Party Like It's 2009!

Hao Po called from China to sing "Happy Birthday" to her grandson.

The most common question I was asked on Benjamin's birthday was, "What are you guys doing for Benjamin's birthday?" Well, the first thing we did was let him get buck nekkid for strangers!!! Rrrrrow!

Ok, that's a half-truth: he did get naked, but it wasn't really for strangers. And the only reason why he dropped trou was because he was obligated to for his one-year physical checkup. But two people who got the free show were women. That's gotta count for something. Right?

A date with his doctor wasn't the only thing Benjamin got for his birthday. He also got his very own, very colorful set of table and chairs. In recent weeks, Benjamin had begun using crayons in the manner in which they are meant to be used: as drawing instruments rather than teethers. Therefore, I felt that it was time for him to have his own little table on which he could draw to his little heart's content. I'll admit that this choice of gift had some selfish motivation, too. After he colored on the rug in his playroom, I realized that it would only be a matter of time before he drew on something I actually cared about. Like my precious first-print edition of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Or for Vince, his fancy, schmancy leather-encased calculator. Nerd!

Unfortunately, the introduction of a table and chair only marginally confined Benjamin's earnest scribbling. After doodling in his coloring book for all of five minutes , he decided that the gloomy day outside could use a splash of color. Since he couldn't actually color the sky, he decided to do the next best thing and color on the window. And after he was done adding cheer to the window, he got to work on the the other gloomy thing in his midst: the pug.

Oliver was a bit less complacent about his makeover than the window was. Benjamin succeeded in leaving two orange smudges on him before the pug yanked his head back, snatched the offending crayon away with his teeth, and ate the top inch of it. Methinks it's a good thing that Crayolas are non-toxic.

Even though every child dreams of getting new furniture and a trip to the doctor for his first birthday, that's not all we did to mark the occasion. Over the weekend, we had a small party for our big boy at our favorite Indian restaurant.

So that he wouldn't feel too overwhelmed, we invited only a handful of people - immediate family and a few family friends. Benjamin's twin Brayden, cousin Tyler, neighbor Berry, cousin Ryan, best bud Nolan, and neighbor Bobby were in attendance. By the way, Brayden's dad David is the photog who took the awesome pics in the two above montages. Thanks, David!

The party was a hit! Everyone had a great time. Well, almost everybody. While we were posing for a group picture with the kids, Nolan had a meltdown. It was so sudden that everyone was wondering if he was hurt. I mean, one second the kid is laughing and smiling, and the next second, he's bawling his eyes out. Dad Shawn assured us that Nolan was fine. He said that Nolan probably felt suddenly overwhelmed by the people looking at him; HOWEVER, this video tells a different story:

I rest my case!