First Birthdays

First Birthdays. They are fun. And they are for me. Well, for me and my wife. For parents. Because the kid sure as heck isn't going to remember it. He'll be lucky to remember his third birthday. I don't think I even remember that far back. I barely remember most of my younger birthdays. Oh, and why do I say "he"? Because today is my son's First Birthday.

We would celebrate, except a big winter storm will keep us from going out tomorrow. So instead we'll celebrate tomorrow. That's ok. He won't know the difference. Hopefully the cake will stay good until then. Not that he'll know what to do with it. If he's anything like his older sister, he'll mash his own mini-cake right into the table instead of eating it. That was fun to watch. Then again, maybe he'll like cake. His older sister doesn't like it. She doesn't really like candy either. She likes to eat fresh fruit. I guess that's good.

My wife has invited all of our current babysitters to either have lunch with us (and my parents) and then cake or both. I don't know if they will all make it. It will be strange to have them all together at once. Strange in that I can't help but think of them as competing business people. Then again, they all can't babysit all the time, so in a sense, I could think of them as all working on the same team, taking turns at a shift when we need someone to watch our children.

Of course, for this, they won't be babysitters - they'll just be guests. We'll buy them all lunch. And offer them cake. And hopefully they'll have a little fun watching their little charges grow a little bit older. I never did any babysitting as a kid. Moreover, I'm the youngest child (of only two children) so I never saw any younger siblings in my house growing up. I learned how to handle babies (and now toddlers) by a crash-course of on-the-job training. Now I feel like a grizzled veteran. Especially from dealing with my children by myself, as my wife of late has been travelling out of town every single week. Well, not entirely by myself. That's where babysitters come in. I'd go crazy without at least some help.

Between babysitters and day care, we might as well just have me quit my job because we probably barely break even. Well, not quite that bad, but it feels like it. And its not like I make peanuts. I mean, I'm far from the upper brackets, but I get paid more than the median income. I am a lawyer - which doesn't mean as much as some think when it comes to pay.

I just can't believe it has been a full year since my son was born. It all goes by so fast now, especially with two kids. He's already almost walking. He's already feeding himself and using sippy-cups - time to get him off the bottle. Or rather, time to get my wife off of the bottle - she really wants him on it. To me, I'm looking forward to no having to clean and prepare bottles every day. It seems like that's half of what I do each day.

Happy Birthday! Only six more months til my daughter is four. Maybe then the terrible threes will be over...