Anatomy of a First Birthday: The Invitation

"When parents of a one-year-old throw a big barbecue, I know it's more for them than for their child. The best child-centered birthday parties are loosely structured and short. They begin with free play, end with food and cake and the blowing out of candles. No matter what the occasion is, though, try to limit the celebration to two hours. I know many parents who hire clowns and entertainers of all sorts for toddler parties, but give me a break. Toddlers don't need entertaining. A mother recently told me about a celebration for a one-year-old at which the child ended up crying and had to leave her own party!" Tracy Hogg, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers, Ballantine Books, 2002. p. 88

The Story:
We have our son's first birthday party in one week, and I've been a little mindblown at how extravagant first birthdays are these days. While researching what I could do, I was looking at threads on babycentral.com and saw one titled "Is $90 too much to spend on a first birthday cake?" I clicked it, positive that all of the responses would be along the lines of, "Are you crazy?! Why would you spend that much on a cake for a first birthday?" Shoot, I don't think I spent that much on my wedding cake. But no, the majority of the responses were, "Oh, not at all, I'm spending $160 on mine...I spent over $200 on the decorations...I'm making all of my decorations by hand, lol, because I'm crafty like that...first birthdays only come once, go big or go home!" I was shocked, quite frankly. Nothing against anyone who wants to or has gone that route for a first birthday. I'm in the student lifestyle mindset where extravagance is outlandish. Besides, a seventh birthday and a tenth birthday and a sixteenth birthday only happen once. Wouldn't it make more sense to save the money and the craziness for birthdays he'll actually remember? I started feeling very rebellious and even more lost about what to do for his birthday. The only options seemed to be break the bank or do nothing. Come on. We couldn't do nothing. I needed to plan something fun and classy, centered around our baby, and as inexpensive as possible.

The Plan:
So I decided that we'd invite a few of our couple-with-baby friends over to hang out for an hour or so. Oh, hmm. Our place is too small for an extra four guests. Luckily we have a pool in our complex and the hellishly (literally) hot weather, so that took care of finding a place with enough space and took care of the entertainment in the same option. Oh, and it's free. :)
Then I was thinking about what to serve for the cake. I didn't want to pump my pure whole foods baby full of HFCS and carnuba wax and sugar. I'll do a post on what I decided to do next week, once I find out how my chosen cake recipe goes over. Then I was thinking about the plates/cups/napkins and didn't know what of the myriad of colors available at the dollar store to choose from. My birthday party research suggested choosing a theme to help with color choice. Of course I immediately went to my two-in-one creative consultant/husband. We had just gotten a huge supply of PJs for the little guy from his grandma, among which were some awesome skull and crossbones PJs that we both loved. So my husband suggested a pirate theme so could wear his awesome shirt. Thus was born the theme for our son's first birthday party.

The Invitation:
I actually got started on the favors for the guests first, but they're not done yet, so I'm starting my coverage with the invitations, which are all done and ready to be delivered tomorrow. I wanted to go inexpensive and awesome, nothing chintzy or cheesy. I decided to do a treasure map-style invitation on "parchment"--or crumpled up, burned brown paper lunch sacks.

The How-To:
First, you have to cut open a lunch sack. I cut down the seam on the back and cut off the bottom of the sack, then I measured and cut out two pieces of 8 1/2x11", the same size as computer paper. A lunch sack is perfect for this, with just a little left over on the edges.
Next, I created the invitation as a Word document. I needed a pirate-y message and a nice swash-buckling font. The familiarize yourself with pirate lingo, I highly recommend this website: http://www.mangolanguages.com/blog/learn-to-speak-pirate/ Once you've completed the course, you'll be able to come up with an authentic, original message for your pirate invitation. :) For my font, I choose Blackadder ITC (which I've also used in years gone by for Harry Potter-type ventures :) )
Here's my message, to help you get your creative juices flowing:

Captain *child's name*--

Ye & yer crew be invited to a celebration in honor of *birthday boy/girl*’s first birthday. Join us fer carousin’ around the pool, feastin’ on birthday delicacies, and enjoyin’ the fine company of yer fellow buccaneers.

