My Little Baby's First!!

Once bitten twice shy - is not something that applies to me usually. As a general rule of thumb, I strive to treat each experience on a fresh new page. Ofcourse, there will be slight leaks from previous experiences that prevent me from using a totally white page, a few scribbles here and there are pretty evident.

I had grand plans for Rayaan's First. I made my invitation cards and got them printed at Kodak gallery. It was supposed to be on farm - with an Old Mac Donald Theme, since he loves animal sounds. I figured the 4th of July weekend would be an ideal day giving a chance for out of towners to come in. But unfortunately, it didn't work out like what I wanted it to be. Plan B was to go on a family vacation and celebrate his birthday on a quite getaway, just the four of us. But that plan got shelved as well because my husband's company never gives him a relief from customer meetings.

But they say, it all happens for the best, so with not much previous planning (which I suck at anyway, read previous post), I did what I do best - an impulsive , spontaneous plan that worked out like magic. I was determined to make Rayaan enjoy his day with his favorite person in this world, his brother .. and his recent favorite friends, our cousins kids. We had an old fashioned picnic at a nearby park, just the mommies and the kids.

It was a bright and sunny day (to begin with) and we decided to meet at the park at noon. As noon appoached, the sun decided to play a joke on me. It just vanished.. it got cloudy and the drizzling rain drops on my car top made it sound like, this would be another doomed attempt. Sometimes they say , if you wish really hard , "all the forces of the universe conspire to make it happen" (borrowed philosophy). So, I just didn't give up hope and my cousin Shehla, goaded me on with undying optimism, urging me to go on. All our positive energies in the car were so strong that by the time we got to the park, my old friend "the sun" decided to stop being a brat. From then on, it was a perfect picnic....

The kids ran around helter skelter and Rayaan followed them around ... and stopped every once in a while to taste the mulch...It was Rayaan's first ever tryst with complete independence to do whatever he wished to (with intermediate "nays" that he completely ignored). He looked helplessly at his brother and cousins indulging in a circuit training of all the stations in the park. He was wise enough to realise that he would not be able to keep up and made his own little circuit, which involved .. running till he went off balance, tasting the mud and the mulch, finding little stones and learning later that its not food,glancing at his running brother, furiously hitting a little table in a bid to make some music and then intermittent pit stops for yummy food and juice. After lunch we all headed to the beach park just across and then all the kids tried in vain to make sand castles and finally Rayaan got the hang of it after a sad realisation that dry sand is not as palatable as it appears. It was hard to get the kids back to the car because they were having too much fun, just like it was meant to be.

When we did head back covered in sand,mommies and kids alike, it felt wonderful deep inside. I felt like going back from school picnics, back in my times as a school girl - returning wet and dirty from an eventful day at the beach, with no change of clothes, yet very happy and gratified!! A mass shower for the kids was in order when we got home and with squeals unlimited that too happened unplanned yet successful.

The men returned home in the evening and we all indulged our senses in some good lebanese food amidst unnerving glares from the restaurant owner, who absolutely hated the squealing galore that accompanied our party. Finally the kids were thrown out of the restaurant and the adults had a peaceful yet grumpy dinner. When we got back home to cut the cake ... OUR little man was already in "sweet dreams land". So we all cut his FIRST birthday cake "while he was sleeping" amidst a birthday boy face painting session that had everyone in fits. "Just you wait" till he grows up and finds out!!!!!!