2007.04.08

After a marathon cleaning session Friday night and Saturday morning, we had everything set and ready for the big event: the Peep’s first birthday party. He was up at 6:30, which means that we were all up at 6:30. We took the now-traditional quarterly photo’s of him early and got him down for an early nap.

(I love each and every one of these photographs, and will miss this little ritual). Then I made a last minute run to the grocery store, picked up the balloons, and was back home by 10:15. We got the appetizers and picky-picky foods ready, and then my mom came with the food (pizza and calzones, from the local Italian deli…mmmm). She gave the Peep his lunch around noon while I, then Larry, jumped in the shower. Once I was dressed and ready I got the Peep into his birthday duds.

Have I mentioned that he’s been a little under the weather the past few days? No sooner did I get him dressed, and was in the process of putting his shoes on, when he experienced what we refer to as a “reversal of fortune”. Which is to say, he barfed. Thankfully, the only casualty was his left sock, and the rug. But quick action and a little Febreeze did the trick on the rug, and he’s got plenty of socks.

The guests started arriving around 1:30. By now he had been awake for 3 hours, and was more than ready for a nap. My mother in law saved the day; not only did she and my sister in law make an unbelievable cake (more on this in a minute), but she brought the Peep upstairs and got him to sleep for a full 45 minutes. I can only imagine how an overtired baby would have reacted to a houseful of people, and I’m eternally grateful to have not had to find out.

After everybody picked and ate, I could see the kids (six of them, ranging from 18 months to 7) were getting antsy. We put it to a vote, and decided to open presents, then have cake. Here we are, just about to sit down and have the kids do the ripping on his behalf…

So, the cake. If the Peep is watching television, chances are he’s watching the Noggin channel. The emcee of the channel is a yellow moose and a blue bird. Until very recently they were the only things on television that he showed any reaction to. So it was a natural to have a Moose and Zee cake…

Moose is a yellow cake and was made from a sheetcake that was cut into shape. Zee is chocolate, and was cut out of a round cake.

I knew they were really great at cakes (they did make my wedding cake, after all), but this was above and beyond.

So, without further ado, I present the obligatory kid-eating-cake-for-the-first-time photograph:

We took 252 photos on Saturday, by the way. These were just the highlights…