Boo Boo turns 1

I need to stop comparing how I did things the first time at the raising-a-baby rodeo with how I am doing things now. I had all these grand plans for Cici's first birthday but quite frankly there was not a chance in hell it was going to happen. I had visions of a big party with all our friends in the back yard under twinkling lights. There would be Chinese lanterns strung from the house and gorgeous food on the buffet table. But somewhere between getting home from China during a hurricane with children starting school imminently and trying to surface from under the weight of my PTO life, I realized this party was just not going to happen. About two weeks ago I started to wonder why I was having such a hard time pulling it together. I thought back to my other two 1st birthday parties and between the custom made cakes in the shape of bathtubs with rubber duckies or a 3-D barn with animals and the sit down luncheon (for 15 one year olds) I started to feel guilty that I was having trouble pulling this off. And then it hit me.

The girl has no friends.

Ahhhh poooooor Boo! Seriously. She has no friends. By the time the first two turned one, they each had a gaggle of friends that we met with once a week for play groups. But we've only been home a month with Cici and frankly I have not had the time to get her into anything that might generate a friend or two. I mean really, she naps all morning, we then have lunch and when that is over, we have maybe an hour to get 1 thing done before we have to run for the first of our two school pick-ups. And then once the big kids are home, we are off and running to after-school activities.

Now that I have analyzed why she is friendless, and really, I'm okay with the reasons, I begin to wonder when the heck we are going to find the time to get her some friends. Oh gawd, am I going to have that kid who is clearly lacking social skills? The one who bites in preschool???? No probably not. She has a great relationship with her big brother and sister. She plays and laughs and shares toys with them. She will be super social. Her siblings will teacher her all the right things. Oh shit, maybe she'll be that kid who says inappropriately sophisticated things in Kindergarten and horrifies all the mothers' whose eldest child is in her class! Okay, I am getting ahead of myself.

Back to her turning 1.

We had a perfect little celebration with family. We hung lanterns in the air. We had twinkling lights on the table. We ate homemade Moo Shu Pork and Curried Thai Cod and Shrimp for dinner and of course had cake for dessert. The big kids dipped fortune cookies in chocolate, decorated them with sprinkles, and then put three in a little pink Chinese take-out box for each person at the table. My fortune cookie had a crazy fortune in it which I will show you in another post!