Birthday - Adult Version

It sounds racy, doesn't it?

It's not.

When you're a kid, you wait all year long for your birthday, and when it comes, when it finally, Finally gets there, it's all about you. Your age goes up. People sing to you. You get cards from elderly relatives, sometimes with cash. You get cake. You get a party. Maybe the party isn't even on your actual birthday, so you stretch the celebration over a number of days, like a large wedding, with overnight guests and a breakfast the next morning.

As you get older, you realize life doesn't stop for a birthday. Not even yours. You still have to go to school - oh, you might get to bring in treats to share, and that's special. But you still have to take the science test. You still have to go to gym.

As an adult, it's all turned around. You have to go to work and no one there cares that it's your birthday. There was a cake for it a week earlier, but no one knew it was for you because it was lumped in with all the other November birthdays. Maybe some co-workers are excited and take you out to lunch, or for drinks after. Maybe you even have a Margarita! That's special.

I wasn't looking forward to this birthday. As the only adult in the house, I was picturing a lot of what I usually do. You don't get to choose, when you're a mom. Kids need to get to violin at 7:30am. They still can't find their shoes. And even if you want eggs, they all want waffles. Cut up into little strips. Usually I could defer a lot of these requests to my spouse, who would also make some effort to recognize this special day.

Well, this was the first birthday since Steve moved out. 

I woke up to an empty house. Steve had the boys the night before. I knew he'd drop them off at 7:15 (remember, violin at 7:30, and I forgot to bring the violin when I dropped the boys off...) but I still had the morning to run. I played music while I make lunches (including a bag lunch for a field trip) and got school folders ready.

And then I hopped into the shower, thinking I'd have a couple of extra minutes to relax and soak. 

A few moments after seven, I head shouting. I had enough time to turn off the water and step onto the mat when the door burst open and in flew Andy, grinning, clutching a large gift bag. 

"Happy Birthday, Mom! You got presents!"

I stood on the bath mat, dripping wet, clutching a towel to my naked body.

"Thanks, Sweetie! I'm so happy! Can I have a minute to get dressed?"

It was a pretty good birthday, all things considered. I'll post later about what I got and the 3rd grade Veteran's Day concert. All you need to know for today is that all is wonderful.

Honey Bear and The Plan

My brother had a dolly.

I'm not teasing, he really did. It was a Fisher Price cloth... it was this:

He named it Honey Baby.
After the bear in the Lillian Hoban book Arthur's Honey Bear.

Because of this, I will always have a spot in my heart for that book.

I read it to the boys tonight. They couldn't possibly enjoy it as much as I do. But when I got to the end, when Arthur decides to be happy about being Honey Bear's UNCLE, the boys did give a grudging giggle.

"Being an uncle is pretty cool, huh?" I said. "Do you think that one day you guys will be uncles?"

All three said yes.

"Do you think that any of you guys will be daddies?"

There was a pause. "I don't know..." Nate said.

"It's easier to be an uncle?"

"Yeah," said Nate. "Or a grampa."

"Well..." I explained, "You have to be a dad before you can be a grampa."

"Yeah, "said Nick. "And get married."

"I have a plan," said Nate. "I need to go on seven whole dates before I get married."

Nate / Andy October 2013

So this happened... a Face Book Post

My Brother's Facebook status was as follows: On Facebook, sometimes you find out what your friends had for breakfast. Other times, you find out your big sister got married!!!!

I commented: I know, right?

My Other Sister commented: Haha. She sent me a text first. #favoritism


When I first saw the original post, the post that started it all, I yelped.

"Woohoo! Emily got married!"

Nick jumped out of his chair and shouted, "Cool!... to who?"



Which is kind of silly, really. I don't think Nick could remember a time when Emily and Kelly weren't together. I am overjoyed that it's made official, and wish the newlyweds all the good things in life.

Emily and Kelly - Just Marrried
I stole this photo from Emily's Facebook page, I hope she doesn't yell at me!
I'm just so excited and wanted to share the news with the whole entire world!

Cool People

There are all sorts of cool people in NY.

Nick & Stuart - April 2013

W/ Aunt Anne-E & Raluca - April 2013

It Never Gets Old

We went to the Bronx Zoo.

Andy - Bronx Zoo - April 2013

Andy - Bronx Zoo - April 2013

We've been a couple of other times, but this time it was a bit different because it was rainy and cold.

OK, I'm being dramatic here. It wasn't raining the whole time. It was just raining while we were walking there from the subway. But it was kind of overcast and cold. It was too early for the elephants and the Wild Asia Monorail wasn't open for the season yet.

But the boys had fun. And my sister came with us, so she got to enjoy the following things with us:

A Tiger who was very busy eating grass.

A Gorilla who was sitting right next to the glass and who would wag his head comically side to side, and then puke into his hand. And then eat it. And then repeat. Over and over and over and over.

Feeding time for the vultures, who have a wing span of six feet (my estimation) and who look exactly like the cartoon hunchback drawings of themselves, only scarier, with heads approximately halfway down their bodies. Also, they are fed rozen dead white rabbit, much to Nick's dismay.

