I have always dreamed about being a mother- and about all of the different creative things I would do as a parent.... the bohemian artistic family life that we would lead. I have had a lot of time to think about it. I didn't have my first child until I was 39 years old. My second child came as a sweet surprise from the universe at the age of 42. (A surprise I had been trying for- but really didn't think would happen.) Unfortunately, the reality leaves me with little time for all of the parenting fantasies that I had entertained when I was without children. I didn't really take into consideration that I would have to work full time, that I would have little sleep, that I would live in one of the most expensive areas in the world - and that my children would have their own ideas about how they needed to be parented. Who knew?
But there have been a few ways in which I have been able to stay true to those early visions of mothering. One of the big ones has been around birthdays. Each year, I write a letter to my daughter (and this year I will write my first one to my son). In the letter, I describe the person they are becoming, the milestones, and the way in which they move me. I bought a special album to keep the letters in, but haven't gotten around to that part of my vision yet. I figure as long as I have written the letters- I am doing pretty good.
Another thing I have done is thrown special birthday parties. I love a creative party! And I adore making the invitations. I usually do some basic artwork and then use all kinds of embellishments to complete them. Although I don't have scanned images of the final invitations- I thought I would share some of my basic artwork for the last few:-) The one at the beginning of this post is for the upcoming September joint birthday party. (As long as I can, I am going to try to do these joint parties. I am sure that pretty soon, my daughter will protest.) Their birthdays are only four days apart. So, this is what I have been working on lately. I just finished the web invitation- but I still will send out paper invitations too. I guess I am a purist.
This one was for Caya's first birthday party. We had a mad hatter theme and I made all of the guests wear funny hats. Okay... to be honest, no one agreed to it and I was the only one who wore a funny hat. Caya took off the cute bunny ears within two minutes of beginning the party. I am learning that I can be flexible around my visions- and find the beauty in what happens there.
2 comments:
Deann you are such a good mommy! Your birthday invitations every year are beautiful works of art. I have been meaning to write letters for Brady and Leila on their birthdays, too, and haven't. Ever. I keep thinking I will retroactively do it, but of course I can't remember a darn thing about milestones from years ago. Bad me!
This is such a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing all the sweet invitations you've made for your children. I had ideas of how I would raise my children, too - if I had been fortunate to have some. What you do each year for their birthdays are SO special. They might now realize it now, but when they get older they will realize just what a cool and loving mother they have! Theresa
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