In Japan a thousand paper cranes carry one wish. Ivy’s first birthday gets one crane, folded from indigo paper and set in a corner of a landscape painted in ink: pines, hills, a red rising sun, a branch of autumn leaves across the top.
It is for families who want something still and beautiful instead of balloons. Nothing on it is childish and nothing is loud; it would not look out of place framed in a hallway, which is more than most first birthday cards can say.
Plan a small gathering in a garden or a quiet room: green tea and lemonade, rice crackers and fruit, a low table with cushions for the children. Fold a few cranes from colored paper and hang them above the cake, and write one wish for the year on a card for the baby book.
