Last Sunday, Ada declared it was her lovey’s birthday. Baby the Bunny was turning 7, and Ada employed me to help her draw custom wrapping paper decorated with apples, and carrots, and to wrap a selection of re-gifted items from her Easter basket. This included a chocolate egg, an orange lollipop, a roll of smarties, 2 chick-shaped erasers, and an egg shaker, painted in the likeness of a ladybug.
Eager to have the whole family play along, she insisted that the birthday also feature a scavenger hunt and an abundance of carrots — baby ones for snacking, and a carrot cake with no nuts. Jacob was a sport, and, with (very) light assistance from the kids, made this Smitten Kitchen carrot cake complete with the maple cream cheese frosting. After a rollicking rendition of “Happy Birthday,” Ada opened her lovey’s gifts, the ones she had wrapped herself, and screamed with elation at the surprises she’d hid, decorated, and regifted for herself. It was an occasion.
Every year our family goes through an extended season of birthdays and celebrations that starts in early October — the 8th (grandpa’s bday), 9th (aunt’s bday), 10th (anniversary), 16th (Jacob’s brother’s bday) 17th (Julian’s bday), 21st (nana’s bday), 29th (my birthday). We cruise into the sugary abundance of Halloween, then quickly hit the tsunami of November: election day (sometimes-but-feels-like-always), Ada’s birthday (the 8th, but at least a week long), and Thanksgiving (also a week long).
Christmas is an entire sub-season unto itself, so by the time Jacob’s birthday rolls around on December 26th, we’ve been fully pummeled by any notion of celebration.
Ada is the only one fully and truly energized by this sequence of events, such that, come late January, then in March, April, and again by June — when the rest of us are finally recovering from celebration hangover — it’s time for a bunny birthday. Baby Bunny has turned 1, 3, 4 (at least twice), 6, and 7. Ada is 5, so you do that math.
I often consider the layers and ridiculousness inherent in this extravagant imaginary play. Enacting parent/child relationships, the desire to be celebrated, the act of opening gifts far surpassing any actual value of the gifts, the invention of occasion, and the act of making that occasion real by sheer will. But what is a celebration other than a brief lens of optimism to frame our everyday experience as worth marking, and when has that ever been needed more than right now?
Here are a hodgepodge of things I recommend:
For the kids:
Wear: Julian’s head has grown unconscionably fast, so he was due for a new helmet. This one from Scoot + Ride is both cute and comes with a built-in back light that caused the older sister to fume with extreme jealousy.
Watch: “City of Ghosts,” the new animated mini series by Elizabeth Ito. A group of kids form a Ghost Club and explore LA’s neighborhoods, interviewing ghosts, as they discover much about the city’s complex history, communities and cultures.
Read: John Klasson’s new book, “The Rock From the Sky” is out, which just makes me and the kids so happy.
Eat: These Kasugai Japanese lychee hard candies are so good (and if your kid is past the age of extreme concern about them choking on a hard candy), I highly recommend. (These lychee gummies are a great backup)
Subscribe: Illustoria (published by McSweeney’s) is an incredible and beautiful magazine for kids, and they have an Earth Month subscription special going on right now.
For the grown-ups:
Listen: My newly binge-able podcast is “Under the Influence,” described as a “deep dive into the Mom Internet” i.e. mom-fluencers. The episode on “sharenting” is particularly potent and truly OMG.
Watch: “The Speed Cubers” is an incredibly endearing 40-minute documentary on Netflix, primarily about two boys who are both rivals and friends in this niche area of competition. When I say speed, we’re talking about solving cubes in mere seconds. It’s total insanity.
Read: For the last two years, people would recommend “The Overstory” by Richard Powers, and highly under-sold it as “a book about trees.” While not untrue, it’s also a book of impeccable language, observations of nature, tragedy, the interweaving of strangers’ lives, and so much more. Highly recommend.
Wear: Jacob got me these silk Lunya pajamas and I usually sleep in an old t-shirt so in comparison (and also objectively) they are very, very nice.
Art on the walls: Hillery Sproatt is now selling a selection of her incredible prints online, which you can pre-order for this summer.
Parenting: Curious Parenting is a super helpful resource providing guides for grown-ups to consciously parent around everything from feelings to consent to gender inclusive language. Their IG is also full of tons of useful resources @curious.parenting.
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