The Party Circuit

Ivan and I have entered the 1st birthday party circuit. Three parties in three weekend, the fourth one is scheduled for next Saturday. But alas, Andy will have to take him to that one as I will be hosting a wedding shower here. (Luckily for Andy, it's his friends' daugther's birthday so we won't feel like a fish out of water.)

I must say I've been quite impressed by Ivan's handle on this party situations. He's definitely not shy. Instead, we arrive, I put him on the ground and off he goes....mingling with people (really barging his way in to check out the action, regardless whether it's groups of kids or adults, or older kids), going after toys (balls and baloons are apparently big hits), exploring the grounds. For all practical purposes, I don't even have to be there. He doesn't seem to miss me or look for me. If he gets cranky, I need to give him his bottle of "mloh," and off he returns into the crowd and action. (Now, this hanging on to the bottle of mloh, which I assume has become a bit of a security blanket, is perhaps something to be concerned about.

With this parties, Ivan's social life is more happening than mine has been in a while.

But wait, this has become my social life -- attending babies' birthday parties. It's fun.

I enjoy watching Ivan socialize and learn to mingle. I hope he keeps his fearless and secure ways with him throughout childhood and life. I don't know whether his current interactions with others (kids and adults) is indicative of his age (do all 15 month olds behave like that) or his personality (is he going to be an assured, social and likeable kid).

At Sam's birthday party, back in December when he was 10 months old, Ivan was kind of lost among all the kids. It was really the first time he was around so many kids. Most were a few months older, meaning they could walk and he was still doing the army crawl, and kept running everywhere. He seemed lost and concerned. I guess he had never had people/kids in his way, encroaching on his space. He kids of stood a side looking around playing with toys on the outskirts of all running action. (And then he went to Lisa's bookcases and took all the books of the shelves). At one point Sam approaching him, they looked at each other, Sam pulled Ivan's pacifier out of his mouth, looked at it and put it in his mouth, without skipping a beat. Ivan wasn't sure what to make of it. (But then one month later, at Kris's house, Ivan came up to Sam to pull up to him, but ended up pulling on him too hard, so Sam fell and sat down and started crying). Both interactions were quite humorous.

A few weeks later at Sammy's 3rd birthday party, I really ended up carrying him around most of the time (or their Au-pair took him and walked him around, which make me ponder what proper au-pair ettiquete is, but that's a different story). He was still too little and there were too many older kids running around. But then in late January at Sophie's birthday party (Sammy's sister), Ivan was trying to play with Sophie (although she was only two weeks older, she was already walking while he was still just standing). He also tried engaging with older boys (3 year olds) who were hovering over a big wooden train set. Ivan was trying to pull apart the tracks. Other boys were getting annoyed at him because he was ruining the tracks. But Andy was there with him, so he mediated the situation. If I recall correctly, I don't think Ivan tried that hard to play with other boys, he was more interested in the toys. (Unlike now, when he's all eyes for other kids, especially slightly older kids.)

Then at his birthday party (to which he made a late appearance as he went down for a nap at noon, and didn't wake up until after 2 p.m., although the party started at 1 p.m.), he was being carried around too much by various relatives that I don't think he really played with others. My memory is hazy since I was too busy running around being a hostess. But, most of babies weren't mobile yet, including Ivan, which really limits any potential interaction.

Well, that's all changed now. I guess the change really happened when Ivan started walking about two months ago, at 14 months. Now, he's unstoppable. I don't know the exact date when he started walking since it happened so gradually, but it was definitely over his 14th month.

Three weeks ago at Ramon's party (after a painfully long 2-hour car ride during which Ivan and Emir took turns crying), as I put Ivan on the floor he took off. The party was in a huge walkout basement, full of balls and baloons and other kids running around. Ivan saw the balls and took off. I was in disbelief how sure of himself he was. For the next few hours, he didn't look for me, not once. He was too busy playing and exploring, going up to kids, big and small, butting into groups of people, etc... (except for about 20 minutes at around 3 pm, which is his naptime time, exactly during the time I was trying to eat).

Last weekend's party (Leila's) and today's party (Mila's) were the same. Ivan just took off to play......

My little social butterfly.