Catching up: Sweetie's birthday

I'm forever playing catch-up with my blog. And sometimes with my life. Oh well, here's a quick report on Sweetie's sixth birthday. We spent most of the day in the car, coming back from California, but we still managed to go around and collect her birthday freebies ( 3 meals, including her favorite ribs; 1 sub sandwich, and a dozen donuts). We also opened birthday presents that night. The next weekend we had her cake and ice cream and games when her cousins could come celebrate. At the last minute, I decided to make her a Tangled tower on her cake and it was only moderately successful. :) We played Sweetie Jeopardy and guessed at the facts of her birth day, how old she was in certain pics, and her favorites. How grateful we are for Sweetie. We love her laugh, her wit, her imagination, and her offers of help.

Catching up: Mister turns EIGHT

An 8 year old. How can it be that I have an 8 year old. I don't know, but I will keep him. He is sensitive, kind, helpful, fun, and obedient. I'm so glad that I get to be his mother.

And, this year, he was particular--he had definite plans for his birthday. Those plans included having his cousins over for a dinner of wings, little smokies, and mashed potatoes, followed by games (spoons and speed), followed by presents and cake--confetti with white frosting and blue writing. See--a boy who knows what he wants. And that's what he got! I didn't get any pics of the food, though, because we were too busy eating it.

Birthday thoughts

Today is my 35th birthday.

I have to type it/say it out loud because it's not really real to me. I'm not really 35, am I? As surprised as I am at my own age, I don't think I would wish to be younger. I like the experiences I've had, the person I've become in the accumulation of the days and weeks and years that total 35 today.

This morning I got up early and headed to the gym for some time on the revolving staircase and the ellipsis (there's no better way to celebrate a birthday than to work out hard and feel strong and capable, despite another year added to your age). I was thinking about my birthday as I climbed the unending stairs. I was thinking about how glad I am that I was born to these people in this particular family. I was deeply grateful and felt humbled at that simple blessing that has shaped my days and weeks and years.

Anyway, after teaching my class this morning, I spent a nice chunk of time on my birthday collecting birthday freebies in the form of food (there's no better way to celebrate a birthday than to eat good food that's free and that you have not prepared). I visited Joe's Farm Grill, got lunch for tomorrow at Firehouse subs, picked up my Krispy Kreme dozen doughnuts, and printed off my free Cold Stone for use later this week.

Maybe I'd better head back to the gym tomorrow morning.

My baby is one today

It's 11:20 pm and the house is quiet. Everyone else is in bed, where I should be. But, while I am feeling extremely tired, I am also feeling extremely grateful. My baby turned one day, and I am grateful for his life, for his health, for the opportunities of the past year to love and to grow.

The first birthday celebration is the party that the child could do without. But the mother, never. I need to celebrate this wonderfully hard, wonderfully joyful year of adjusting to a new spirit in our home, a spirit that came with his own agenda and his own personality, and of adjusting to a new body in our home, a body that came with demands that I must meet, often before meeting my own. I need the first birthday celebration to reflect on how we have grown together, this little guy and me, this little guy and us as a family. I am grateful tonight for the chance I was given, one year ago today, to love yet another person with such breadth and depth.

Because we're in Utah (and have been for 2 weeks now), we had a big shin-dig: We went swimming all afternoon. J cooked us up some of his famous pasta, meatballs, sausage. H had 2 servings. We played memory with pics of H throughout the past year. H (with help from all of his cousins and siblings!) opened presents. I made H an egg-free cake and the rest of the hooligans egg-full cupcakes. H thoroughly enjoyed his cake, and after a quick bath for H, we capped it all off with sparklers. Happy Birthday, to our favorite little H, who is really not-so-little any longer!

My 4 favorite things about H:

(1) His hugs and kisses, especially after he wakes up

(2) His "Whoa!" when he sees any interesting food or contraption

(3) His smile--he smiles with his whole face/body

(4) His love of books. He'll tear anything and everything apart, but not books. He sits and flips through them. A boy after my own heart.

More birthday pics than you ever wanted to see

I survived birthday week. But just barely. I feel like I'm treading water here lately, not going anywhere or making any progress and barely keeping my head above water. So here's a recap of the birthday happenings:

The Sunday before Mister's bday we had our family party with Mister's requested babyback ribs, little smokies, pickle spears cake, ice cream, presents, and games.

Then, the Tuesday of Mister's bday, we took Krispy Kremes to his class and went out to Panda Express (Mister's favorite) before his tball game. The Saturday after, he and Sweetie had a joint friend party at Chucky Cheese.

The next day (Sunday), after my students' little piano recital, we had Sweetie's family party with cake, ice cream, presents, games (she requested to play spoons, with pictures of her as a baby). She got 2 new dress-ups, as you can see. So, she needed to have her friends over Monday morning on her actual birthday to play dress-up. We painted fingernails, had a brownie and lemonade tea party, and they played mermaids. Mermaids have to go down waterfalls at times, as you can tell. All I can say, is Phew! I'm glad it's over. I love birthday week, but it's also exhausting.