Birthdays Plans and Traditions

I think one of the most fun things about having kids, besides moments like yesterday morning when I walked out of my closet in a new, very colorful dress and Landon looked up from the spot on the floor where he was carefully arranging brightly colored necklaces that I picked up for $1 at Target into circles and calling them birthday cakes while singing "Happy to You" over and over, and said, "oh, mama, you're so pretty!" That's fun, but on a larger scale, I think my favorite thing is the creation of family traditions and celebrating occasions big and small.

Landon's birthday is on the 15th and he is super excited. Not about the presents- he knows what they are and knows he will get some, but there's nothing specific he wants and they're not the big draw. No, the reason he has been asking whether or not it's July since February is because of the cake and his friends. His friends will come over to our house (or indoor bounce house place, as it turns out) and they will all get to eat cake. He has his mom's sweet tooth but unlike his mama, he's almost never allowed to indulge it.

One of the birthday traditions in my family was that the birthday kid would get to pick whatever they wanted to eat for dinner. The birthday kid also got to leave their bed unmade in the morning, but it was so ingrained in us to make our beds that I don't think I ever once remembered to not make it, though I did mess mine back up a few times just because I could. This dinner that we got to select was never out at a restaurant- it wouldn't have occurred to use to ask since we never ate out (except on our 10-year "double digit" birthday when you got to go to a fancy restaurant with just mom and dad, it's a special memory), it was just your favorite recipe from mom's kitchen. For years I always picked breakfast tacos. My sister picked stir fry and my brother picked spaghetti. It wasn't about fancy, it was about your favorite thing to eat. When I asked JP about his birthday traditions he made a sour face and said he either had to eat at some fancy restaurant and sit still for three hours with his parents or he was forced to eat filet mignon stuffed with crab. Now I know, poor little rich kid who had to eat gourmet food, but he was 10 and really wanted pizza and his mom said, No, that's not special enough for a birthday, I'm buying filet. She also never threw him a birthday party because it couldn't just be simple and the thought of doing something more involved overwhelmed her to the point of inaction so it never happened. This is why we have yet to pull any traditions from JP's family. Also because they didn't have any.

So, last night I tried to ask Landon what he would like to eat on his birthday night. Cake! was the immediate response, so I spent about 10 minutes trying to explain that he will get cake but we have to eat something before the cake. Finally he agreed on Dino Chicken Nuggets, and while I am determined to not be my mother-in-law, those things look mildly repulsive to me so JP and I may eat something different. But I promise that Landon can have as many molded chicken products as he wants.

For his party we're keeping it easy and inviting his friends (daycare classmates and a few other buddies) to a nearby bounce house place. It's new, clean, and relatively undiscovered. The last time we went, for another classmate's birthday, the toddler party guests were the only ones there. I wanted to have the party at our house because I truly love hostessing things like that, and I had some fun ideas for the kids, but I decided that with a 5-week old I'd cop out and fork over some money for someone else to host it (and clean up after). I'll have more details on the party later, but basically the kids will run around and bounce and make squealing noises and then they will eat pizza, fruit, and cake. It will be two hours of toddler approved awesome, I'm sure.