Motherhood: First Birthday

Some bits from A’s birthday party. 

Ah, I can’t believe this day finally came. My little monkey turned one. Unfortunately, she got sick on her actual birthday and so we had to have a rather quick and spontaneous party with her Kita-mates. I made mini banana muffins for the kiddos and very unhealthy but amazing m&m chocolate cookies for the teachers. I never really doubted about making something for the teachers because at the end of the day, they are the ones staying with her and looking after her, but the teachers seemed so surprised.

돌잔치. 아직도 일년이 지나갔다는 사실이 믿겨지지 않지만 일단 지나갔다. 집에서의 돌잔치는 지금 집이 좁고 불편해서 패스. 여기서는 한국처럼 크게 돌잔치를 하지 않고 집에서 가족이나 친구들 몇몇 불러서 간단하게 케익과 스낵 몇가지 먹는 정도. 일단 생일 당일에는 유아원에서 간단하게 치뤘는데 하필 그날 아침 열이 나는 바람에 바로 머핀, 생일 축하 노래, 랄라라 하고 집으로 돌아왔다는… 아기들은 너무 달지 않게 당근 미니 머핀, 선생님들은 촉촉한 초코칩 쿠키!

A is rather timid when it comes to new things. See how the other two kids are digging into their muffins and she’s like “umm, excuse me, am I supposed to eat this?” Those three above are the youngest three, and A is the babiest baby. They are all almost exactly one month apart. I call them the three musketeers

소심한 A형이라 뭐든 던져주면 일단은 의심하는 A. 다른 아가들은 일단 무조건 손에 들고 입에 넣기 바쁜데 A는 만지지도 않고 이걸 나보고 먹으라고?하는 표정. 이 셋은 A의 반에서 가장 어린 셋인데 거의 한달씩 차이. A가 가장 어리다!

She did finally dig in a bit but we had to head back home because she had a fever and was just not feeling the birthday mood. Sigh. She was FINE the next day. Which was a relief, because we had another party scheduled two days later.

Our current place is just too small to fit around 15 people with three to four kids, so after a very heavy investigations and research (mostly done by me), we decided to hold the party at one of our favorite cafes: Pano. They have great food, drinks, gelato and most importantly, a long table which could fit in the perfect number of guests and little kiddos. I have a lot of other places that didn’t work for us specifically, so if you’re looking for a place to hold a birthday party, let me know and I’ll share it with you (the list is mostly within the Stuttgart mitte area since we wanted somewhere close and also because we don’t have a car to drive everything through).

15명 정도 초대했지만 이래저래 결국에는 20명 정도 참석한 두번째 파티! 집 근처, 분위기 좋고 케익도 맛있고 커피도 괜찮고 샴페인이 있어야한다는 기준에 결국 맞아 떨어진 Pano. 한 20여곳을 조사해봤는데 결국에는 이곳 선택! (다른 20여곳도 장단점이 많았는데 차가 없고 가까워야한다는 중요한 기준이 있어서 결국 Pano를 선택했지만 다른 곳들이 궁금한 분들은 알려드릴게요…)

Headbands. Thank god for headbands, especially if you don’t have long hair.

A just started taking her first steps a few days back, so she was more than happy to practice. She can currently walk on her own, a more wobbly walk, so that’s mindblowing for us new parents.

Everyone LOVED the balloon. So millennial of me, but I wanted one. Not A, but I wanted one.

인기 많았던 풍선. 사실 A보다도 내가 갖고 싶어서… 다른 어른들도 좋아했다는! 금색, 은색, 핑크색이 있는데 우린 핑크색!

In Korea, we do this little mini first birthday ritual called the Doljabi. You basically put various objects that represent an activity or an occupation in front of the baby and let him or her pick one. Whatever he or she picks, she will become. In theory. The basics are a pencil (scholar, writer etc), money (a businessmen or women, somebody who will earn a lot of money whatever the occupation may be etc), thread (a long life), a microphone (singer, presenter, news anchor etc) a ball (obvious), stethoscope (doctor) etc. I picked a pencil, by the way.

돌잡이 고고! 우리 유러피안 친구들이 신기해하고 재밌어했던 돌잡이. A는 결국 돈을 집었다.

She picked money! And then all the kids went ahead and picked their future jobs.

다른 아이들도 부모의 성화에 못이겨 돌잡이 놀이!

The cake. We were given a list of various cakes from the cafe, but not knowing too much about German cakes, we went for a classic one. I actually saved up a number of possible birthday cake options I wanted to bake myself when the time came, but ordering one made more sense this time around. Next year though. Next year will be the year I bake her birthday cake.

내 아이의 생일 케익은 내가 꼭 만들어줘야지하며 저장했던 레시피들이 이미 컴퓨터에 북마크되어 있었지만 아쉽게도 첫 생일케익은 주문한 딸기 케익으로…

She got a bit confused when we started to sing Happy Birthday.

생일 축하합니다 노래를 부르기 시작했더니 어리둥절. 왜 이사람들이 여기서 노래를 부르고 있는거지.

My favorite photo of the bunch. I look so happy and the two look exactly the same.

What a fun day! Thanks for coming everyone.

• Pano

All photos by rachelsanghee.