When: __________________

Where: __________________

I made up a basic map in Paint of the major streets around us to help people find their way and put a big red X where the pool is. I topped it off with a clipart skull at the top, printed it out on my "parchment" and got this (I've scratched out specific details, but you get the idea):

Next, I ripped off the edges to make it look more parchment-y. The more irregular and asymmetrical, the better. I got a pilot light and set it on fire in a few places (one at a time!) for the classic burned-map look. (Hint: Hold your invitation with the flames going away from the rest of the invitation so the flames don't spread too fast. Do the burning over the kitchen sink so you can drop the invitation in the sink and douse it if it gets out of control, and to catch the ashes that will fall for easy clean-up.) Then I crumpled the invitation up real good to get the worn animal-hide feeling. Here's what I got:

Pretty sweet, huh? The last thing to figure out was how to deliver the invitations, because I couldn't very well just hand people pieces of crumpled brown paper. Sooo, I folded them in thirds (like I was going to put them in a long envelope), then in thirds again. I tied them with a bit of jute that I have in my supplies inventory for my Etsy shop. I marked the upper right hand corner with the first letter of the name of the person the invitation is for so I can keep them straight. I figure random markings add to the mystery of it, lol.

Viola. Authentic, thematic treasure map-style invitations for our pirate themed birthday party for our son.

Here's the exciting bottom line: they're just under $0.02 a piece!

Coming next week: baby and toddler-friendly pirate party favors and baby-friendly birthday cupcakes.

Invitations now available for custom ordering in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/79056586/pirate-birthday-party-treasure-map

Exciting News

His favorite thing to do when he's done eating is to grab the cover of his tray and either smash it against his face or hold it over his head and wait for us to laugh. He smiles real big (as shown :) Note his smushed nose) and laughs right back.

Here's some of the fun stuff from the last post:

The Baby:
He's a broccoli FIEND. He loves the stuff! He gets so excited when he sees it, loves to eat the little pieces I cut up for him, and snatched a spear off my plate and sucked happily on it for a good 10 minutes.

He's got moves. He started bopping in his high chair at Denny's about a month ago, and now he's obsessed with standing holding his dad's hands so he can high-step and shimmy to his little heart's delight. :)

He's cruising around, holding onto furniture as he makes his way through the house.

He uses his Fisher-Price lion walker--only, he kneels on one side and shuffles across the floor with it. :p

He discovered the joy of unrolling all the toilet paper from the roll today.

The Family:

I bought some whole wheat flour a while back when my doctor told me to do the low glycemic index diet to help my blood sugar levels (diabetes can be an auto-immune disease, so gotta be on guard!). I've been dying to make whole wheat pancakes, but I had to find a recipe my husband would like. I found it: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/oatmeal-and-wheat-flour-blueberry-pancakes/detail.aspx

I altered it, by cutting the recipe in half, using whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour as well, using old-fashioned oats that I ground up a bit in the food processor, and adding a teaspoon of vanilla. Oh, and I didn't have any blueberries, and it still turned out AWESOME. Absolute seal of approval from my husband. He also said that he felt like he gained 5 lbs during dinner, so these pancakes are hearty :D

Me:

I broke out the old Neena and Veena DVDs today. Felt so good to exercise! I've been developing some serious Relief Society arms :( I did abs and arms AND the hips, buns, and thighs video. Started them in 2003 during my sophomore year in high school...it felt like hanging out with old friends, exercising with Neena and Veena. http://bellytwins.com/

