Joyeux Anniversaire- mon petit

As usual, there are lots of gaps in posting. Last month was quite hectic as we celebrated Aarush’s first birthday.

We started planning from December onwards. As our schedule now revolves around his nap-time and whims, we hardly get time for each other or to discuss any matter. It’s just a lot more rare these days than it used to be. So, gone are the days of last-minute plans. Despite how he has completely turned our lives upside down, we wanted to celebrate his first birthday, which I know he hardly will acknowledge at this age. Basically, it was more of a party for parents, a get-together on completing a one-year milestone.

Initially, we wanted to have it in a restaurant with a few friends and family members. Thus, we short-listed a few places, but nothing was getting finalized. We didn’t want a dinner party as it could be more stressful the whole day for us, and Aarush might get cranky. We wanted him to be in good spirits for the special day. Thinking about all these aspects, finally, we decided to have the party over lunch at our apartment clubhouse, where we just needed to rent some chairs and tables for that day, and that is all.

This was the first time we were organizing a birthday party, and we were not sure about the logistical part. It took a while to come up with the final plan with inputs from veterans (in kids’ parties).

We sent invitations to our guests through Evite to get an idea of how many guests are coming, but we must admit we had to call people at the end, except a few. Most Indians cannot say “NO,” so we had lots of guests in “undecided mode.” That added one extra effort where we had to find out if they are coming or not from the “context” of the conversation, as no one is going to say “NO” over the phone either. This was a truly difficult part of all, as based on this number, everything depends, be it food ordering, cake, or return gifts.

The food was ordered from Golkonda Chimney, near Marathalli. We were lucky to get hold of one event manager who helped us in decorating the place, getting a music system, bouncer, caricaturist, and balloon modelling.

We didn’t have any parents-child games as we didn’t want to worry too much about entertaining the adults. We just made sure they all have been introduced to one another, and they chat and mingle on their own.

As we already had a cake before from Cake Walk, Indira Nagar - we knew about its quality. Without thinking much, we ordered a 4 kg Black Current Cake from there after tasting a piece. Now, all three of us got our birthday cakes from the same bakery after moving to Bangalore.

The next tedious thing was to work out on return gifts. We categorized kids into 3 groups based on their age. We bought toys and books for around 25 kids. Though it was not easy to choose from so many varieties, hopefully, they liked it.

On the D-day, the party went on smoothly - Aarush was friendly. He was not cranky for a single moment seeing the crowd. We got some cute pictures through a professional photographer, the cake was fantastic. The only thing was we forgot to blow the candle before cutting the cake.

At last, we were very satisfied with the party and hope the same from our guests.

Will always remember this first party of my son.