Happy Birthday Party

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Today was Isla’s birthday party; or, as she calls it, her “Happy Birthday Party.”

This was a larger affair than her party last year, when she turned one. This time, she had her aunts, uncles, and cousins in attendance. She also knew exactly what was going on. I tried reinforcing it over the past few weeks by regularly asking her how old she was. She’d say “one,” and then I’d explain how on her birthday she would be two, and I displayed the appropriate number of fingers to demonstrate the change in number.

Also during the past week, Isla kept asking me, Jennifer, and Owen if we were coming to her party. We always said that yes, we would be there. She explained that she wanted cake, pizza, juice, M&Ms, and ice cream at her party.

She loved opening the gifts today, and gently opened up each envelope first, requesting that my wife read the card to her. I don’t think I’ve ever observed a child – especially one of pre-reading age – so interested in the cards that accompany gift. Yet she wanted to see the contents of each one. She loves books, and I think, to her, birthday cards are just really truncated books.

She had a big grin on her face as we sung “Happy Birthday To You” to her, and she knew to blow out the candles, too. She succeeded in blowing them out after a couple tries.

Owen left with his grandparents this evening, so Isla had a quiet evening playing with her toys and looking at her new books. We measured Isla on our 2×4 that we keep for just such a purpose. I set Owen’s 2×4 next to hers just for the heck of it, and it’s true: Isla is a little kid: her height measured exactly the same as Owen’s did when he was 18 months old. Jennifer said that there’s probably no reason for the 2×4 to be seven feet long; I can probably trim off at least 18 inches (thereby making it more manageable on days like today) to no ill effect. I told Jennifer I’m trying to give Isla something to reach for – but the reality is I don’t wish for my daughter to be 7 feet tall.