First B-Day Fiasco

We had a lovely first birthday celebration planned for Stephen which never happened. But such is life, eh?

We didn't want to do anything big because that just seemed like a lot of work and hoopla for a kid that's so young he won't even notice. We decided to do something simple. Our original plan was to go to a park or somewhere fun on Saturday during the day and then that evening Stephen would stay with my cousin while we went out to a movie and dinner to celebrate surviving the first year of parenthood (we haven't been to a movie since he's been born). Then on Sunday we'd go to Dan's sister's house and have a little family party with the hands in the cake, etc. Pretty simple, right? What could go wrong with that plan? Plenty!

First, my cousin had the opportunity to spend Saturday evening with her husband who will be shipped out to Iraq in a week. We were very happy for them to get another evening together but finding another babysitter was much harder than we thought it would be. We figured it would be just fine to bring Stephen with us to dinner - I mean it was his birthday and maybe we'd get some free ice-cream or something ;) and we'd forgo the movie and rent something instead. Since we weren't going to the movies we could go somewhere fun for dinner so we thought we'd go up to Midway, UT (45 minutes away)

Dan had to work all day Saturday and Stephen's naps were sporadic so we ditched the park idea.

Unfortunately, Daddy didn't get home, showered and ready to go until around 7:30. We decided that driving all the way to Midway might be a mistake because Stephen was showing the signs of some major crankiness. Hence the non-smiling pic (which is so uncharacteristic) to the right.

So we ventured into town and thought we'd just get something quick and simple. We found a new mexican restaurant and thought we'd try it. What a disapointment! It was expensive and not so great. Dan likes to ask our servers questions to make sure he gets something he likes but this waitress said (in a valley girl voice no less), "I only started working here like a week ago. I really don't know anything about mexican food - I'm from the east coast. The only mexican food I ever saw was Taco Bell." Riiiiight.

Well in the middle of dinner Stephen started screaming - and I mean screaming. He very rarely cries and I can't remember him ever crying in public. This was way out of character for him. I couldn't console him no matter what I did. The same thing had happened when he woke up from his nap and I thought it was really strange then too. We wrapped things up and hurried home. When we got home it happened again.

I started doing a mental rewind of the day to figure out what the issue was and then it hit me - he had been straining throughout the day like he was going to have a BM but nothing ever materialized. Right before the screaming I remember him straining again. Yeah our little guy was constipated and in pain. So I ran to the store to grab some prune juice while Dan put him in a warm bath and massaged his tummy. Nothing.

So we gave him some prune juice strait up (surprisingly he actually drank some - usually he hates fruit). Then we put some in his formula. Since he'd never been constipated before, we figured that this would be all he needed to get things rolling. Nope.

He had another screaming bout and finally went to bed around 11pm. We'll by this time we were too exhausted for the movie I rented - so Saturday was a bit of a bust.

At 6 AM Stephen woke up screaming again. We thought we'd check the diaper for any improvements. That's when I saw it. (Now let me just say it is truly amazing what you are willing to do for your child that you would never do in a million years before you had kids.) So we put his legs to his chest to help him and I felt around the rectum - that poop was huge - there was no way it was coming out. Poor little guy. So we pushed where we could feel it to break it up a bit. We helped push on the sides of it to help Stephen when he strained and then we pulled. I was beginning to lose hope but it finally came. Our little Stephen was so relieved he clapped - how cute is that?!

Daniel stayed home with Stephen and I headed off to Stake Conference at 9. When I got back Dan said that he could tell we weren't out of the woods yet so it was more prune juice and a not so happy Stephen.

I figured we might as well start getting things ready for the little party. I made our favorite cake and frosting (butter pecan cake with whipped cream and cream cheese frosting). The cake turned out well but for some reason the frosting was awful - no matter what I did to fix it. I ended up having to just make butter cream. It's good but not great.

Right when the cake was finished Stephen started getting cranky again so we put him down for a nap. We decided that since he was such a wild card we better not plan on going anywhere. No more family party.

When he went down for a nap I thought I'd use the time to fix dinner using a recipe I'd never tried before. It was Hungarian Goulash and after all the work it was declared to be: not our favorite. So to cheer myself up I thought I'd make a card for my new niece (Ellanor Marie - Taylor & Laura's new baby). It was just another fiasco of cutting things too short, gluing it wrong, etc, etc. Luckily Stephen woke up to relieve me of my stupidity for a time.

With Stephen up, we attempted to do the fingers in the cake but the way our table was situated there was either tons of sun in his eyes or huge shadows. So we moved the table (which was really hard for some reason) and got it all set up again with the cloth, balloons, presents and cake. But then Stephen wasn't in the mood and frankly neither were we.

That's when I had a mini-meltdown. Everything I had planned hadn't happened and here we were celebrating his first birthday without any family at all. We had wanted to make it small and simple but this was really small and simple. My little baby was one-year-old and I guess I didn't realize how much I wanted family and/or friends to join us. I sobbed and then pulled myself together but by that time, Stephen was acting like he needed another nap.

Hang in there, the sob story is over and now it's on to to the fun stuff . . . well almost ;)

Stephen woke up from a very long nap at about 7:30pm and we got things set up again. We set him down and he started slow and then just went after it. He never even looked up to see if it was ok - he instinctively knew it was something for him to mash. So he went at it with me snapping pictures and daddy getting video.



When it was over we threw him in the sink to clean up and that's when Daddy realized that somehow the video got shut off right after the candle got lit. We still don't know how that happened. Now Daniel was having a sad moment. I told him that it just matched the day but it didn't cheer him up. So after I got Stephen all cleaned up and in his PJ's daddy came and asked if we could do again for the video and I thought, "we'll why not? How often do you get to have redo's in life? And Stephen would probably enjoy it again too." So off came the PJ's and we set him back on the table.

This time was far more fun for some reason. Whenever he's doing something new, Stephen always gets really serious and studies everything carefully. So the first time there weren't very many smiles. The second time he had more fun which was better for everyone. His feet even went in on the second go. And this meant he got to have two baths - Stephen LOVES baths so I think he was probably really glad we decided to do it again ;)



After the PJ's went back on we opened a few presents from G&G Earl and mommy & daddy. He wasn't really into opening presents at Christmas time but he loved ripping the paper and discovering neat things under the paper this time. When we were down in AZ for a visit, Stephen had such a great time with G&G Earl's wooden ball run that we decided to get him one. Wow those things are expensive! Even the plastic versions were pretty pricey. I thought I'd just check DI before making the investment and they had one! When he opened it he was thrilled! He knew just what to do and was so happy playing he didn't want to open anything else so we had to hide it ;)

When the presents were opened mommy and daddy thought we'd have some cake and ice-cream so we put Stephen down to play. When we turned around he had left all of his new toys and was playing with a Target gift card (his new favorite toy as of late). That's just the way with kids, isn't it? You spend lots of money on toys and they just want the simple things. Course we spent a whopping $1.50 but it's the principle of the thing! ;)

His first birthday kind of matched his first year of life. The props and the sets were not what I had planned (we were supposed to be in our house before he was born!) but it's reality none the less and so I just have to get over it and have fun anyway. Next time we do a first b-day party it will be more fun because Stephen will be older and we'll be watching two kids have fun ;)