First Birthday Party

Let’s face it, the first birthday party is more for the parents than it is for the child.

So we vacillated about what kind of party to have for The Squeak; do we invite just family and have a low-keyed celebration, or do we really ramp it up – invite friends, break out the bar-b-que, crank up the tunes and have a P-A-R-T-A-Y?

The decision was to have a low-key thing. But as is wont to happen with the best of plans, things changed. We (and when I say we, I mean P.Pie) decided to invite some friends. In fact, there were more friends than family. But mostly the modest crowd was friends with infants, toddlers, and grade school kids, rather than the beer and BBQ crowd.

C’est la vie.

From the revelers standpoint – and the guest of honor’s – the party was a success; wine was sipped, munchies were nibbled on, and presents were opened. But there was a downside.

A downside that no one knows until this post.

You may recall around the two month old mark, I bought a nice digital video camera. A very, very nice camera, with all the bells & whistles. I had visions of documenting nearly every moment of Squeak’s growth, with the hope, in a decade or two, of turning it into a documentary of the effects of daddy bloggers on their offspring.

Right before the party, I took the video camera off the shelf and dusted off about 10 months worth of non-use, charged the battery and got it set for the party.

I know what you’re thinking… I either a) left the lens cap on, b) forgot to put a tape in, or c) forgot about it all together.

Well, you’d be wrong if that’s what you’re thinking.

I got great footage of everybody under the age of seven helping The Squeaker open her presents. And I was perfectly poised to capture the Happy Birthday song and first bites of cake. I even positioned the kids so that they were in a chorale-perfect semi circle behind her; tallest in the middle, descending to the shortest on either ends.

I set the camera up so that I could both watch the display and sing at the same time. It was a perfect moment. Almost pastoral, really.

After it was all done and Squeak had taken a few tentative bites of the cake before spreading it all over her face and eventually knocking it to the floor, I looked at the display screen and noticed the counter wasn’t moving.

I had forgotten to push “Record”.

Good job, dad.