An Excuse for A Party

We're big into half-birthday parties here.  It started back in January 2007, when we couldn't believe that we had actually managed to make it to Inara's six month-old mark (Inara had a whole whackload of exciting infant issues...none too serious in the grand scheme of things, but just enough to drive a pair of new, sleep-deprived parents to the breaking point and actually consider never procreating again).  Anyway, here's our eldest on her first half-birthday in January 2007:

Above:  Inara, with her "what the heck are they DOING to me?" face.  We know it well.

Well, we went ahead and procreated anyway - and it turned out MUCH better this time around.  Nissa's first six months were downright bliss compared to her older sister's, and so we decided to have a half-birthday to celebrate HER instead of the fact that we weren't speaking gibberish and exhibiting strange ticks due to the stress of parenting TWO high-needs children (for reference:  Nissa is the polar opposite of High Needs.  What is that, anyway?  Low Requirements? As in: "Nissa is a Low-Requirements baby".  Me likey).  The result was a rockin' good time and some wicked awesome party hats:

Oh yeah, baby.  We're awesome.

To be clear, we don't really "do" half-birthdays after the first one...it's just too hard to keep it up (big revelation here:  we're LAZY parents.  Deal with it).  Plus you can't really compete with the first half-birthday anyway, so why bother?  Well, apparently nobody explained that to Inara.  Two nights ago I realized that Nissa was going to be 8 months old, and wait for the logic here...that meant it was January (yes!  I got the month right!  Hooray and Huzzah!), and that meant...that both Inara and I had half-birthdays coming up (Inara's birthday is a day before mine.  Six months later.  In July.  Wait - was I right AGAIN?  Yay...Mama's extremely limited math skills have not been badly damaged by procreation!  Celebrate!).  I told Inara that she was going to be three and-a-half  soon *sniffle*, and her beautiful eyes lit right up.  I could see what was happening, so I tried to deflect, but it was too late.  She is just such a seasoned pro at out-reasoning me and to be honest, Nissa did just have a half-birthday celebration (and by celebration I mean we made hats and ordered take-out.  Because we're classy like that.) so it was fresh in her mind and how could I refuse???  Me = Sucka!!!

Luckily, all Inara reallyreallyreally wants in life when it comes to Food That I Love But My Parents Won't Give Me is donuts.  So all it took to make my big girl happy was a frosted chocolate donut.  With sprinkles.  That's it.  Happy three and-a-half birthday, sweet girl.  We do so love you!

The half-birthday girl, eating her donut with a fork.  Because why WOULDN'T you do it that way?