Birthday Day

Madelyn’s birthday was fo fun! For me! Madelyn? Yeah, I’m sure she had a good time, but I had the most special day celebrating my mommy anniversary with my baby girl, my mom, my best friend, her mom, and Brielle, Madelyn’s best friend! This tradition started on Brielle’s first birthday in March when we decided it would become tradition — birthday lunches together on the babies’ birthdays! When we went out for Brielle’s big day five months ago, it seemed like forever until it’d be our turn. But, as I’ve learned, time keeps a tick-tockin’ and on August 9th, Madelyn turned the big O-N-E.

We met up at The Cheesecake Factory, our usual favorite, and put the girls next to each other so we could swoon over them interacting (interacting = one baby swiping another baby’s piece of sourdough bread off her sticky placemat).

One reason we love The Cheesecake Factory for lunches with babies is the complimentary baby plate that comes out on the table as soon as we sit down. It’s tiny slices of their amaaaaaazing bread and bananas sliced into coins. Why can’t all restaurants do this? Helps keep the babies busy and fed while the grown ups try to enjoy grown up time.

They were so good while we figured out our orders and ate our own meals. Good job, babies!!

After we finished our lunches, I ordered Madelyn her own personal baby-sized ice cream sundae and a chocolate fudge cake for the table. This would be Madelyn’s first introduction to delicious things like sweets. Here I go spending a whole year dedicating myself to making healthy foods for Madelyn only to mess it all up with binging on cake and ice cream.

She wasn’t quite sure at first, but after a few tastes of ice cream with chocolate fudge cake she realized it didn’t suck and that she should make several servings and eat it at the kitchen counter at 10 p.m. because she’s stressed about planning a birthday party in two days… oh wait, that’s me.

Even Brielle got in on the birthday treats binge fest. She loved Madelyn’s birthday!!

Stefanie and her mom, Michelle, were so sweet and wanted to bring presents to lunch so that we could have our own intimate party. Opening birthday presents for your baby is awkward. Babies don’t really know what to do with them, so you end up unwrapping them yourself and then when the present is revealed, the baby cares more about the tissue paper anyway. Silly babies. They have it all wrong.

Maybe she’ll have this exercise down by Chanukah??

Before leaving (and leaving our mess… Oops! Sorry, Cheesecake!), we snapped a few more photos to document the day. Must’ve been something in the air on Madelyn’s birthday because everyone looked really good! Hot August air does wonders for the hair.

I think Madelyn had a fabulous birthday day! In the last photo with the mamas and the babies, Madelyn is even reenacting the birthing position. Such a lady, that one.

Later that night, Madelyn and I managed to stuff ourselves silly with another celebration at a restaurant. We met up with Bryan and Princeton for some more grub, but Madelyn seemed too worn out for her reunion with cake. We tried to GIVE her dessert and she turned away. Who is she? This can’t be my child. Doesn’t she know that on your birthday, you are required to eat dessert several times a day? Oh well. She’ll learn eventually. It’s only her first one.

The funny thing is, after all this celebrating of Madelyn’s arrival, it wasn’t until we got home and she was fast asleep that it was even close to a year since her birth. She was born late at night after a long day of induced labor and an unforeseen c-section. Out she came at 10:25 p.m. on August 9, 2011 and on August 9, 2012, I was going over the whole play-by-play of the events from the year before.

“Bryan, it’s 9 p.m. right now. A year ago RIGHT NOW, Dr. Fiiiiine came in and was giving us a little more of a chance to push her out before snip-snip time…”

“Bryan, it’s 10 p.m. right now. A year ago RIGHT NOW, I was getting wheeled into surgery and I was crying non-stop only to be comforted by Dr. Hunk’s dreamy looks and powerful, um, needle.”

“Bryan, it’s 10:25 right now. We JUST had a baby. You cut the cord. You leave with the baby. I puke. Good times.”

“Bryan, it’s 11 p.m. right now. A year ago RIGHT NOW, you were like ‘where the hell is Alison? Oh, she’s a geyser of leaking blood? This is rare and almost a problem? Cool.”

“Bryan, it’s midnight. A year ago RIGHT NOW — ”

“Alison, a year from now, RIGHT NOW, you will have your mouth stapled shut!”

Okay, he didn’t really say that because my husband is a gentleman, he is, but that was basically me the whole night of her birthday. I just relived every hour of the experience, and there was something comforting about it.

Madelyn’s birthday was a wonderful day and as special as her birth day was last year, her birthday this year was fun and I loved celebrating with my little buddy on my hip!