Avery turned one on March 18th! I can’t believe he has already been with us for an entire year! It’s been a long, crazy year and his birthday didn’t go the way I had hoped.
I love celebrating holidays and birthdays! I had planned a baby shark party for Avery because he loves that song. I had all the decorations, gifts, food planned out, and I was going to make him an ocean themed cake with a baby shark cake topper. About two weeks before his party was supposed to happen, the COVID-19 virus was spreading rapidly and talk about a quarantine had started. Then when it was close to the party date we had to cancel. Schools were being closed (as well as many businesses), churches were moving to online services only, and our area was told to stay home. In a way, I was glad that this was only his first birthday so he wouldn’t even know he’s missing it. At the same time, I felt horrible because it’s his first one, it’s a milestone, and we wanted to celebrate with all of our family.
Avery’s actual birthday fell on a weekday and I was bummed because my original plan was to take him to Party City and get him a big Baby Shark balloon. He would have loved it and I was going to take birthday pictures of him with it. The party stores were all closed though and I fell like I needed to do something special. I had some regular balloons that had baby shark on it from the supplies I bought a while ago so I blew those up for the boys to play with. Sean was home from work/school which was nice at least and we ordered Chinese takeout for lunch. Then we made homemade tacos for dinner because Avery loves eating the beans, olives, and cheese. I also made homemade chocolate pudding cake and the boys loved having it for dessert. We had a nice family dinner and gave him his presents which were a shark bath sponge from soapsox, a baby shark book, and a baby shark blanket.
Avery also had his one year doctors appointment and they said it was necessary to go still because he needed shots. I was so nervous to take him with the virus going around and it was so weird walking into the clinic and needing to get hand sanitizer and wear masks. Avery at least didn’t fight it and wore it most of the time. There were no seats and there were’t a lot of people at least. I don’t want to experience that again and hopefully next year or even his half birthday check up is better.
Happy birthday little Avery! I love you so so so very much! You are incredibly sweet, funny, cuddly, adventurous, and I love how much you love your big brother! I hope we can celebrate differently next year and have a fun party with all of your family and friends!