Bronx Zoo - April 2013

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday Early

Happy Combined Early 150th Birthday to my parents, who we all love very much!

Is It Christmas Yet?

This morning I got the first Christmas card of the season. In November. And it was from my sister, Emily.

As if I needed any more proof that the world was spinning off it's axis.

Let Us Be Together Tonight

I am horrible  at taking pictures.

I've gotten better, now that I have children and now that cameras have gone digital. I can take as many as I want, and don't have to pay for film development.  It's just, when I'm standing there clicking away with my camera I'm always thinking "Why am I taking a picture of this? What di I think I'm capturing?"

And then, years later, when I'm rifling through photo albums with the shot arrange according to whimsey instead of by subject or chronologically, I'm metaphorically kicking myself in the head for not taking more pictures than I did.

Thanksgiving is a time to count our blessings. Let us try to remember them the whole year through.

This song has been running through my head lately.  If I had time, I would have put together a slide show of old Thanksgiving photographs to go with this song, and maybe someday I will. For now, please give the song a listen (watching the YouTube slideshow is up to you, I don't care for it much.) You can look at these four photos I managed to scan while you listen.

And we can be Thankful and Grateful for what we have.

Thanksgiving Game Plan

We have a guest list of 27 people.

I've ordered 2 turkeys.

I have written out the menu, composed a shopping list, and created a cooking schedule.

Now we simply need to purchase a table and make sure someone bring up some folding chairs.

And hope all the guests make it up.

For now, all I have to do is clean the house.

Back to Life

It's been a week since we've been back from Disney World.

I keep talking about it, and I hope I'm not being too much of a bore. It's just that I really loved this vacation. I had such a great time.

I hope my brother and my mother had a good time. I really did turn into a bossy bee, making all the decisions about where we were eating, where we were going next... I discussed where we were going next as we were standing in line for a ride, and usually had the next two stops (at least) planned out in my head.

But there was almost no wait in the lines, and all sorts of new things were going on. I loved loved loved it.

Mom, Jamie and I did get to escape one night for a very fancy dinner.

At Animal Kingdom, Nate became attached to a certain goat, and Andy developed a fondness for a certain pig.

The hotel was being refurbished, which was a bummer. The main pool was closed, and the view from our hotel room was construction. The other pool was open, though. It  had a waterfall and a waterslide, and a kid's section that looked like Alice's Tea Party.

I never did get my mother to go on Tower Of Terror. We wore her out, making her walk around parks for three days straight, and by the time we reached Hollywood Studios she really needed a rest. I did take the boys on it, though!

We also went on Star Wars.

I could go on and on a describe every detail of the trip, from the busses there to the incident at breakfast with the cereal. But I'm not going to . You're over it already.


I will tell you that Nicholas started crying at about noon on Friday, crying because the next day we were going home and he wanted to stay at Disney World forever. It was really irritating, but I knew how he felt.

I usually compensate by planning other trips. So I started doing to same with Nick, involving him in my planning. For our next trip to Disney World, currently scheduled for sometime 2017. Nick liked the Floridian, although I an making a case for the Art Of Animation Value resort. Also, be aware siblings of mine, next time you are all coming, too! It's in the plan. And you can ask Jamie, I usually get what I plan for.

Florida Family

One of the best things about visiting Florida is that we get to see family.

My Aunt Myrtle lives in Florida, not too far from Daytona Beach. She lives there with my cousin Andy.

There is a little bit of a generation gap between my Florida cousins and myself. My mother's brother was much older than she was, and when she was still quite young he had married Myrtle and they had a couple of children.

My mother, on the other hand, waited longer to have a family. She was (gasp) almost 30 when she had me.

The result is that my cousins had children that were the same age as my brothers and sister. One of them, Scott, still lives there with his wife and their two kids. (Keli  lives in Paris - she's the one with that cute little baby, remember?)

I'm embarrassed to say that, even though I had my camera, I didn't take a great number of pictures during our visit. I suppose I don't want to get in the way of having comfortable conversation with relatives I rarely see, and then just forget to get out the camera. Jamie has some great group shots.

Florida 2012

I did, however, manage to take a few of the boys playing in someone's bedroom. Ah, family!

Heroes

Our trip to Disney World gave us the chance to run into some of our favorite heroes.

Such as:

Abraham Lincoln

Winnie The Pooh

Tigger

Super Nanny

Alice

The Mad Hatter

Zombie Obama (Zombama?)

Peter Pan

Daisy Duck

Goofy

Safari Mickey

This Guy

Strange Awning Animal

Phineas and Ferb

Quick - Here's Everything

We are back from Disney World.

I am exhausted. And I have a lot to say. Many of those things I have to say also have photographs to go along with them.

See, before I left, Steve very kindly got me a new SD card for my camera. It's 32GB. The last one I had was 4GB.

I took my first photo of Steve, and then my camera said I still had room for over 4000 photos left.

So I was able to take many, many photos.

Here are a few: