In many ways, I think life is better for our 3rd-born than the other two. We are more confident parents, he has siblings to play with, he got to eat cake for the first time at 6 months old.
So I won’t beat myself up over his first birthday sneaking up on me. Of course, I knew it was coming. We are planning a small party for this weekend, and I’ve been working on the details here and there.
But in my mind, this weekend seemed more like 2 weeks away? And I kind of forgot he actually turns one before then. So when Scott said to me on Tuesday, “Tomorrow’s the big day for LoLo*!” I was momentarily confused before it hit me that we would wake up the next day having left another year of infancy behind.
Oh. I didn’t… I’m not… prepared for this.
But time marched on as it does. And I dropped him off at daycare yesterday morning with a plan to pick him up at 2 and begin some kind of family birthday festivities. I didn’t know what. We’d figure it out.
“So he walks now?!” his teacher said to me as I met them at the door for pickup.
I cocked my head to the side like a confused puppy. “Uh. No? I don’t think so? Did he?” I quizzically replied.
“Ohhhh… well, yeah. He did! Like, 5 or so steps?” she replied.
So, that’s cool. My baby took his first steps at daycare. On his first birthday, which I wasn’t even prepared for.
Good news: He’s my 3rd baby, so I’m really quite okay with it.
He repeated the performance for us a few times before we took off to dinner…
where he got an endless supply of bean dip.
Then we made forgetful lemons into lemonade and walked over to ToysRUs where he got to hand pick his gift.
What kid gets to do that that? Only the very lucky 3rd-born.
Note the crawling on the floor at a toy store. A privilege only reserved for the cherished 3rd-born.
So see? It doesn’t matter that I nearly forgot his birthday, or that I wasn’t there to see his first steps. He lives a life that goes with the flow, free of dietary restrictions and pesky rules about germs and bedtime.
It’s good to be 3rd.
*LoLo is the nickname Leyna gave him right after he was born. The whole family has adopted it now. Because 3rd born.