours.
Anyhow, on the 9th, Bastian's actual birthday, he woke up to a sea of red, green and yellow balloons strewn all across the living room, which he LOVED. He seriously played for them for at least a half hour, pretending to blow them up and throwing them “high up in the sky” (his words.) Then meemaw came and as they played with the balloons some more, I attempted to make buttermilk pancakes, completely disregarding the fact that I am perfectly and consistently terrible at making pancakes. So, that took far too long and resulted in some so-so bunny shaped pancakes for Bastian, and some ridiculous burnt scraps for meemaw and I. Kind of a sad start to a birthday if you ask me, but he seemed unphased, so we moved on.
Meemaw left for work and we went about our day, scooted (literally) down to the Dollar Store for some “peep-peeps” (birds) to decorate his cake, and spent way too long there because he was in an awesome mood and totally loved it. We left with lots of dinos because they had some really great ones and no peep-peeps. Oh, and a “happy face” helium balloon for good measure. Plans for the cake changed, but Bastian and I think it was all for the better.
When daddy got home, I set to work on the cake and stovetop mac and cheese, his favorite (snore.) I went with a southern hummingbird cake and, at the very last minute, decided to tint the buttercream a pale grass green with a little spinach juice – it worked out beautifully and I highly recommend natural dyes. You can's taste anything other than your delicious frosting, I swear. I also dusted the top with some chopped pecans and decorated with the dinosaurs. It made me so happy to see his little face when that little green dino cake came out. First off, the kid LOVES candles, but he was also just so stoked on the colors and that it was all for him. Such a proud mama moment.
After cake, we opened some presents, which he totally gets the concept of now since it was just Christmas, and rushed him off to bed since he'd bypassed his usual afternoon nap. It was a really sweet, relatively low-key day, with nearly every minute of it spent helping him realize that this day, every year, is his special day. No matter what.
Just as daddy was taking him into bed, he said ever so softly in his tiny little Bastian night-night voice, “thank you for the balloons, mama.” Oh no way, I didn't shed a single tear (yeah, right.)
I think we made the right choice this year. Bastian's birthday was all about him and not about us or anyone else. He got to experience his normal life with just a little extra love and attention, complete with presents and cake and two little rainbow candles just for him and his two years, and I think that's just how he wanted it. On Friday, we headed to a very generous friend's cabin – and the snow – in Sisters, OR. More on that birthday weekend adventure later.