Birthday Wish

Birthday parties are tricky.
There is cake. Frosting. Pinatas full of chocolate. Pizza. And, good lord save us, ice cream.
A death trap with streamers. And it's getting a little trickier, as we go, to see Little One watch everyone around Her, look down at Her plate of grapes, and get Her "now wait just a minute" face on. Or to come up with a really plausible M.O. for go-play-with-your-friends-but-don't-get-too-near them. But birthday parties are fun! And, they are about celebrating a life. They matter. So J and I loaded up on wet-wipes dove into a season of birthday parties determined to give it a shot.




We learned one important thing at Her cousins party:





If there are jumping castles, who gives a grape about cake and ice cream?
We learned another thing, at a party for a friend turning 7: give a 7-year-old the power of being In Charge of something, and not one living organism will get within one mile Little One if they are even thinking about one molecule of food.
And at a pinata busting at another fete, where the birthday-boy's mom pointed out the Little One-safe toys among the treats: people can be so thoughtful.

We've had a few scares in the last month or so. In conjunction with Her growing into a stage where it is a bit trickier to manage, Little One's allergy issues are too obviously getting worse. We don't know why. We hope it will pass. In the meantime, I'm sending out a little plea to our thoughtful friends.Please forgive us.
We might ask you to come to our place more often.
We might quarantine your snacks to the dining room.
We might obsessively and annoyingly hand you a wet-wipe.
We might embarrass you in public by sterilizing every high chair/hand rail/swingset we come across.
But please. Forgive us. And because so far things have turned out ok, and because I'd really like to see more of this face:
Please, especially if there are jumping castles, invite us to your party. You can even have our slice of cake.