By Jade Glen
First birthdays are momentous occasions that call for a celebration of some kind, despite the fact that the one-year-old in question will never remember it.
On the weekend we celebrated the first birthday of our youngest daughter, Maeve.
We braved the wet and miserable August weather and invited 40 people to our house for a barbecue.
The forecast was dire and I spent the week in a state of panic about where 40 people would sit if we were relegated to inside. Our house is pretty big, but not 40-people big.
Luckily we could attach some marquees to our back deck and borrowed some chairs and gas heaters (thankyou pop pop) so people could sit in relative comfort in a slightly wet and windblown tent.
We spent a few nights blowing up balloons, making tissue-paper fans and using an elaborate system of Blu Tack, ribbons and fishing line to make a backdrop behind the desert table. I still haven’t taken it down, because it looks pretty fancy, and I’m not sure how well I will go getting Blu Tack off the ceiling.
I spent the week running around with two kids in tow buying all the tiny things you need for a party – little tongs for fruit platters, picking up cupcakes, ordering our food from the butcher and the bakery, picking the best looking strawberries at the greengrocer.
Then there was the extra-thorough cleaning, and the actual cooking, and trying to keep the place in order while the girls did their best to disassemble it.
The actual day was cold and windy and rainy as predicted and, despite our efforts, a few people still got drenched when water slipt between the cracks of the marquees.
Even though Maeve will never remember all the fuss and all the effort we went to, we have lots of photos to share with her, birthday cards to save and a book, the excellent Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which people signed as a keepsake.
Forty people came from all corners of Victoria, from around the corner to Healesville and Wandin and the city and Reservoir and Phillip Island and Wonthaggi, and even some special guests from the UK (thankyou Darren, Tina and baby Sophie).
They came and ate and celebrated this first birthday, to mark this moment in time.
A first birthday acknowledges the baby but is also a milestone for the parents – we have survived all the challenges of the first year, the sleepless nights and breastfeeding and washing bottles and first teeth and first foods and first illnesses.
I am looking forward to what the next year brings – the first steps, first words (beyond mum, dada and ta) and seeing her grow in to a curious, clever toddler.
Happy birthday, baby Maeve. We love you.
