Happy Birthday
April 27th 2010 14:25
I was talking to a friend who became a grandparent for the first time last year recently and, during the conversation I asked how the baby was doing. "He is great." was the reply. "He'll be one in two weeks. They are having a birthday party. With music. Can you believe it?"
My response was, "Well the boy needs to have his birthday party though at this age it really is more about mom and dad than the child."
And so it is. The first birthday marks the end of a year that no amount of planning can adequately prepare parents to handle. From wistful longing for a powdery smelling bundle of joy, you are thrust into a reality of crying infants and dealing with more bodily excretions than anyone who is not a parent could ever understand.
It's true though. Professional women flee meetings ahead of tell tale milk stains, fathers arrive at the office with milky stains on their ties. That little bundle of joy will go through more than three thousand diapers in the first year, some of these will be relatively benign and others will be so toxic propriety forbids further discussion.
There is more than a little anxiety attached to the first year of life. You go from being a reasonable person to some demented sleep deprived creature whose only concern is whether the contents of the diaper appears to be the proper color and texture. You will get up roughly twice in the night because the baby is crying but check on the little one every time nature calls just to make certain he/she is breathing.
Because always, always there is that undertow of fear that somehow something unexplained will snatch the baby away if you fail to be vigilant. Then there is the crying, there is no way for this little being to express his or her desires except through screaming. Some develop colic which causes hours of prolongs wailing that no amount of pacing seems to soothe.
Not that there is nothing pleasant about the first year. It has plenty of happy moments. There is the drooling smile they great you with, the first tiny white tooth shining through pink gums. There is sitting up alone, crawling and for some a few toddling steps unassisted.
So much happens in this first year, no wonder mom and dad want to celebrate, and they should. As parents they should celebrate the first year and all its milestones. Invite all the family and friends and celebrate moving from being the parent of an infant to being the parent of a toddler.
I should warn you though, this is only the end of one era. It is the beginning of quite another.
My response was, "Well the boy needs to have his birthday party though at this age it really is more about mom and dad than the child."
And so it is. The first birthday marks the end of a year that no amount of planning can adequately prepare parents to handle. From wistful longing for a powdery smelling bundle of joy, you are thrust into a reality of crying infants and dealing with more bodily excretions than anyone who is not a parent could ever understand.
It's true though. Professional women flee meetings ahead of tell tale milk stains, fathers arrive at the office with milky stains on their ties. That little bundle of joy will go through more than three thousand diapers in the first year, some of these will be relatively benign and others will be so toxic propriety forbids further discussion.
There is more than a little anxiety attached to the first year of life. You go from being a reasonable person to some demented sleep deprived creature whose only concern is whether the contents of the diaper appears to be the proper color and texture. You will get up roughly twice in the night because the baby is crying but check on the little one every time nature calls just to make certain he/she is breathing.
Because always, always there is that undertow of fear that somehow something unexplained will snatch the baby away if you fail to be vigilant. Then there is the crying, there is no way for this little being to express his or her desires except through screaming. Some develop colic which causes hours of prolongs wailing that no amount of pacing seems to soothe.
Not that there is nothing pleasant about the first year. It has plenty of happy moments. There is the drooling smile they great you with, the first tiny white tooth shining through pink gums. There is sitting up alone, crawling and for some a few toddling steps unassisted.
So much happens in this first year, no wonder mom and dad want to celebrate, and they should. As parents they should celebrate the first year and all its milestones. Invite all the family and friends and celebrate moving from being the parent of an infant to being the parent of a toddler.
I should warn you though, this is only the end of one era. It is the beginning of quite another.
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