1st Birthday Theme
Baby J. Tries on Her Birthday Outfit
As promised, I'm going to go into detail on the theme we chose for Baby J.'s first birthday party. We had a lot of themes to choose from. And at first, we really couldn't decide on what we wanted to do. At one point, we had thought of an Alice in Wonderland theme, but we decided that was too complex. We thought of maybe a more general book theme, since Baby J. loves books, but again, we felt it would be too all-over-the-place, and it really wouldn't be easy to find decorations for. So, we came up with an amalgam of themes. We combined two themes to create The Princess Monkey theme.
Baby’s First Birthday Party Ideas
There are a lot of themes to choose from for your baby's first birthday. It took my wife and I a long time to come up with the theme we wanted. There are actually online stores devoted now to first birthdays; I guess they caught wind that we had a child about to turn one, because we've been receiving little catalogs for a month now.
Planning the 1st Birthday
Who knew a first birthday for a baby could be so complicated? The decorations, the food, getting the house ready, inviting people over. It's a lot of work. My wife and I are taking each day this week to do something little to ready ourselves for the party: clean a room or two, ready some guest beds (yes, we have some family members coming from out of town to see the little one get a whole year older), make some of the food for the party, cut up and arrange the decorations, etc etc, and so on and so on.
What It Means to Be a Father
I'm estranged from my own father. I haven't spoken to him in more than a decade. I haven't wanted to. There hasn't been a day in those last ten years where I've felt like I was missing out on anything. It's funny looking back on it, because in my opinion, it happened gradually, that is my not wanting to be involved in my father's life. I never felt much of a connection to him. I can count the number of times on one hand I actually called him "dad". "Dad"? It's such a weird thing for me to think of calling him.
Is My Baby Teething?
It can be extremely difficult to tell if your baby is teething. For some babies, the process might be quick and easy. Maybe they'll spend only one night actually teething, while a tooth comes in, only one night where they might be a bit crankier than usual. And then there are some babies that are in agony for days, weeks, and the lack of sleep during this period is enough to drive you insane. Baby J. has largely fallen somewhere in the middle. For some teeth, the process has been quick and easy. For others, such as her first two teeth and now her molars, the process has been long, arduous agony.
