Today my son turns thirty-seven. As I’ve been going through boxes, trying to declutter, I found some pictures of his first birthday party. Obviously, I would never throw these pictures out. In fact, I find it very hard to throw out any pictures. Finding these snapshots completely stopped my decluttering while I reminisced.
The birthday boy with his grandfather.
The big occasion was on a Sunday. My husband had Naval Reserve duty that weekend, so he was not with us. Nevertheless, this grand occasion deserved a party, so I invited my in-laws to our house for birthday cake and ice cream. My parents-in-law lived in Marshall, MO, and my sister-in-law and her two children lived in Columbia, MO. They all came for the celebration.
As is typically the case with parties for infants, the festivities were more for the guests than the honoree. Our first-birthday-boy didn’t care too much about the presents. He was perfectly happy to let his big cousin open the packages—something the older boy took quite seriously.
Cousin unwraps the presents
His two older cousins also took on the task of blowing out the candle.
Both cousins helped with the candle; birthday boy didn’t care
But my son did eat his share of cake.
His “first birthday” suit — brown plaid shorts made him look so big.
On the same day I found these pictures, my decluttering also uncovered a box of old baby clothes and bedding. In that box, I found the brown plaid shorts my son wore to his first birthday party. He looked so grown up that day, at least to my proud eyes.
Now, those shorts look tiny. Not as tiny as his newborn clothes, but it’s hard to believe that my six-foot-two-inch son would ever have fit in them.
There is no point to keeping the shorts nor the other baby clothes I found, not when the pictures bring back the memories. There are no relatives in the next generation who would fit these shorts now, so I’m giving them away.
Perhaps next year, some other little boy in another family will celebrate his first birthday in them. I hope so. And I hope that family creates memories that will make them smile decades later, just as I am smiling now.
What do you remember about parties for children in your family?
