Hap Birt

Well on Friday we will celebrate my Little Prince’s half birthday. Yup. He will be half a year old. Six months, is how most people will say it. I was really hoping to do something very very special to commemorate the day. My goal was to give him the gift of thank you note completion.

While he was still in the hospital my husband and I picked out thank you notes. We were so proud of the name that we agonized for months over that we found a website that made cards which would proudly display both his Hebrew name and English name (in a lovely shade of the orange, which in my opinion is the new blue). We spent hours adjusting the footprints that we chose to adorn said names properly and we called the printer just to make sure that our vision would come to fruition appropriately.

That was when he was in the hospital.

Now thankfully he was not in the hospital too long and we got to take him home. The thank you notes came in a week after that. And the meals and presents stopped coming in a month after that.

But I kept a list right by the fancy silver box they arrived in. I was going to be on those notes like white on rice. But you know, I did just have a baby so I did get a little break. First I said, I’ll write them once he gets on more of a schedule. Then I said, I’ll write them when he sleeps through the night. Then I said, well maybe once he goes to bed a little earlier and I have enough energy.

But nope. Just as he grew and grew so did the excuses. I was blaming everything from needing to spend more quiet time with my husband to catching up on all the Grey’s Anatomy I missed out on to just not wanting to write notes when I was on my 3rd gin and tonic of the day (it got a little stressful around 4 months or so). And about a month ago I decided that etiquette allowed me until his half birthday to complete the thank you notes without looking like a complete ingrate.

Well it’s a month later and still no notes.

Darn you passing time!

I guess part of my problem is that I like to make the notes personal and special. I am just not the generic:
Dear X,
Thank you so much for the beautiful _____. It sure is special! I can’t wait to use it/ grow into it/ be able to eat it soon!
Love, Prince Peanut
type.

But my valiant procrastination efforts have also made this hard because now he’s actually outgrown some of the things he has gotten so I am finding myself writing notes in the past tense which is just awkward.

Dear Aunt Joan,

Thank you so much for the sassy Michigan hat. It looked really great on me for a few days but now that my head is the size of a cantaloupe I have moved on to knit caps so I don’t outgrow them every week or so. I hope to meet you soon!
Love,
Mighty Muffin Man

I also am having issues coming up with appropriate ways to thank people for monetary gifts. Those were great but I always feel the need to tell the sender what the gift was spent on.

Dear Rich Uncle Todd,

Thank you so much for the generous present! Mommy and Daddy really wish they could have saved that money for my college education but instead had to spend it on Mommy’s lavish 30th birthday party so she wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown and abandon me.
Hope to spend a summer at one of your lovely vacation homes soon!
Love,
The Boy Child

Six months doesn’t seem like so long. It was not as bad when I made the 350 guests at my wedding wait for thank you notes. Then 6 months after I received the gifts I was still married and we were still using the bread maker/tablecloth/ coffee maker and since I was only 21 I could spend the money on furniture and that made for a lovely thank you message.

But in Baby Land 6 months is a long time! In that time he has tripled his birth weight and learned to laugh and smile and roll over and almost sit and eat solid foods and develop a fantastically annoying case of separation anxiety.

And it’s all extra nifty because he came early and wasn’t even supposed to be doing all the neato 6 month old tricks until March.

Wait wait…does that mean I have until March?