Monday was Amelia’s seventh birthday. It is a very special day and one that Amelia herself looks forward to as far back as…well, her last birthday.
Last year, we had big, very cool superhero birthday party for Amelia. A bunch of her friends came over, and we had a packed house. It feels surreal thinking about that now. Seems like forever ago.
She understood that this year was going to be a little different. “We’ll have a small party,” she said, with her usual upbeat attitude. So we wanted to do what we could to make the day special for her.
We opened up with some festive Dunkin Donuts.
Sidebar on that. Our kids mainly like to eat the frosting on donuts, which we find perplexing. Erin and I wound up in discussion with Amelia, trying to get her to eat the whole donut, which totally felt like trying to convince a little kid to eat Brussels sprouts. You know you’re really winning at parenting when you’re saying, “now you eat your donuts, young lady!”
From there, Amelia went on to tackle her day at school and the rest of us did our thing. I found myself reflecting on the fact that our little girl is now seven years old, and I really don’t know where the time went. I know it’s cliche, but the time does really fly by so quickly, and it really does feel like moments ago that I was holding her for the first time in the hospital.
But in that time, she has grown into such an amazing, positive, smart and delightful person. I am not exaggerating when I say that she is plain and simple one of my favorite people to hang out with. She is funny, creative, curious and has really interesting perspectives on things. So we were excited to celebrate the big day with her.
After school, we lined up a Zoom with my family back in Wisconsin, with was great. She got a huge kick out of seeing everyone, and we all got to chat for a few minutes and sing happy birthday to Amelia. She got plenty of wishes this year, that’s for sure.
From there, we went to Grandma and Pop Pop’s for her little party. It was us, Erin’s parents, Erin’s visiting uncle and aunt, and Nick and Wanda, neighbors of Grandma and Pop Pop’s who are like an extra set of grandparents to Amelia and Henry.
When we got there, we were waiting on Nick and Wanda, and when Amelia realized that their absence was what was holding up the present opening, she was immediately asking Grnadma if she could go down the street and knock on their door.
Before you knew it, they were there and presents were being opened. There was an American Girl Doll, Barbies, and more.
Erin and I got her a new loft bed, which she is really excited about. (NOTE: The bed arrived the day after her birthday, so I’m jumping ahead in the timeline by a day to show the picture below. I worked hard on that bed today, dammit, and want to show it off. Behold!)
It was a fun party, and as she requested, we had an Octonauts themed birthday cake. This makes Amelia’s second Octonauts birthday party, and in this time of change, I found it soothing to go back to basics.
/ 
We had a nice time, and there was a cool surprise waiting for us at home. We got back and discovered a package on the front door from Uncle Dave and Aunt Jess. Those guys always come up with cool, fun presents for the kids and they once again hit it out of the park. Walkie Talkies!
The four of us spent probably running around the house, playing with those. Within 20 minutes, we all had CB handles. An excellent cap to a great birthday for an amazing little girl. Over and out.
