A birthday party or two

And so it came to Wednesday the 16th January. 1 year after my daughter Hannah came into the world. She may have realized something was up when the nanny gave her a new scarf and hat--nice and think and also bright green so we can't lose her in the snow (it snowed again today). As has happened a lot during the winter nanny took Hannah to an indoor kids playground in the afternoon for her to get some exercise and then she dropped her off at my office.

That was when the best laid plans began to go wrong. Most of the office were waiting to see Hannah and some had gifts too. But when Hannah arrived, at 6pm, she was asleep. Worn out from the playground, but having not gone to sleep earlier since she was so busy playing. Once she hits the buggy, she often falls asleep quickly, and so it was on this day. 20 mins later she woke up, groggy and not in the best of moods to receive presents. But receive them she did and then we took off to find the local guy who stands down the road selling helium balloons. Except that day he was not there. All the other local street sellers were. He was not. We asked around. We realized we were getting late. We were planning to take a little three wheel motorized bike-cum-taxi to dinner but nanny had brought the buggy (originally she was just going to bring her in the carrier). So i couldn't get the two of us and the buggy in the little three-wheelers. There's no taxis around at rush hour, so we looked for a bus. Didn't see one and so decided to run it.

a 15-minute run later, we got close to the restaurant. Hannah was getting a little cold, a friend was a bit lost, and then all of a sudden, at the turning to the little alley where the restaurant was, there was a guy selling helium balloons. Crazy. The big shopping/eating area was about half a mile away but i guess the guy had decided to leave there early, and i have no idea why he picked our alley to go up. But he did, and as I found my somewhat lost friend who had turned around to find the correct alley we bought half the guy's balloons and managed to get into the restaurant only 1 minute late... but still the first. So i had ensured the half-German baby was on time to her first birthday party. Surely a good omen for her future!

We had not invited kids, since they all go to bed around 7pm, just some of our adult friends who knew Hannah well. They slowly arrived in dribs and drabs, and then we opened presents, ate and drank --she got some books, clothes, a rug, some toys, well the usual really. I realized the benefit of Hannah's late nap (she normally sleeps around 5pm not 6pm) was that she was able to stay up until 9pm until she collapsed asleep in Andrea's arms. A pleasant evening all round (well until Hannah woke up at 10pm as we got her dressed to go into the taxi... she was not happy waking up and cried a lot until she passed out again once the movement of the taxi kicked in).

Three days later we had some of her baby friends around at our house, which we'd filled with regular balloons (as well as the helium balloons). Thankfully most people also arrived a bit late, waiting for babies to finish naps etc. I say thankfully as at 2pm Hannah was on her backside naked as we had to change her and wash some clothes that she'd soiled. Great way to start!

Five or six of the babies were between 8 months and 15 months so were not really yet into the whole "playing together" thing. But they played around, were curious about each other and us adults chatted. A couple of older kids were there, and they enjoyed showing Hannah how to open (and play) with her presents. Earlier that day we had prepared a birthday cake of sorts. Mostly mashed potato with a layer of boiled carrots in there too, it proved a bit of a hit amongst the babies. We had even spelt out a message on the top using boiled celery too. So it was a nice healthy birthday cake. And Hannah loved it. Just as she loves eating everything else we feed her too!

Anyway it all went well. Today she skype videoed home to get her birthday wishes. In less than two weeks she'll be back in Europe and basking in a lot of attention one imagines!