Henry Presents “The Birthday Party”: Part 1
Just as I spent a good week and a half writing about our vacation to Massachusetts and Maine, there will be several posts about Saturday. What was Saturday, you ask? Why the greatest first birthday party ever! (Disclaimer: I make this claim in the non-pony category. Any birthday party that involves pony rides trumps this one. It’s really no contest.)
I don’t know if I can write up something in chronological order, because so many things happened, and I missed a lot (because it seemed like Kristen and I were always on the run) so I got some things second hand. So here it goes in no specific order:
We live on the third floor in what is called a 6-flat. If you’re not from Chicago, this means it’s a building that has 6 non-garden-level units in it. (We previously lived in a 2-flat. That had — can you guess? — two units in it.) Our back yard is a large-ish patio where there are some tables and chairs and a grill that everyone in the building uses. It’s a nice set-up, and we’ve used the area for parties before (including the baby shower a year earlier), and we had planned to have Henry’s birthday shindig out there.
That is until the temperature didn’t go higher than 62. In August.
So we had the party in our condo unit, and everything worked out fine, the biggest issue being that I had to climb up and down the three flights to get ice and cook the hot dogs.
There are about six-and-a-half million different toys for kids out there. Really. It’s an endless supply of trucks, balls, blocks, teddy bears… It’s amazing. And somehow, two people got Henry the same gift. And it wasn’t some run-of-the-mill Fisher Price toy (not that Fisher Price toys aren’t great); it was a set of three airplanes that Henry will have hours of fun pretending to fly around. What is the chance of that happening? Craziness.
I ordered a cake from a local bakery (the Swedish Bakery in Andersonville). We expected about 30 people to show up (5 or 6 which were kids under 3) for the party, so I got one that they said served 25-30. This cake could’ve served 50. It was gigantic! Our friend Rebbecca (who went to culinary school) artfully cut it for us, and as she doled out the pieces to everyone, it became clear two things: 1) the cake was huge and we’ll be eating it for the next week and 2) it was so rich (and tasty) nobody was able to have a second piece. (I toughed it out and had a second later that night.)
If we get Henry’s second birthday cake there, we’re downsizing for sure.
Henry is no cake novice. In fact, he enjoys it quite a bit and would probably eat it every day. (Who can blame him?) So when he got his own mini-cake all to himself, there was no hesitation. In fact, I didn’t even get the candle lit before he knocked it over and lunged forward. He went at it like a hyena going after an antelope carcass. (Nice image, eh?) He grabbed at the icing and shoved it in his mouth. He tore at the cake, grabbing fist-fulls to smear all over his highchair (and face and shirt and bib).
But it wasn’t just playing. He ate a lot of the cupcake (no one-year-old could eat the whole thing), and would’ve eaten more if we hadn’t pulled it away from him after 15 minutes (fearing his gastrointestinal safety and trying to minimize the messiness).
Needless to say, his sugar high lasted about 2 hours, followed by a crash that put him to sleep rather early.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow is part 2. (Can’t wait, eh?)
August 25th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Me, me, me. I gave him 3 of the 6 airplanes!