Oath's Birthday

Some days ago my little boy turned one. I had expected it to be an emotional moment, or that at least I'd spend the evening thinking about all the feelings and pain and nerves that I went through one year ago. But nothing of this happened. I didn't even notice it when 07:07pm (the minute he was laid on my chest for the first time) went by. It was when we were coming back home, near 10pm, when I looked at him, so peaceful in his car seat, looking at the sunset and smiling at the trees, that I thought that he had been by my side for longer than a year.

So hard to believe, and yet so easy!

I had never cared about birthdays before, they just seemed like an excuse to celebrate and eat cake. Not that eating cake is bad, but... well, it wasn't something I looked forward to. Even my last birthday I felt like this. But with Oath's... Suddenly everything made sense. This is why we celebrate them! The joy of having lived a whole Sun revolution by the side of such an amazing human being was too big to not be celebrated.
And so I did.

I had wanted to host a party at our flat, and started preparing for it: I planned a cake, some party favors, invitations, some bunting to hang and under which to take a family photo... Things never go exactly as planned, though, so we ended up at my in-laws. Part of the reason was that my mom and my sisters were visiting, and our apartment is too small.

I had already done the crocheted bunting, which is now hanging on our bedroom's window, waiting patiently for the day Oath's room will be ready. Hopefully, that will be soon and he'll have a place full of color to play in (and our living room will have less toys on the floor!)

I also made the cake, and oh, was it good! It was just a striped yogurt and chocolate cake, with Nutella, straight from the jar, as frosting/glue (so yummy!). While decorating, I discovered that fondant is easier to work with than I expected, though it is extremely sweet.

And a batch of cookies following this recipe, but there are no photos: we ate them fast! I did not use vanilla (I don't like it, so I skip it in many recipes), and they tasted like pure cocoa, not too sweet. Perfect after the extra-sweet cake!

Everything else did not get done, but I don't mind much. Close family does not need an invitation, and I can still do the photo book with the best of this past year's photos. What is important is the joy, the celebration of the time spent together, the renewal of that mother's oath (which I may re-write soon, because life changes and grows and so do my promises to my little boy).

I love you, Oath. Happy birthday, my son.

Oath's mom