The End View...: Aatmay's 1st

This post took me the better part of 2 weeks to come with.

Its common knowledge amongst the folks who are in touch with us and who invariably end up liking my activity on ‘social media’ that Aatmay celebrated his 1st birthday on the 21st July. However here I attempt to pen down what went into making the day memorable for us. I do say ‘us'. The first birthdays are more a celebration of the first year of parenthood than anything else. Heck, the kid wouldn’t even remember what his first few birthdays were like. So in effect the first birthday to put it bluntly was more like making sure that we as parents did everything to ‘pat’ ourselves on the back. Ohh, and I think we sure did a good job.

The monthly birthdays are an integral part of the first year birthday celebrations. A picture is captured on the day of the month the baby is born each month of the first year. The Mrs, month in and month out meticulously planned for this picture, adhering to a theme each month. A few examples below:

3rd month : October – the picture had a reference to pumpkins

4th month : November – the picture had a reference to turkey

5th month : December – any guesses? Christmas, Santa, gifts

6th month : January – Kites. Sankranti

7th month : February – Valentine’s day

8th month : March – Gudi Padwa

9th month : April – ‘Stay at home’ – no points for guessing

11th month : June – International Yoga day

More efforts were needed to pull off the poses appropriate for the themes. In my opinion the pose for the 11th month (International Yoga day) was the most challenging to capture.

Much closer to the big day, the prep started in right earnest. The theme for the birthday celebration was to be 'Nautical'. A sailor's dress was shortlisted and ordered from Amazon along with some accompanying decoration inline with the theme. The Mrs took it onto herself to bake the birthday cake trying her hand for the first time with fondant and what not. Before you say I seem to have done nothing, let me clarify that I did take 2 days off work to be of use.

As a curtain raiser of sorts, we had a cake-smash. A small cake with lots of cream was made and placed in front of Aatmay who was dressed in his diapers only. The idea was to record Aatmay simply attack the cake and make a mess. He relished the cake and enjoyed it to the fullest.

On the day of the birthday, a couple of Zoom calls were lined up for folks back in India to wish Aatmay and also become a part of the celebrations. The Zoom calls made us realize that going virtual actually enabled more people to share in our joy. The evening was spent with a few friends who attended in person and was capped off with the Hara Bhara kabab and Pav Bhaji which the Mrs whipped up.

In summary, I would say that the day itself was exhausting but it was totally worth it. Another blog is needed to talk about my personal experiences of parenthood/fatherhood in this past year. I leave you with some glimpses of the birthday. Hope you like them.

A short compilation video of the monthly pics. We played this at the start of the Zoom calls to set the mood.

Aatmay's cake smash!

The Happy Birthday song!