One

Chutney turned one last weekend – I am still having a hard time believing it’s been a year… but somehow he went from this (I hope you’ll forgive me, son, for sharing this picture with the world):

To this:

We had a couple of parties to mark the occasion – one with Paul’s brothers and their families and another one with friends.

After the first party I realized that we only had one decent picture(below),

so, I decided to fix that by taking a zillion at the second one.

We had the traditional smasher cake, which started with a small accident. I had just lit the birthday boy’s candle, told my mom to watch him and turned to grab my camera (hence no picture), when he smacked the candle and found out  just how hot fire is. He did cry a little but when I put a dab of frosting in his mouth, he forgot about the candle thing and had a blast playing with the frosting. He even ate some and oh, the sugar high…

Then there was the Proshtupulka. This is something we do in Bulgaria shortly after a child starts walking. We lay out a bunch of objects associated with different professions (such as a stethoscope, a book, a pen, a ball, goggles, measuring tape, a microphone, a passport or whatever else we think of) on a blanket and let the kid loose to see which of the objects he/she will pick because that will determine what she/he will become. We had already done what we had to do to ensure he will be a U.S. President one day following another Bulgarian tradition but since you can only be a president for 8 years, he has to have a regular career and this is the highly unscientific process by which we determined what it will be. Also, we had done it for his sister when she started walking (she went for the book), so we had to do it for Max too. He picked the wrench, which means he will either be an engineer or a handyman (hey, it’s always good to have one of those around).

Here’s a little video of the Proshtupulka:

Mommy’s future handyman

But what’s a good party without a little romance? Our little man’s flame, Neve, was at the party and Chutney made sure he showed her in no uncertain terms he only has eyes for her. They are a little young, we know, but we are going to India and we are embracing the culture… Plus, they make a lovely couple, don’t you think? There was a little drama, when according to his future father-in-law, Max executed a kiss-and-run maneuver on Neve. She was a little distressed by his behavior and went to talk it over with parents. In the end Max went back to her, gave her a nice hug and was forgiven.