I'm the assistant librarian at church, and as part of the library duties, we manage the lost and found. We purge things that have been in the lost and found for at least 3 months. In April, a twenty-pound bag of random fabric showed up. I've been eyeing it for three months, and this last Sunday, I actually got to bring it home. I washed it all yesterday (a good 4 loads) because, who knows what's in a random bag of fabric. And it smelled funny. I had to toss only one white sheet due to a mysterious yellow stain, but there were some amazing gems in that bag. Add that to the sweet flannels I got at Jo-Ann at deep discount last week, and I've got some great crib bedding coming! (Hopefully.) Note to fellow crafters: Sign up for email and post mail newsletters and you'll score some AMAZING coupons. I've saved hundreds of dollars just over the last few months. www.joann.com www.hobbylobby.com (my new favorite store :) )

Latest cause: Drop side cribs were banned on June 28 of this year because they have been linked to so many infant deaths. So, it's illegal to sell them whether you're a retail store or a private seller listing to craigslist or selling at a yard sale. http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14993503/new You can also Google it for a wealth of links and articles. Sellers can be fined, so if you know of someone trying to sell a drop side crib, let them know that it's illegal. Because no one likes to be fined, and no one likes to be associated with the death of a baby :(

Just getting this out of the way...

The little guy has just mastered turning the TV on. Might have to unplug it like we had to do with the Playstation. :p

So, I wanted to go ahead and get this out of the way so that I can just move on with future posts. I'm afraid it might be lacking in personality and sparkle, but I hope it at least makes sense. I'm just trying to pound it out to have it done.

In November of 2006, my feet went numb. I saw a doctor who did blood tests (3 times, since the lab kept leaving my blood out to rot) and sent me to a neurologist for a nerve conduction study. I also saw another neurologist back home over Christmas vacation for a second opinion. Nothing was amiss, so they decided it was Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which is peripheral nerve paralysis, and told me that if the numbness crept up to my waist, I should go to the ER. It never climbed higher than my ankles and disappeared nearly a year later. That was weird and frustrating, not being able to feel anything with my feet for that long. But no big deal.

In February of this year, I had double vision for a week that took me to the ER because apparently double vision, dizziness, and nausea aren't good things to be experiencing. I had a CT scan and they said that it was just bad migraines, take Excedrin and Coke (the soda, lol) and it would go away. I was hopped up on hyperdoses (no pun intended) of caffeine for another week before I started feeling nasty having that much in my system. A few days later, my feet and legs went all numb and tingly again, so I went to the doctor and told him that I thought I was getting another flare up of Guillian-Barre, which he didn't think was likely, because it's ridiculously rare to have it twice. I was a little weirded out because my feet weren't completely numb like before, they felt dead and tingly. I also had some intense muscle weakness in my legs. He did more blood tests and found out my TSH levels were crazy out--"Your thyroid is out of control," were his words. "It could be auto-immune disease. But I could test a hundred of you and ten of you will test positive but only a few of you will actually have it." I assumed "you" was women or something...he was brusque, no-nonsense, no-questions-thank-you, and freaking me out. He asked me to go in the next day for more blood tests to make sure my thyroid really was that dysfunctional, and asked for my OB's number to compare my bloodwork from when I was pregnant. (Utah healthcare sucks, by the way...they did one blood test at the very beginning and one urine test halfway through when my blood pressure was too high. They had nothing for my doctor to compare my blood tests with.) Anyways, he put me on Synthroid, set up a follow up appointment in 8 weeks, and referred me to a neurologist for further testing. The closest appointment I could get was 7 weeks away.

I started noticing that when I bent my head forward or bent a buzzing, vibrating sensation in my spine that would shoot through my hips/pelvis and sometimes down my legs. I still had several weeks before I could see the neurologist or the doctor again, and, thinking that maybe I was having pinched nerves, I found a chiropractor. After my exam and x-rays, I found out that my back was all screwed up: my neck had no curve, my middle back was twisted to the right, my lower back was twisted to the left, my hips were out of joint, and one leg was higher than the other. Sweet, I'll get this fixed and things should get back to normal. This might fix my feet and the buzzing.

