19 September 2017, by Siau Jiahui

Little T Turns One!

“How are we going to celebrate Little T’s birthday?”

That had been the question on my mind since July – two months before her birthday.

Mr T was easy on everything because he forthrightly acknowledged his lack of creativity and even the utmost basic ability to colour-coordinate. -_- This simply meant that every little detail of the party would be left to me.

But I was totally clueless! I had never thrown a party for anyone, much less for a kid! So how did I get started?

First of all, how many guests were we inviting? We really yearned for this to be an intimate affair because Mr T and I couldn’t manage to interact much with most of our 50-60 guests during Little T’s full month celebration. Also, we wanted her to feel comfortable on her big day instead of having to deal with so many unfamiliar faces.

Next, what was the theme? That was one of the first few questions that my buffet vendor and cake vendor asked. To be honest, there was none! We didn’t want any princess-theme for Little T because it didn’t reflect her personality. And neither Mr T nor I had any preferences in cartoon characters. So the easiest theme would probably be “multi-coloured”! *grins*

By now, you probably would have roughly figured out what our style was! We purchased $30 worth of party decorations from Taobao, opted for a buffet vendor that had raved reviews, settled on a tasty and colourful birthday cake, and splurged a bit more on her dress and shoes. That was about it. No dessert table. No fancy goodie bags. No special performances.

To be honest, we just wanted to keep things simple yet do a decent celebration for Little T because though she probably wouldn’t know or remember what was going on, we wanted to create memories for her and for ourselves. Just like what my parents did for me decades ago. I didn’t recall a thing about the party, but I knew that I was grinning from ear to ear on the day I turned one.

Another important reason was that I really wanted to spend quality time with my baby on her big day instead of doing trivial tasks like setting up or liaising with vendors.

When it comes to my baby’s birthday, I guess I’m more sentimental. The night before her birthday, as I lay beside my baby, I wasn’t thinking about next day’s party; I was recalling all the minute details that happened before she came into this world – the moment that I realised the mucus plug was discharged, the time when I was wheel chaired into the labour ward, the intensity of the labour pain that I endured for more than ten hours, the moment she was put into my arms, the first look at her cherubic face after she was cleaned up and pushed into my ward. The significant bits and pieces from a year ago moved me to tears. How much she has grown over the past 365 days!

Everyone was gushing over my lovely birthday girl at the party, and as expected, she fended off the attention uncongenially. This was precisely one of the main reasons why we kept the party small! Nonetheless, there was rarely a moment at the party that was unique to the both of us because every guest still wanted to see or talk to the star of the day. Hence, when I finally found the opportunity to do this, I was so happy! To me, this was my highlight of the party. My little darling, Mama loves you very much!