I do think traditions are important. In the past years, Matt and I have been lazy about our celebrations and traditions. Now that we have children, I think it is essential that we pass on traditions we grew up with as well as begin and maintain our own. When Rhino turned one last year, we didn’t really have many traditions in place. He opened presents, ate his first cupcakes, and had a little party. I did quickly sew him up a felt birthday hat to wear, which he hated! I want to keep the birthday hat tradition, so this year I made him a felt crown. Both hats are specific to his age; last year’s hat had a big “1″ on it, and this year there’s a “2″ right up front. I’m thinking that next year I’ll start a little earlier (I made both the hats very hastily the day of his birthday) and make a special crown that he can reuse for birthdays. I’m going to get started early on making Heron a special first birthday hat, too!

Rhino loves to color. Scribble, whatever. He still eats crayons, though. We have his first masterpiece hanging in the boys’ bedroom, which he scribbled on his first birthday. He completes many works a week, which we (shh) recycle, but I thought it would be great for the boys to make a piece of art on their birthdays for us to keep. Rhino’s medium of choice is crayon (unless he finds a pen!) but he has used plenty of paint this past year. He loves painting with brushes, and his 2nd birthday was actually his first experience finger painting. Matt had to demonstrate for him and Rhino seemed pretty hesitant. He still doesn’t really like to be messy. He was pretty upset that his hands were covered in paint.

I don’t have many Rhino hand prints. I have ink footprints from the day he was born and Andrea and I gave a clay slab with Amelia’s and Rhino’s hand prints in them for Christmas last year. That’s it. I wish I had started on birthday #1, but this will have to do. I thought I would sew his hand prints. He loved having his hand traced onto paper for a template. We made a whole bunch because he enjoyed it so much! Between making the crown and this appliqued, embroidered hand, it was a lot of work for me in one day. So they were both extremely rushed and sloppy. I really meant for the apples to be rotated and right-side-up but I don’t know what I was thinking (I just wasn’t.) And the outline stitching is so messy — I am terrible at turning with my machine! I know very little about sewing, so it’s possible I’m using the completely wrong presser foot or something. That was very tricky for me. And I cut out the reverse applique kinda messy. It’s still charming, though! I embroidered Rhino’s name above his hand and his age below. I’ll put it in a wooden hoop or something and hang it on his wall. Hopefully I stick with it (or something similar) every year for the boys. Maybe I can use them to make a quilt or something in the future!

So those are some of the traditions we’re working on for birthdays. There will be more, most likely food-related. I loved having a special meal on my birthday, which was usually tacos (which is not what I’d be choosing now!) I received birthday spankings growing up, but I don’t know about using that one … To the one or two of you that read this blog… what are your birthday traditions??

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