Happy Birthday, Baby Nico!
December was a very full birthday month for the little Monkey. We figured that a kid whose birth spanned 3 days (in terms of date, not in terms of actual length) deserved 3 days’ worth of parties. And that’s what he got!
We started out with a small dinner party on his actual birthday. Jenny was visiting from CA and she brought a tradition from her family — we put a bunch of items on a tray and the first one Nico picked up was supposed to tell us something about his future. Items included a book, castanets (to represent music), money (coin and bill), a pen (red — could symbolize teacher or writer), a spoon (for cooking), a carrot (farming? vegetarian? it doesn’t matter – he didn’t pick it), a pig toy (again, not sure what it represented, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t pick it). We thought this was a Chinese custom, but our friend Sam had also told us about his nephew doing this, and they’re Korean. And we have a neighbor who’s Chinese and her family has never heard of it. So we’re thinking maybe this is an LA pan-Asian thing and not so much just a Chinese thing. (Sam and Jenny are both from LA.) Nico didn’t even hesitate on his choice and he wasn’t interested in all that much other than the thing he picked. Can you guess what he picked? Look at the photos to see if you’re right.
Since his birthday was on a Thursday, we had his parties on the following weekends. The Saturday right afer his birthday we had a morning party and an evening party. We had initially planned on the morning one being for kids and the evening one for adults, but we had a mix at both parties and having two different ones made it so we were actually able to visit with everyone at both.
We wrapped up Nico’s celebrations with a trip to NY the following weekend where Aunt Denise and Uncle Robert hosted his family party. Almost all the family came from near and far to celebrate with him and he had a great time with his cousins. Grandma and Grandpa got him a cassata cake which he enjoyed throwing on the floor. Frank’s slices ensured that the cake designed to feed 40 people disappeared in half that many tummies. Mmmm!
Please excuse all the close-up shots and the multiple cake shots…4 parties means 4 different opportunities to show him getting cake all over his face (or not…). Enjoy!
