Make a Cake Topper

My daughter turned two years old last week. We had to cancel her first birthday party last year due to the California COVID-19 restrictions that went into effect four days before her birthday. Half of her life has been under a pandemic. She hasn’t seen strangers without a mask, attended any social gatherings or hugged my parents for over a year. No music classes, no museum visits, no play dates.

This year, we celebrated my daughter’s birthday with a small gummy bear themed gathering of just our family and her grandparents. My daughter is always clambering to get a gummy multivitamin when her brothers eat theirs after dinner but the label said two years or older so we made her wait. We made a JELLO filled cake topper with an empty honey jar and made simple decorations. It’s nowhere close to the backyard turned construction site party I threw for my oldest son’s second birthday or renting a park location for my middle child’s “Very Hungry Caterpillar” themed second birthday, but I know my daughter felt loved on her special day.

A few months ago I had to take my daughter to the emergency room due to an allergic reaction to peas. The friendly nurse that was examining my daughter was wearing two masks and a face shield. The nurse seemed surprised that my daughter was smiling back at her. She said she wondered how babies would be different growing up in a world where everyone was masked. I am thankful that my daughter is a happy, communicative and social person in spite of everything this past year. But the nurse’s comment made me think of something Tyra Banks coined — smize. It means to smile with your eyes. While you’re out and about with your mask on, remember to smize. Smizing is more important now than ever.