Birthdays

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!
You look like a monkey, and you smell like one to!

Yesterday was indeed my birthday! I am closer to thirty than forty still. Rob gave me a lovely bouquet of roses AND took me out for a meal, sans children. I also received some Bath and Bodyworks gifts from Angel and itunes cards from Rob and the kids. My mother will have us for dinner and a cheesecake tomorrow. Tonight I just want to soak in my bubble bath with a glass of wine and savor another year of my life and that of my sweet J.T.

J.T. was born just 6 days after my birthday and will turn 7 this week. It actually snowed the day I went into labor with him.... a once in a decade happening for us. My water broke at the supermarket and Rob drove us (BELOW the speed limit "Won't do us any good to speed if we have a wreck) to the hospital where we waited 25 1/2 hours to meet J.T. He was, of course, the most beautiful hairless, wrinkled bit of humanity we had ever seen.



He has been delighting, inspiring, and exhausting us ever since. He walked early, never engaged in baby talk, and could speak multi-syllable words at 10 months. If you speak to him on the phone, you'd never know you were speaking to a child. He is empathetic, sometimes dramatic, logical and good at math. He hates reading (very surprising since Rob and I both LOVE to read), guessing games, and change. He gets upset if goes to school with bed head hair and wants to change immediately when his clothes get dirty. He has had close to 2 dozen ear infections and has to wear ear plugs when he swims. He says please and thank you and ma'am and sir (necessities for a child in the south) and is usually very well-behaved. We had his party today complete with a hayride (a country tradition) SpongeBob pinata and one injured child.



While it would make a great story if the medical crises had occured during the pinata festivities, he was not injured in a mad dash to beat the snot out of Mr. Squarepants. He was attempting to skateboard on a rolling cart and smacked his head on the concrete. Don't worry. He had an icepack and lives just up the hill, so was returned safely home. I will call momentarily to be sure he is indeed feeling okay.



Birthday party injuries are a tradition in my family. On the occasion of my 7th Birthday, one of my little friends was bitten by a neighbor's dog and required stitches. She returned to the party, stitched and bandaged, in time for cake and ice cream.

So we had a lovely weekend of birthday celebrations replete with loads of good food and good friends. The kids left with dizzying amounts of candy, already loaded up with cake, icecream and cheese puffs. A great time was had by all. Well. All but the one who went home with a big goose egg on his forehead.