Planning Time

Almost two years old.

This year, we will do a birthday party with friends - since X has friends! I'm so happy to get to know all of these other small people and their moms and dads.

We have been to a few birthday parties in the last couple of weeks. Oddly, a lot of the kids X knows have birthdays near his own. I mention this by way of noting that he knows what a birthday party is now, so he will be excited for his own. And he LOVES birthday cake!

We will keep it simple - just a small party at home, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and traditional sides. The cake is starting to take shape in my mind. I don't know that I can make a cake myself that will reflect what I hope the decorations will be, so I am guessing we will have to spend to have it made.

The scary part is that this is getting real, really quickly.  In 3 weeks I am going to be wishing my baby a happy second birthday. I need to get going on this now!

Thankful

While yesterday was not X's first Thanksgiving, he was a much more active participant this year than he was last year. We had the pleasure of spending the holiday afternoon with one of my oldest friends and her family -- sort of my surrogate family. It was a really lovely afternoon, but the hubs and I were typical anxious first-time parents -- of a toddler. We never quite relaxed while X investigated every nook and cranny of the strange new house where we spent the afternoon. A lot of "Don't touch!" and "Come over here!" and "No-no!" while we took turns running behind X, bent over at the waist. Meanwhile Mr. & Mrs. M., my friends' parents, kept telling us, "It's okay. We know how it goes with toddlers!" We just never could quite let our guard down the way we would at home or even a more familiar friend's home. Nonetheless, it was a nice afternoon -- spending Thanksgiving in a place where we felt welcome and loved is truly a gift.

It got me thinking, though. We are still a pretty new family, and we haven't yet established any holiday traditions. I think that next year, we will begin celebrating Thanksgiving at our own house. Even if it's just the three of us. Traditions have to start somewhere, right? We'll start small. Maybe in time we will be able to repay the favor to those who have taken us in over the years, so we didn't have to spend a holiday on our own.

Clap Hands, Clap Hands

X's new skill (clapping hands!) reminds me of a rhyme that my mother used to sing/chant with all of us (well, I imagine with all of us -- I am the youngest, so what do I know?), and now chants with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren whenever they would come to visit at around X's age:

Clap hands, clap hands
'Til Daddy comes home
Daddy has money
And baby has none!

Nobody to whom I have ever repeated this rhyme has heard it before! Is it a Brooklyn thing? Of course, with a quick Google search, I find lots of variants on the rhyme.

Speaking of Brooklyn, there is a song that my father taught us all when we were little, Dunderbeck's Machine. It's probably a song that he learned from the Brooklyn firemen who were a big part of his childhood, or maybe from a neighbor. It is the story of a man who has created a sausage grinder and his terrible demise at the end! Again, none of my friends had ever heard it. The internet, being a wonderful thing, has revealed many variations of this grisly song. There are even videos now on Youtube! This is the closest to the song as my father taught it to us, but there are differences in melody and lyrics, as in all folk songs. Perhaps a bit more research will unearth the origins of this song, but I will teach my version to X, so he can gross out all of his friends when he's older!

Enjoy!