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I'm finding it interesting how people have varying perceptions of birthdays and how they ought to be celebrated, especially a first birthday. There are those who would throw outlandishly huge parties and invite everyone they know and have all sorts of crazy stuff that a one-year-old could really not care less about. We are not those people and it seems to shock those who are. I hold birthdays sacred, but we prefer to keep everything as minimal as possible this year. We're broke, we don't have a lot of spare time, and well, Nora's only going to be a year old. How much could we really do that she'd enjoy other than give her some new kind of food (i.e. cake) that she's sure to like? Let's save the bouncy houses and themes for when she can actually appreciate them.
My view of birthdays growing up is, I'm sure, different than the views of others, probably even within my own family. That's just how people are. So for me, we would happen to have my grandparents over for dinner sometime if they happened to be back from their winters in Florida in time for it and there would happen to be cake. Maybe I'd get a say in what was for dinner or maybe it would just be pizza anyway. But that's about it in terms of family for birthdays. We didn't invite the extended family as if it were a holiday or some sort of formal event. It was in no way in my mind considered to be a party. The real party was the one I had with my friends. So that was my perception of birthdays while growing up.
This relates back to Nora in that I don't particularly consider what we're doing for Nora's birthday to be a party. Some people who happen to live nearby are coming by for some pizza and cake. Really, that's how I posed it when I asked people about it. "We're going to have some pizza and cake for lunch so stop by if you want around when Nora gets up from her nap." No formal invites or anything like that. If we were having an actual party, it would involve Nora's "friends" and seeing as how she's one and still developmentally in that phase of parallel play (babies play next to each other rather than with each other), I don't know that I'd say she has friends just yet.
John's taking a little heat, thanks to a previous entry of mine discussing this event, for not inviting some out-of-town folks, but we didn't invite anyone from out of town. Julie wasn't invited. Nora's godmother wasn't invited. We don't expect anyone to come from out of town for our little two hour celebration. And if we lived somewhere else (as was always my plan, and yet we're still here in PhD limbo), the people that are coming probably wouldn't have been invited either because they wouldn't be people who lived nearby. That's just how low-key we're trying to be on this. We're not trying to exclude anyone purposely.
Besides, at this time of the year (for John) and semester (for me), it couldn't be a worse time to have out-of-town guests. The six weeks between Nora's birthday and my own will be full of exams and numerous major projects for me. The eight weeks between Nora's birthday and John's will be full of prep for his place of employment's graduation. And considering that's the field I also plan to go into, this time of year will perpetually be a bad time for us to have visitors. People always say they don't need to be entertained when they visit and we can just go about our business and not bother with them, but I have yet to see a case where that's actually true.
So we will take approximately two hours to feed some pizza and cake to a small group of people and spend the rest of our slim free time quietly celebrating this occasion with Nora by ourselves. Some people do big shindigs and whatnot. Some people have huge family events. We're just not those people. Heck, we don't have time to be those people.
My view of birthdays growing up is, I'm sure, different than the views of others, probably even within my own family. That's just how people are. So for me, we would happen to have my grandparents over for dinner sometime if they happened to be back from their winters in Florida in time for it and there would happen to be cake. Maybe I'd get a say in what was for dinner or maybe it would just be pizza anyway. But that's about it in terms of family for birthdays. We didn't invite the extended family as if it were a holiday or some sort of formal event. It was in no way in my mind considered to be a party. The real party was the one I had with my friends. So that was my perception of birthdays while growing up.
This relates back to Nora in that I don't particularly consider what we're doing for Nora's birthday to be a party. Some people who happen to live nearby are coming by for some pizza and cake. Really, that's how I posed it when I asked people about it. "We're going to have some pizza and cake for lunch so stop by if you want around when Nora gets up from her nap." No formal invites or anything like that. If we were having an actual party, it would involve Nora's "friends" and seeing as how she's one and still developmentally in that phase of parallel play (babies play next to each other rather than with each other), I don't know that I'd say she has friends just yet.
John's taking a little heat, thanks to a previous entry of mine discussing this event, for not inviting some out-of-town folks, but we didn't invite anyone from out of town. Julie wasn't invited. Nora's godmother wasn't invited. We don't expect anyone to come from out of town for our little two hour celebration. And if we lived somewhere else (as was always my plan, and yet we're still here in PhD limbo), the people that are coming probably wouldn't have been invited either because they wouldn't be people who lived nearby. That's just how low-key we're trying to be on this. We're not trying to exclude anyone purposely.
Besides, at this time of the year (for John) and semester (for me), it couldn't be a worse time to have out-of-town guests. The six weeks between Nora's birthday and my own will be full of exams and numerous major projects for me. The eight weeks between Nora's birthday and John's will be full of prep for his place of employment's graduation. And considering that's the field I also plan to go into, this time of year will perpetually be a bad time for us to have visitors. People always say they don't need to be entertained when they visit and we can just go about our business and not bother with them, but I have yet to see a case where that's actually true.
So we will take approximately two hours to feed some pizza and cake to a small group of people and spend the rest of our slim free time quietly celebrating this occasion with Nora by ourselves. Some people do big shindigs and whatnot. Some people have huge family events. We're just not those people. Heck, we don't have time to be those people.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 12:59 pm (UTC)From:For reasons like those you listed, I don't really want to even THINK about taking my kids to Disney World, Sea World WHATEVER until they're 8+. The won't appreciate it. And I'd rather not have a 2 year old in 85% humidity.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 03:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 10:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 10:15 pm (UTC)From:...song and dance crap.
In other news I talked to Mike today. He said he'd give a cake to your parents to give to you, as long as he got a cake too. Which is fine, and stooooopid easy since I'm already making a cake to take to work tomorrow for someone elses Birthday.
Spring makes me bake. God only knows why.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 01:43 am (UTC)From:That reminds me that I need to call Mike, which I can do now that he has a cell phone and will actually receive messages I leave for him. You'd think the adults in the house could handle that responsibility, but that's a journal entry for another day.
Anyway, I worked a summer at Fantasy Island. It was, um, interesting.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 05:57 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 06:17 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 07:10 pm (UTC)From:Don't be blaming Nora for your bad habits. She can't open packages yet.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 07:26 pm (UTC)From: