Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A Birthday Tradition

An ice cream cone turned upside down and decorated to look like a clown… this is something my dad would bring home for us as a surprise once in a while. Now, this wasn’t something that he did on our birthdays necessarily… in fact, it was probably more likely that he would bring us this treat on his birthday. My dad would always get us kids (4 of us) a gift on his birthday… yes, I wrote that right… on HIS birthday. What a great tradition, what a cool way of telling your kids “I love you and I am having a happy birthday because YOU are in my life”. I think I’ll start that tradition with C.

Another birthday tradition we’ll start… your favorite breakfast in bed. This is a tradition my husband had while growing up. The whole family goes in singing happy birthday with the birthday boy’s favorite breakfast in hand. For Our Little C this year it will be pancakes, and I think we’ll stick a candle in them too. And even though his birthday falls on a Monday, Mommy took the day off work to spend his special day with him! I’m quite sure I am more excited than he is.

A new tradition is a letter. On the day C was born, once the hospital room finally calmed down and K and C drifted off to sleep, I wrote C a letter. A letter of my thoughts and feelings, my dreams and hopes for him and anything else I felt like writing to him on the day of his birth, the most magical day of my life. And now, 1 year later, I will write him a letter of my thoughts and feelings on his 1st birthday. WOW, our little baby is almost 1!!!!!!

I won’t write it the day before and hopefully not the day after either, because I want it to be as true as possible, with my thoughts and feelings of that very day. Before he was born I thought many times about what I would write, and although many of those things ended up in the letter… my happiness and joy and love for my son, there were also many things that ended up in the letter that I couldn’t have known to write before he was born. My joy when the doctor told us you were a boy, my fears when you weren’t breathing and my overwhelming relief when you were fine just a few moments later (even though it felt like eternity). So, I will continue to think about what I might write when the idea crosses my mind, but that letter won’t get written for 1 more week.

What birthday traditions are in your family? Did you start them with your child(ren) or were they carried on from when you were a child?

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