Glimpse of an Ind*an K-appy Birthday Party

Just recently we celebrated Brother J's ninth birthday. Over the years, we have made mistakes, learned from them, grown tremendously as parents and most of all, enjoyed every bit of this adventure. It has been a beautiful journey that we have been privileged to embark upon. I know we will continue to learn things, and have different experiences with each of our children.

We are so blessed to have been chosen to start our parenting journey with such a wonderful child who truly has a heart of gold. He made things so easy on us right from the beginning. As new parents, we often remarked that if all babies came this way, we could have a dozen of 'em back to back to back! HA HA! Even when it came to adoption and adjusting to it, both of our children have been truly a dream. She really went with the flow, and he has been very kind, patient, understanding and very loving with his sister. Sure he has the usual, normal, annoying big brother habits.  But when she needs him, he is right beside her, taking care care of her and teaching her new things and showering her with his affection. Early on in the adoption journey it was clear to us how his unselfish, gentle and loving nature would make him a great big brother to his new sister/brother.


Brother J wanted to do two things for his birthday. He wanted to skip the usual children's party places this year, in favor of a party at home with our close group of friends, and also go to a indoor water park. We managed to do both! But due to scheduling reasons we had to have the party a day before his actual birthday, which is usually a big No-No in the Ind*an culture.


Most Indi*ns do not celebrate things ahead of time. I am not sure the exact reason why. My guess is to not celebrate too early. In our home too, that's how it works for the most part. However, we had set up Brother J's room and crib well before the due date. That almost never happens in Ind*a. Especially with birthdays, the party always comes after the actual birthday. We had some of our friends over for dinner, about 15 children and 15 adults. Sister J got along well with the kids and played with them as she is now familiar with them, having seen them at other weekend family parties. The older kids played on the Wii upstairs, while we the parents stayed downstairs eating, chatting, and watching and dancing to the Bollywood songs. This is quite typical of our family weekend parties, and it usually goes late in to the night, and the kids are also used to it by now. If a party ends early, the kids wonder what is wrong. Sister J surprisingly stayed up too. Our friends helped out with Sister J while I set up the food buffet etc. She is such a trooper! For the first time, I managed to cook all the food for the night in large quantities. I must admit, I was a bit nervous especially about the amount etc., but it turned out ok. I had made fried idly for appetizer, chicken curry, eggplant curry, cabbage curry, mixed vegetables curry, papadam, Kerala-yogurt-kadhi dish and sambhar to go with the rice. We ordered some delicious home made chapati too. The kids of course got their pizza and mac-n-cheese as well. 

Our friends insisted that we wait till after midnight to cut his cake, just so we are not celebrating "early". We gladly agreed and soon after midnight Brother J cut his ice cream cake. That's right, in the middle of winter, ice cream cake. Don't ask! By the time the last guest left home, it was around 2 am. Again, this is not very unusual in most of our Ind*an family parties, unless it is a school night, of course. Our friends helped with washing the party serving dishes and even had a small assembly line to pack the food in ziplock bags. I froze some of the left over food for a later time and many of the friends took some food home as well.

The next morning we all woke up late of course, sat around in our pajamas and sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Brother J. I made Sister J repeat the words too. Usually she repeats the single words in the same tune, but not the correct sounds. She hardly puts two words together. So we were pleasantly surprised when she actually strung not 2, but 3 words together. She had a sentence! WooHoo! We all cheered and encouraged her along. She has since then been walking around singing "K-appy to you, K-appy to you" over and over again.  I was so thrilled, out came the video camera to capture yet another one of her "firsts", and most importantly because this first sentence was for her brother. What a wonderful gift she gave her brother. My heart is all swollen up with joy and pride and oh so much love for these two sweet babies! 


Happy Birthday Brother J. You will always be my baby boy no matter what number birthday we celebrate.