My niece’s first birthday party is a week from this Saturday, and I wasn’t sure I was going to attend until today. My ambivalence about going was due to 1) my husband being unable to attend with us; 2) my feeling left out when I’m with his family and he’s not there to act as a buffer; 3) it’s just me and the girls and pretty overwhelming because I am anticipating my 2-year old being on sensory overload because they are having a pink pony and one of those huge bouncy castle-things; 4) the party is from 7 until 9 at night, and anyone who knows me knows that my girls are BOTH in bed by 7, sound asleep and not to really be heard from again until the morning. I do not mess with their sleep schedule. I take it very, very seriously.

But alas, I decided to suck it up and go. Yeah me.

Of course, it was also a wonderful reason to do some shopping. I just love giving gifts. Especially to kids. Nothing brings out the kid in you like shopping for an actual kid. We are giving her a copy of “If Kisses Were Colors.” This book is a new obsession of mine and I’ve made it my signature gift for children. I got the idea from a friend of my father’s who I noticed sent the same exact gift (Little Giraffe chenille blankets) – same color and all – to both of my girls upon news of their births. I figured he and his wife probably give it to everyone as a baby gift, and I liked that. So I’ve adopted this book as my signature baby gift. In addition, we are also giving her a shirt from Little Uni that we had monogrammed with her name. And lastly, we will be giving her her very first pair of Crocs. Although I admit to being on Croc overload, since my daughter has essentially lived in hers for the last year-and-a-half of her life, I know that my sister-in-law really, really wants a pair for her little girl, so why not?

I guess if I get over my grouchiness over the insanity of having a kid’s party so late at night, I admit to being kind of excited. A first birthday party is a banner event and I’m glad to be there with my girls to celebrate. Besides, I get to break in my new babysitter. That’s right, I found a sitter! And she’s awesome. A grad student at SMU, grew up in Spain and Bolivia, fluent in Spanish and she loves my girls and they love her back. This is seriously good news. She’s coming with us to the party to help me out and I cannot wait to show her off!

My sweet little niece…