Call It a Day of Firsts

Well, Alexey’s first birthday is almost over. An exciting day, because of a number of firsts.

The three of us went shopping downtown this afternoon at City Mall. We rode the glass elevator at City Mall, the first time he’s ever been on an elevator.

Between us we picked out a couple of birthday gifts. One is a snazzy yellow Fisher Price airplane in which the pilot gets tossed hither and yon as you push the plane around on the floor. Sort of like Top Gun without the safety belts. The other is a black teddy bear who has already been named Ivan in honour of Alexey’s Russian heritage. We had to get Ivan, because Alexey slobbered all over him when he first got his hands on him. So Ivan instantly became family and Alexey’s first own cuddly toy.

Then we walked over to the bakery a few blocks past the statues of Lenin and the coal miners.

At the bakery, we got some yummy cupcakes with white and chocolate icing drizzled on top.

Then we headed back towards home, walking through the big city park that has a lake and an entire amusement park inside it. The amusement park is a smaller, tamer version of the Ex in Ottawa. While passing through the park, we stopped and got a couple of soft ice cream cones. Alexey had a little taste of John’s vanilla ice cream, his first ever. Interestingly, you can get vanilla (called white, here), chocolate, or cherry, or swirls of any two or three of them. We haven’t seen cherry soft ice cream in Canada. Monika tried a white-cherry swirl and said that it tasted good.

Then we walked back home to our apartment and Alexey had a well-deserved nap. Then it was time for the birthday dinner! After we ate our main courses, we brought out the cupcakes and Monika and John sang Happy Birthday, under Alexey’s astute musical direction. But most of all, he wanted to try the cupcake, another culinary first.

We gave a few bites of cupcake to him by hand, then tore up some more pieces and put them on a plate for him to take. But Alexey decided not to use his fingers and instead to eat the pieces off the plate like a dog. We tried to get him to use his fingers, but instead he opted to crush the pieces of cupcake with the palm of his hand. The result was that his hands, face, chest, and legs became covered with crumbs and bits of icing.

As we write this post, Alexey is having his pre-formula feeding nap. Wrapped tightly in his arms is Ivan the Bearrible.

A hugely successful celebration!