Birthday Celebrations - Cake and Dinner

Kuku's second birthday celebration was officially set to start at 5pm but thankfully started much later. Every time the door bell rang, Kuku ran to the door to welcome his Periappa. It was usually someone else. Everybody else was at our home by 7pm. We got started with the cake cutting at 8 pm, after Kuku's favorite Periappa  had arrived.

The Arien was determined not to order the usual pastry kind of cake this time. He wanted a sponge cake with cream on top. I was not too impressed. He opted for a 3-layered cake - each layer of a different color with angry bird design. When he brought it home, it looked far from impressive :( I was ready to cry and it was only the arrival of guests that took my mind of the cake. As always, Kuku was impressed that he had a cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to himself :D The biggest surprise was that the cake was fabulous. I mean, we finished two layers, during the distribution itself and after we started packing the cake, realized that we may not have any for ourselves - which is so rare :D

Dinner was order-in again from the Arien's favorite Biryani place. We have been ordering in from that place for years now. I usually order in for Chinese food when he orders from his Biryani place and that is what I did this time as well.

By the time, everyone finished dinner, packed some food, and left, it was 10 pm. Not too late but we were tired. Kuku started bawling when he saw his Anna and Periappa leave. The Arien was so tired, he opened a Gems packet and let Kuku have it all - in an effort to distract him. It worked. I tried to get a few Gems away but he immediately started bawling and I gave up. I was tired and hungry and so I opted to eat :) Kuku decided to join me and ate with me. I was glad he was eating so he decided to not worry myself over the Gems.

 

Birthday Celebrations - Lunch and Cake

As always, Kuku has two birthday celebrations. For the first celebration, we opted to order-in lunch at my aunt's place so my grandma could also be part of the celebrations. My family junta were all gathered at my aunt's place by the time we landed with lunch. Adit was waiting to cut the cake and so did not want to eat lunch. He opted to stay hungry and cranky and murmered "Cake" if anyone offered him food. We ordered from High Note. Everyone liked what we had ordered.

The cake I had in mind was the rainbow cake - the one with all the colors of the rainbow and covered with white cream on top. I wanted the baker to add a caterpillar on top because Kuku loves the hungry caterpillar. He agreed to create a simple caterpillar but at the time of collection, he just added a simple number 3 on top and gave the cake to us. Apparently, adding a caterpillar on top of the cake, required the cake to be of at least 4Kg. This was utter nonsense. I was quite put out.

Anyway, the cake was very very sweet. Everyone, including Kuku, could manage only a small piece.

Kuku had fun. We all returned home absolutely tired. Tomorrow, we had another round of celebrations. We are so glad it is dinner and not lunch.

Double Birthday Celebrations -- Kuku's Birthday - XVI

Because of a number of reasons, Kuku ended up having two celebrations for his first birthday. One reason is that he shares his birthday with his oldest cousin on his dad's side and so we had a joint big dinner celebration on the 17th. Kuku, officially, not allowed to eat cake, threw a tantrum as he watched the cake make the rounds and soon insisted on eating a bit from everyone. When everyone settled down to eat dinner and he had to have his Ragi, he threw his second tantrum and spat out the Ragi on me. Again, insisted on eating from everyone, while I stared aghast :(

The second celebration was a lunch celebration on the 18th and cake had been ordered on this day as well. As usual, he tasted as much of cake as possible. He tried and tasted most of the dishes we had all ordered and generally had a great time. I was a little worried about his digestion but he threw such awful tantrums when I tried to stop him that I knew I was fighting a losing battle.

This is a new him, I notice. Earlier, he would eat anything offered, occasionally scrunching up his eyes or crying to indicate displeasure but eating it all the same. Now, its like 'NO' without actually saying anything and totally and completely refusing to eat whatever given. Its like he will choose what he will eat and it better be what we are eating and not his usual stuff :( 

Happy Birthday to lil Kuku -- Time Flies -- XV

This year has been a roller-coaster ride. How so you ask?

• From crying tears of happiness when he did something cute To crying tears of desperation when he sometimes cried non-stop at night and refused to sleep
• From listening to solicited and unsolicited advice and following them To listening to unsolicited advice but following them only it makes sense for both us (me and Kuku)
• From watching absolutely no TV To watching something after Kuku is asleep
• From settling into a pattern and getting comfortable To realizing that there is a new pattern and adapting myself to it and realizing that change is all that is permanent
• From wondering when he will hit the next milestone To being patient and accepting that he will do it when he wants to
• From lamenting my lack of support situation To accepting all the help when I get it  
• From trying to do it all To accepting that I really cannot do it all
• From reveling in the role of a mother To wondering if that is all I am   
• From not taking any break away from him To taking small breaks away from him (works so well for both of us)
• From seeing him as a doll like baby To seeing him as a person who can communicate his happiness (big smile followed by a small hug), dislikes (turning down his lips and crying), anger (violent shaking of head with a yell), and other funny mannerisms which I am slowly learning to decode.

Well, it has been a year of learning, a year of fun and tears, a year of silent desperation when I suffered a lot of self-doubt, a year of good progress, a year of understanding each other, and a year of building trust. And considering that I love amusement rides, well, I really should not be complaining :D