With all the stuff happening around, I realize that I forgot to document a very important milestone that we achieved. On Oct 11, Shaurya turned 1 and we also celebrated 1 year of parenthood :-) My baby is growing up so fast… his age no longer being counted in months alone. I had been planning a lot for this milestone and was super excited.. About a month earlier, I along with my sister had already started preparing the guest list, thinking about return gifts, menu for the dinner, theme for the decoration, cake, et all. In general I was making a lot of fuss and driving M mad. :-D With both of us working and not getting too much time during normal weekdays, we used to tell M that we do not have a month; just 8 days in hand. But ignoring all my planning and preaching, M joined the bandwagon only 10 calendar days before the D day!!
The first thing we finalized is the guest list. We live in a close-knit residential society where most of the families know each other. With many society functions taking place, everyone interacts with everyone else. Also with M being the society treasurer and member of the society council, we interact often with other society members. After Shaurya was born, we had a big function back home in Orissa. This was our chance for a celebration with our friends who are in Pune. We didn’t want to miss out on any of our close office friends too, so the list turned out to be a pretty long one! :-) While making the guest list, we also listed down who all has kids along with their approx. age to help us plan for the return gift. And then we grouped the kids based on their age. For example, for kids below 1 year, we got rattles and toys. For older kids, we wanted to give something that would (hopefully) instill a good habit in them.. so we got them piggy banks. There were also whistles, chocolates, balloons and pencil box set which was put inside the piggy bank. We bought everything about a week earlier and gift wrapped it over the weekend. I had made an invitation card with a format I got online. After making changes to it, we got it printed. The weekend before his birthday, we went to the houses of our guests and personally invited them along with the card. It was also e-mailed to our friends and colleagues.
For the party venue, we had zeroed in on our society club. It has a garden and children’s play area in front and has a big hall plus separate spaces available where caterers can cook as well as a place to lay the buffet. We also started looking for caterers who can take care of the food. While searching for one, we got a party planner who stays nearby. She had started her business just 9-10 months back. She is a young mother who about a year back was looking for a caterer for her son’s birthday. On not finding a good choice, she organized the event herself. Did some for her friends too and thus started her own business “Make my Party”. Both M and I liked the plan that she had in mind and we finalized her. We took a themed decoration package also from her. The decoration was really nice.. with lot of big cardboard cut outs of cars, trains, ships, etc. We knew Shaurya isn’t big enough to enjoy it to the fullest. But he was also excited when he saw it all. And the other kids loved it too. For entertainment, M also got info of a magician and booked him for a magic show for the kids.
But the million dollar question was what would Shaurya wear!! We wanted Shaurya to wear something comfortable. He would find himself among so many new people and that too past his normal sleeping time, we did not want to compound it by making him wear any traditional jari-tissue waala uncomfortable wear. Though many people including my sister said we should get something special.. like a kurta pyjama, dhoti types, M was in favour of comfortable and more practical Jeans and T-shirt. And kids look smart in it too! So we finalized on it.
For Shaurya to be fresh for the party, we needed him to be well fed and having a rested sleep. I was just hoping that he sleeps in the evening and luckily, he slept at 5.30 pm. Had a good 1 hour nap and woke up all fresh. After having his dinner, he was all set for the party. If he is not sleepy or hungry, he is in full-on masti mood which is good for him as well as us and the guests!! :-)
Since it was a weekday and we had lot of small kids in our guest list, we had planned to start the party at 7pm. However by the time everyone started trickling in, it was already 8. First we had the magic show. The magician was really good.. very entertaining fella who interacted a lot with the guests and kept them engaged. The 45 min show was over in a jiffy. We had the cake cutting soon after. Shaurya was enjoying all the attention that he was getting. When the cake got cut, the party popper was popped!(?) As soon as it burst there was confetti everywhere. Shuarya was more interested in watching it fall rather than cutting the cake. :-D. Once the cake was cut, there was this huge sea of people who came with all sort of gifts. (This is something that I regret to this day.. we should have asked our guests to come without gift or at least given some other option to them… maybe requested them to contribute to a charity.. or get pencil, pen, notebooks, etc that can be donated. We have a whole lot of toys and other stuff in our home now.. Shaurya is not going to use most of it..! ) Anyways, coming back to the post, once the cake cutting was done, our guests proceeded to the buffet area. The starters were served during the magic show itself. And the main course was arranged as a buffet. The food was awesome. And I am not saying it just cause we were the hosts. Many of our guests came over to us to specially compliment on the food. Even to this day, many ppl in our society call and ask for the caterers number. I and M were mainly busy with the guest, greeting them, making sure no one feels alone or unattended, making sure everyone is enjoying, seeing off guests, etc. By the time the last guests left, it was midnight.
Overall it was a successful party. Majority of the guests that we had invited turned up and most seemed to enjoy themselves! But for me, the highlight of the day was Shaurya. I was so proud of him. He was a good kid who did not cry or get cranky a lot. He cried once during the magic show when everyone was inside the hall and it got a little crowded. He was also running away if someone was trying to hold him. (as such also Shaurya doesn’t like being held by strangers.. even we carry him very less.. he likes roaming on his own 2 feet!! :-) ) But all and all, he was a very good kid, who was happily awake till 12 without crying. Ate everything that we were feeding him without any complaints. Played with my sister and her friends. I was indeed a very proud, happy and relieved mother!
The b'de Invite
Shaurya looking at the confetti as we cut the cake!!
