Beyond the petridish

Yes, it’s coming up. The BIG DAY is upon us.

Sara’s Happy Birthday.

We’ve been talking about it for months. Yes, MONTHS. Try teaching a not-yet-three-year-old the concept of time beyond “yesterday, today and tomorrow”. It all started with her BFF’s birthday last November. BFF being Best Female Friend. Seeing how she doesn’t like boys (scrunches her nose up in disdain), I guess I don’t really need to be that explicit about her choice of best friend. But I digress.

Ever since our neighbour and carpool buddy had her birthday last November, Sara’s been going on about hers. What she wants to do, who she wants to invite, which grandparent is going to be around, etc. You get the idea. Of course, with her real birthday many months away at that point, all I could do to explain that she’d have to wait was to promise her that she’d have to wait past Christmas and Chinese New Year before we got to her Happy Birthday. Of course, at the point of saying this, neither Christmas nor Chinese New Year held any meaning to her, but they were soon to be significant events for her. Christmas had the tree, her Christmas concert at school, Santa, Jingle Bells and of course, the PRESENTS. Overflowing under our tiny tree. So now it’s a date she can relate to. Chinese New Year was another big event because we hopped onto a plane and went back go Singapore to see her grandparents. The people, food and ang paos meant little, but seeing cousins and grandparents was the best thing.

And like the little elephant she is, she remembered. Upon returning from Singapore, she brought up the fact that now we were past Christmas and Chinese New Year - was it her Happy Birthday yet? How right she was to ask the question, but no, we weren’t there yet. So we’ve been passing the last several weeks in wind up mode. Everything’s now gearing up for the BIG EVENT and we’re into final days now.

I swung from having a big do at a function room with a paid entertainer, to having a tiny thing in our house with me as the entertainer/child minder. I finally decided on the latter - my wise mother said to me one should never have more children than the age of the birthday child. I’ve broken that rule a little - we are having four little girls over, rather than three. The nice thing is that I’ve invited children whose mothers I know, so it will just be a big playdate. Going the route of a big bash was thrown out quite early because (a) that’s just not my style although I felt the need to reciprocate the many parties Sara, Nathan and I have been invited to in the last few months; and (b) let’s face it, no one really wants to travel out to the boondocks for a child’s birthday and does anyone really care in the first place.

But, as we all know, it is still a Happy Birthday, so we must therefore do birthday things. So I trawled through the web and found that there are crazy mothers out there who put together PERFECT birthday parties, from themed invites to costumes, decorations, presents and games. Me? I’m not mad. Plus these are three-year-olds we’re talking about. Martha-Stewart-esque parties for a wedding celebration, I can understand, but themed party favours and handmade costumes for a child’s party? You gotta be stark raving mad.

So here is where I am: we’re doing a fairy party, although I haven’t been able to do much in getting fairy-themed stuff. Our helper is baking the birthday cake since she’s half decent and loves to do it anyway. The only really fairy thing about the party is the simple costume I’m putting together for the girls - a pair of tulle wings (a big bow, really) and a wand (some cardboard and a chopstick). They get to wear sparkly make-up, make their crowns and necklaces, and fairy bread (buttered bread with sprinkles). I’m planning to play lots of music and have them run about outside like the little lunatics they are and we, the moms, can snack nervously on cake and coffee.

Yes, it’s set to be a good party. It will be Sara’s first one (I’m a bad mother - so shoot me), so it better be.