So, it was my little princess’ 6th birthday on the 20th. As you may have read in an earlier post, Jaida has additional needs and has gone through quite a bit to get to where she is today. There are many things medical professionals said she would not achieve; they’ve put limits on her potential achievements and she has exceeded before estimated time frames. Three operations later, she’s thriving at a mainstream school enjoying running, jumping, skipping, making friends and interacting in class. Not to mention, learning how to negotiate what she wants at home! Every birthday is important in my eyes but from day one with Jaida, not knowing what challenge we would face next, we’re extra grateful for each birthday.

I like to celebrate every year, we typically host a party in the park with an abundance of family and friends. However, Jaida battles with anxiety and in recent years the change of environments, noise and fuss around her has become a bit overwhelming for her. She has previously pretended to be asleep, sitting with her head firmly tucked into a familiar person’s chest for comfort. We have been working on this as she gets older and we’re learning how to handle this every day.

This year, we celebrated her birthday in lockdown. A quarantine birthday! We may be inside, but have had beautiful weather thankfully. Her birthday happened to fall on the hottest day of the year so far, what a blessing! On the days leading up to her birthday, she had been super excited. Counting down the weeks from April and had been asking for a pool amongst other things. She had been asking for this for a while and we thought we’d give in to this request for birthday. We also fired up the BBQ, put on some music, and had a quarantine party in the garden. We got the homemade water guns out, the girls rocked their swimming costumes and it was game on! She loved it, we all did. The smiles and laughter filled our hearts with such joy. Family members passed through (from a socially safe distance) and dropped presents off. Her best friend even visited to sing happy birthday (again, from a safe distance). Jaida misses everyone so much, she struggled not to run for her hugs. How do you tell a 6 year old not to hug her family and friends that she is used to seeing frequently?

She splashed about, enjoyed blowing out the candles on her cake as well as ice lollies. After being asked if she was tired and receiving a firm NO, Jaida ended her day drifting off into the land of nod mis-sentence with cake remains around her mouth. I guess a quarantine birthday hasn’t been bad after all!

Tips & Tricks

Home made water guns are made from old spray bottles. Simply clean and upcycle them for fun water play!

Personalised quarantine birthday t-shirts are from Amazon