Let Them Eat Cake

We celebrated Eden's first birthday
again last night by taking her to Macaroni Grill and getting
her a huge bowl of shells and cheese
and a cup of apple juice.










She ate a good portion of it before she decided she'd had enough and she drank about 3/4 of the juice (more than she's ever had in one sitting). I wanted them to do a birthday song so I could get her surprised expression on video when the staff came out clapping and singing to the table.

Macaroni Grill is boring.

Four of the wait staff gathered at our table and slowly and gently sang "Happy Birthday" in Italian. It's Chuck's fault. He picked the restaurant. If we had gone to Applebee's or Chili's, they would have done some peppy, cheesy number and it would have been funnier. The good part was the dessert they brought. They set this HUGE brownie, fudgey, cakey thing in front of her with two lit candles. It was yuuuuuummy. Daddy was able to blow out the candles just as a pudgy baby finger was about to make contact with the flames and then baby chowed down on chocolate icing and whipped cream while we ate a few bites of the scrumptious cake.



We celebrated yet again one last time tonight. I had made lemon cupcakes yesterday for her to have when we got home from the restaurant, but the chocolate dessert we had there was plenty of sugar for one evening. We had our own little moment with one little cupcake and our own "Happy Birthday" song. She tackled the icing again. We pulled what was left of the treat away as soon as we turned the video camera off. Are we mean? I hope not. I just want her (and us) to sleep tonight.




I keep thinking that even though I didn't really want a party and kept saying that she has no idea what a first birthday is anyway, that I'll regret something about her experience. We're planning on doing this all one more time, but that's the only first birthday our first baby girl will ever have.







I could really get in some deep doo-doo thinking that way.
Talk about pressure.



I can't create what I think is the perfect experience for her all the time, not even some of the time. It doesn't really matter either, as long as she's getting the love she needs and we're all together as a family.
And there's some cake. :)