Birthday Traditions

Today is my daughter's first birthday. I told my husband he could start a tradition of sending me flowers every year; after all I am the one that pushed a human being out of my body. He didn't seem to keen on that idea. I guess that's what Mother's Day is for. However, I did come up with a few other traditions to start.

We had my daughter's birthday party this last weekend, and I made chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. This was the first time I'd ever made cake from scratch. In the past I had always used a box cake mix. The frosting was homemade too. Now I know the difference between a box cake with can frosting and homemade cake and frosting. The chocolate cake was so good it has ruined me for box cakes. Now the new tradition is to make homemade cake and frosting for all the kids' birthdays.

Thanks to Amy Poehler's book 'Yes Please', I got the idea to tell each child their birth story on their birthdays. This year when I tell the story it will be more for our benefit so we will remember all the details if we say it every year. It might also be a tradition to add more gruesome details each year. My husband will also tell his birth observer story.

Since my baby girl is one today, I thought it would be a good idea to write her a letter. I wrote to her describing her amazing feat of going from a slug to an ape all within a year. She never ceases to amaze me. I'm so proud to be her mom. Every year on her birthday I will write her a letter and put it in her baby book. On her 18th birthday I will give them all to her.

I will start implementing these traditions with our sons. These traditions weren't done with them because it took me that much time to get the hang of just being a mom. By the third child I now accept that my carpets will always need to be vacuumed and something will always need to be fixed. I make time for the traditions and less time for vacuuming and fixing.