A few weeks into chiropractic treatment, I started having really intense burning in my feet. I'm talking the kind of pain that kicked me out of bed, crying, and landed me on the couch watching TBS for hours in the middle of the night. I was taking ibuprofen for 3 days with no improvement so I called my doctor on a Friday to tell him my new symptom. They were closed for Memorial Day weekend, so I left a message. I called again on Wednesday and left a message with the front desk. I went in that following Friday to get my records and asked to speak with my doctor, since I'd heard nothing from him. I was asked to leave a message again because he was really busy. Since the label on ibuprofen said to call your doctor if your symptoms hadn't improved in 10 days, I was starting to panic. I was nearing the end of the 10 days. Monday rolled around, no word, and we were leaving for Washington the next day, so I found an internal doctor nearby and called to make an appointment for when we got back. They were so great. They got me in to see the doctor within 2 hours, and she gave me a nerve painkiller prescription and took more blood. She sent a note the non-communicative doctor to let him know she'd seen me. I got another brusque voicemail from him later that day: "Uh, hi. *Doctor.* Got your message. Call me back." The next day he called again and was almost sickeningly pleasant, but in an annoyed, superior manne: "Hello, *Doctor* again. I called you yesterday and didn't hear back from you, so I'm calling again. Please call me when you have a minute. Again, I called you yesterday and you never called me back." Guess which call came AFTER he heard that I'd seen another doctor. (I cancelled my follow-up with him and haven't been back.)

Anyways, I saw the neurologist. While I was waiting in the room, I took a look at the magazines they had lying out. No People, National Geographic, Vogue...just MS magazine. I'd been doing research on my symptoms and everything pointed to MS, so I flipped through them with a mixture of apprehension and revulsion. I teared up a bit with self-pity. Waited a bit longer in an empty room before the neurologist came in an did all the little tests like reflexes, eye movement, the pinwheel up my shins, balance, smelling, etc. I gave him my brief medical history that I'd typed up, and when we got around to my having had Guillian-Barre in 2006, he looked at me and said, "I doubt that's what you had." I teared up again, waiting for him to say it was MS. Instead, he got me set up for 3 MRIs, with and without contrast and said that he thought that maybe the shingles virus (I had it in 2004) had gotten into my spinal fluid. If so, they'd have to do a spinal tap. HECK NO. So when I went in for my MRIs, I focused on the positive sides of them either finding something in my brain or finding nothing. If they found something, then I wouldn't need a spinal tap. If they didn't find anything, then my brain was fine. I spent 4 hours in the tube. Gosh, you sure get sore just laying on a hard table forever.

I continued to research my symptoms and went through the emotional trauma of preparing myself for the diagnosis of MS. My husband said that, no, that can't be it. But I told him I was preparing for it so that if it was, it would be ok, and if not, well, great news. He reminded me that his grandma has MS and that she just recently needed the help of a walker and had several children. That cheered me up a ton. His grandma is amazing. She's totally an inspiration to me.

While we were in Utah over the Fourth of July (this was last week(, I got the results for my blood tests and MRIs: Hashimoto's Disease, the most common cause of hypothyroidism. Well, that's no surprise! What a relief! Then I went into my follow-up with the neurologist and saw my MRIs, and saw all the lesions in my brain and spinal cord. And he officially told me that it was MS. (I guess they don't like to tell people that they have MS over the phone or something.) And I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't really bother me. I didn't freak out or tear up. I just looked at my MRIs with the bright white spots thinking, "Wow, that's my brain. I look like a textbook!" I guess all of my emotionally distraught prep work had taken the shock out of the diagnosis. He said that I'd probably had MS since at least my numb-feet attack of 2006, and that that was probably my first MS attack. He seemed disgusted that they just randomly diagnosed Guillian-Barrie, especially since my nerve conduction tests were normal, and that's how GBS is diagnosed. (Remember I said Utah healthcare is crap?) He also suspects that my double-vision episode was my second attack, and that my burning feet pain is my current attack. He said that he wanted me to get on treatment right away, so I'm waiting to hear back from the copaxone people about when a nurse will come out to train me how to inject myself every day.

