An FPIES-Friendly Second Birthday Party.

I've got a "Myra at 2" post in the works, but I will wait until her actual birthday to publish that one.  This is all things birthday party.  It seems like a lifetime ago we were just starting to figure out Myra's FPIES...and planning her first birthday party.  We wanted it to be as stress free as possible, so we only served foods that were safe for her.  At the time, that was three things.  We wanted to be able to enjoy the party and not worry about her getting into food she couldn't have, wanted any of our guests to be able to feed her, and wanted to show everyone what her diet is like for a day.  It took some creativity, but we pulled it off and it was a great party.

A year has passed and our biggest struggle this year was narrowing down what to serve.  In a year, we went from three safe foods to eighteen, including a couple FPIES-biggies (corn, eggs) that make meal prep and party hosting so much easier.

Myra's DIY birthday poster, can you tell where she was sitting while sticker-ing?

Decorated using the poster Myra made and some of her school artwork

On the menu this year-click links for recipes: ham (slathered in honey) served with warm peaches and cinnamon (typical for Trevor's family), homemade hashbrowns (cubed potatoes cooked in olive oil), Texas caviar dip with Fritos, green (no pimentos!) and black olives, pumpkin (ok, squash) spice donut holes, cupcakes, blueberry cha cha, and apple juice.  Grandma even surprised us and made some divinity (no nuts and maple syrup instead of vanilla).  Everyone was able to fill their plates and truly enjoy a good meal, and Myra was no exception.  No one had to ask if it was okay to feed her something, anything Myra wanted she was able to have.  I have become pretty worry-free regarding her FPIES and foods, relatively speaking, but I still can't usually let her out of my sight at stuff like this and in all other aspects of parenting I consider myself to be pretty far from a helicopter-mom.  That said, it is an amazing feeling for all of us to be able to run around, talk with people, prepare food, etc. and not even think about where Myra is and what she could be eating.   Actually, my only slight concern was that Myra would be having so much fun she would forget to tell us if she had to pee, but even that didn't happen.

She had so much fun playing with everyone while we finished getting food ready and setting up tables.  

Myra thought she was pretty cool when we sang Happy Birthday to her.  She requested it again throughout the rest of the evening.  "Birthday to You again?"  We obliged and sang to her one more time before opening presents.  She was very patient with opening presents, opening each one carefully and looking at it before rushing to the next one.  She loves books, so she was actually interested (somewhat) in reading her cards.  

We stashed away a few of her new gifts for now-we'll bring them back out one by one once Baby 2 arrives.  Myra is still talking about her party and probably will be for quite some time.  Most often she says, "thank you, party!" and "bye bye, party!"  Thank you to everyone who came to help her celebrate-we all had a great time!