Sassi turned one on May 03, 2018.
I know this one took a while but I was waiting for a night as calm as this one to collate all that had me whizzing around on a high that day.
Most of you already know that I run two businesses. My life is one big headrush. Which is exactly why I started planning two months before the big day.
Okay that’s a lie
I actually started planning ten months in advance but super leisurely. Like Pinterest browsing for cakes and flavours. First birthday ideas.
I really wanted to make her first birthday cake myself but clearly, work got the best of me. However all that brainstorming et al had me set in stone what exactly I wanted. I wanted a semi naked cake with fresh flowers.
Look. She will (InshaAllah) have plenty of birthdays to micromanage her details (if there’s an iota of me in there).
This one was ours.
Despite the truckloads of self doubt and wobbly knees, we made it through the first year which was huge.
So I went all out. The cake was a two tiered semi naked cake with fresh lilies and tiny sugar flowers and birds perched here and there. There was a sheen of glitter on it to link to my baby shower last year which was Sparkle themed. One tier was butterscotch and the other was strawberries and cream.
It was the prettiest thing ever executed by none other than Pink Pistachio. I’m a lover of dim lights and thus there are no bright ones in my house period. Please bear with the slightly darker images. I assure you there was nothing dark about the event!
In the hottest of Summers, the lilies wilted on our way home from the bakery despite air conditioning that transported me to Siberia. So I got fresh flowers to replace the ones they had placed.
My face shows what I felt at that second. Faisal was so angry at me stressing as much as I did. He was right. Instead of enjoying the day celebrating, I was ready to pop a vein!
The balloons were imported for the occasion. I was fretting they’re too few (my remarkable house staff lost quite a few to thin air). I asked for lilies. They got me gladioli. I was going around in circles on the verge of tears when he took me aside and knocked some sense into my head.
I am a perfectionist.
Anything less than perfect is never ever acceptable for me.
Having a tiny baby in this heat to care for had me housebound and mostly working remotely. A partner like mine is perhaps the only thing someone like me needs. Someone to constantly ground and share perspective.
See these pictures?
This (He) is why I haven’t yet had a nervous breakdown amidst everything I do.
The dress was chosen months before the event and custom made by the fantastic Mashal Agha from Zozo’s Closet. I fell in love with it and continue doing so over and over again.
Now comes the fun stuff. I had personalised mini scrapbooks with a collage-ish cover executed by Life.Twinkles.
On top of which went a sketch of Sassi with her signature tilted head shy smile by none other than my favouritest discovery of this year.
She is the best thing since sliced bread if I may say so. In fact. I don’t even like sliced bread but Aimen we adore. Not only did she do the plethora of illustrations I will share one by one (since they owe that respect), she was also the gorgeous photographer behind all these photos you see. Uber talented and mega grounded. This girl is a gem we discovered through Neha Khala (who by the way, sent us the most badass birthday gifts. A cold shoulder dress and the book we adore. Feminist Baby) when she got us a gift family illustration done by her.
So here’s the list of things Mrs. Quirky got for us.
Sassi’s sketch to go on the giveaway scrapbook that held inside a collage of pictures of the recipient with Sassi over the year and a personalised note. The last two pages were questions for the time capsules we made (one to be opened at her 18th Birthday and the other at her 10th since 18th seems so far away!).
I of course spent nights and nights of squinted eyes in the dark room once Sassi would go to sleep, writing those notes with aching fingers and cutting up pictures and pasting inside for the personalised collage. There were times I would want to cry, thinking maybe printing them out would’ve been a bette rides but honestly, nothing compares the feel of a hand written note that’s straight from the heart. I know for sure the guests were all so close to our hearts and Sassi to theirs, they will hold on to these for a very long time. Sass is one lucky gal.
The last two pages they filled out and dropped in the chest along with a card full of fun questions.
They went with sugar cookies with a big S on top for Sassi.
Then there was the sketches I got made for Faisal to keep in both his offices. He LOVED them and rightly so. They’re gorgeous and framed so perfectly.
There was also the milestones board that was the loveliest thing ever.
Now here comes the best part about the entire experience with Quirky. Through all of the back and forth of information between the two of us she fell in love with Sassi and decided to do an additional project. A storybook on Sassi and her Sassy ways. She called it Meet Sassi and it makes the most cherished way to record the memories of her first year. The little quirky things she does, her likes and dislikes, all that makes her my darling Sass was in there and I hold it closest to my heart. This was the best thing ever.
One of my closest friend in the world flew down from Karachi just for the big day. The last time she did something like this was on my wedding!
The entire bunch of guests were all precious and extremely close to our hearts as they were to Sassi. We were surrounded with so much love that night, I felt invincible. I felt like my child is forever protected from everything evil because so many people love her as much as they do and it’s all her. She earns that love by being the nicest kid I’ve ever met. Okay sure I haven’t been close to many but still, I really like her.
With crawling races
And exploration expeditions
My Sassi took everyone’s breath away by clapping her way through her cake cutting and gave us a mini stroke by grabbing the knife at the sharp edge in excitement.
It’s all symbolic and birthdays of course are just a man made milestone. A child is forever growing and at all times irrespective of the date but it always fascinates me that on one’s Birthday the stars align into exactly the same position as they were on the day of the actual birth.
There’s something magical and extremely earthy about that fact.
May we live to see you conquer the world, your own and ones you wish to in all your glory and sunny disposition. May life smile back at you the way you cackle at it and your big, brown, inquisitive eyes never lose that wonder they are brimming with.
May you of course grow some more teeth, more hair and for the love of God start talking.
As Faisal always says, May you have a wonderful and wonder filled life.
Here’s to many many more to follow in happiness, health and a lot of Quirkiness.
