The real birthday

In my hurry to hit submit, I forgot to mention about the real birthday. We had been to a party the previous day and came back exhausted; so went to sleep early. By 3 am the next morning, both Prashanth and I were up and excited about Aditi's birthday. Prashanth had still not got back to normal sleeping patterns after a busy week of nights, so we had nothing much planned for the day except a special lunch at home and just being together. After all birthdays hardly come on sundays, especially when Prashanth is not working.

The little girl woke up by 7 am unaware of the excitement of her parents. We wished her and sang the birthday song for her. A short while later, wishes came pouring in from both sets of grandparents in India, from her aunt, cousin and uncle in Dubai and from some more relatives and friends. After breakfast, I gave her a shower and dressed her up in the pattu pavadai that she had worn for her first birthday. She was too happy to be decked up all bright and red; and kept calling otu to her dad to come and admire her. Dad came over, armed with camera in hand and she posed for some of her best pictures.

Soon our neighbour came over to wish her with a huge gift, an automatic cycle with a gear box, that moved by the press of a button. As with anything in this country, it had to be assembled and our neighbour and Prashanth sat down with the hammer and screwdrivers. Aditi was extremely co-operative, waited for the pieces to be put together and sat on it. Alas! it worked only backwards. It turned out to be faulty. So we trie changing batteries, but still no luck. We got it exchanged later in the week and Aditi now enjoys her cute geared cycle.

We spent the rest of the day at home and Aditi changed in all about 7 dresses that day and I gave in bcos I did not want to make the poor girl cry on her special day. We went out for our usual grocery shopping and enjoyed a cake roll. Simple, yet relaxing was how we celebrated her second birthday.

The second birthday

The little girl celebrated her second birthday at her nursery two days before the actual day. The birthday itself was on a sunday, so we decided to throw a party on friday at her creche. I took half a day off and Prashanth had just finished his week of nights, so was free to join us around tea-time. I shopped for the cake and other nic-nacs to take to the nursery and reached about 5 minutes before 3PM. Aditi was having a nap, and her care-taker suggested we set the table up. I was hoping that Aditi'll be delighted to see us, but she was upset to be woken up and took over 10 minutes to settle down, get changed and finally shyed away when we had to cut the cake.

The rest of the children went over to wash their hands, and then quitely sat on the little table and chairs arranged for them. And there was no quarelling/fighting over seats, no shouting and all eyes eagerly set on the cake. One of her carers offered to take pictures, so Prashanth joined us for the cake cutting ceremony. I was busy cutting the rest of the cake and placing them on the paper plates, almost forgot that I had to give Aditi a plate as well, until she asked for it herself. We had some mini-bites, cornpuffs and McVites mini biscuits apart fro mthe birthday cake. The kids enjoyed themselves and asked for more helpings, the popular choice of one and all being cornpuffs. After some milk/juice, the kids looked happy and content.

The staff then escorted the children to the wash room and cleaned up the tables. We then picked up all the bits and pieces, and headed home. The best part of this simple party was Aditi enjoyed being among her folks and I enjoyed the party rather then running around attending guests. Now for some pictures.....