I'm actually way happier now that I know what's wrong than I have been for a while. (Although, I think that finding out that my insurance is covering my chiropractor bills properly took my major stress away...it'll be hard to stress me out after having to potentially pay $2000+ in additional chiropractor bills!) Anyway, I feel a huge sense of relief. It's nice to know that I'm not crazy, and that what I'm feeling is real. It's nice to know that what's wrong with me is treatable. AND it's nice to know that other symptoms I'm having are also caused by MS, so they might improve with treatment, too! (For the record, these other symptoms are intense fatigue, serious brain fog, and what I feel are depressingly diminished cognitive abilities. It's so hard and embarrassing for an avid reader with a BA in English to have trouble writing well, thinking clearly, remembering words, and committing embarrassing spelling mistakes--thank goodness for Google Chrome's built-in spellcheck. Although, I should just keep reading so that I improve those areas anyway :) ) I'm excited to start treatment, and to know that they're releasing oral treatments next year.

My main concern was not being able to have any more children, but that's not a problem at all. I just have to work closely with my OB and the neurologist. And if treatments deal with my fatigue, I feel like I'll be a much better mom. The thing that makes me most sad and that scares me, that I try not to think about, is that I'll somehow be seriously disabled at some point and my kids won't understand why, or they'll be embarrassed of me. That they might not know me, but some shrunken, dysfunctional shell of who I used to be, or something else entirely. But like I said, I try not to think about that. Lots of people have MS, my husband's grandma is still going ridiculously strong, the treatments are effective, and I get to start treatments soon, so my brain won't shrink :)

I'm doing great. It's nice knowing that I've probably had this for nearly 5 years now, so it can only get better, now that I can start treatment. And it's nice to have a medical reason to be easier on myself, to go slower and not push myself so hard. Instead of suddenly feeling like my body is some sort of alien being, I feel like my body is the most familiar thing, and that the whole world has tilted or shifted or changed colors around me. I don't know what will happen in the future, so it's nice to have a reminder to take things one day at a time and put the important things first. And the important things are my relationship with God and spending time with my family. (And taking care of my family with good food, clean clothes, and a clean house :) )

Oh yes, and I forgot in my list of things I'm relived about/grateful for: I offically don't need a spinal tap! :D

Randallizing.

I named the blog after a slogan my husband used while running for student government in middle school: "I'm a Randall, but I ain't no vandal!" Randallizing is like vandalizing, only not destructive to your health, psyche, home, or wallet. Basically, when you come to this blog, prepare to have your world rocked. Because we're so cool. Lol. I say that tongue-in-cheek. I think we're awesome, but sometimes I'm going to employ an ironic tone of type to spice things up.

I was diagnosed yesterday with multiple sclerosis, so I figured now's as good a time as any to start up a blog. I'm anticipating some increased introspection in the future, and I'm hoping that I can create some kind of supportive, uplifting resource for people. And I'm hoping to document an increase of cognitive ability once I start treatment. As in, being able to remember words and write as cleverly as I used to. Or, as cleverly as I think I used to. Haha.

Not that this blog is going to be all about that. I think it's silly to pin all of your identity on one little thing, especially if it's something that can be depressing. But it is a part of my life, so expect some flavorings of MS--so far I'm doing very well, so I don't anticipate depressing anyone about it. Positivity is a powerful thing.

Mostly, I'm going to be recording cool stuff about what we're up to, how cool we are lol, the cuteness and growing-up adventures of Randino #1 (our son, turning 1 year old in August!!), and, of course, I have to talk about my shop of goodness because I think that's awesome, too. And I'm hoping you guys like what I'm making, too, and buy everything :D Haha.

For example, here's a custom stick pony I'm just finishing up today. Remember Rainbow Brite? Yeah, this is Starlite! I haven't taken pictures of him on his stick yet, I'm waiting for him to dry before I move him around. :)

You can check out my shop for more: weaselby.etsy.com

More to come. I'm going to go play with my baby. I can hear him pulling his toys off his shelf. :D