A Strange But Happy Birthday

I admit it.  I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to my birthday.  It's my mother's fault.  She has always made a big to-do over my birthday.  And since I live near her, that hasn't really changed.  Some years more so than others.

Well, this year it was really weird.  My birthday was the day after the dance recital.  My niece also had her First Communion in the same weekend so let's just say there was a LOT going on.  All I really wanted was a night out with my husband, and maybe to go to lunch or shopping or something on my birthday.  We had already agreed dinner with the kids on the actual day was in order.  They are at the age where they want to be with me on my birthday.  They just don't realize that that is very tiring for Mommy.  But anyway, we talked about going out to eat.  It was a Monday.

 So the weekend prior came and nothing was mentioned about date night with the hubby.  That came and went.  Every year my mom usually asks what I'm going to do for my birthday, etc., and then offers to bake a cake or go to lunch with me or something.  She never asked.  I thought that was weird but with so much going on I thought it was just kind of going to get overlooked this year.

Then at the dance recital (the day before), we all decided to go out to eat.  I wanted Gringo's.  Mike poo-poo'd on that so we went somewhere else.  Then when it was over, my dad (who lives in the same city but I only see once every few months) said he had something for me in the car.  He still gives me birthday money.  When he remembers.  So I'm wondering if this is it.  Or is it one of those other years where he forgets entirely and it's something unrelated.  We go to the car.  It's a super long article on car seat safety.  Gee.  Guess it's one of those years.  Not that he has to give me money, I just wanted an acknowledgment and none came.

Then my mom asks what I'm going to do the next day.  Am I possibly going to lunch with anyone?  I look at her like she's on crack.  I ask, "how would I do that? I have Ashley and Reagan."  No offer ever came.  So I told her if she hadn't gotten me anything yet all I really wanted was the gift of TIME.  She ended up coming over while I went shopping, ALONE, for about 2 hours.  It was GREAT!  That was all I needed to have a good day!

Then I mentioned how I didn't know what our dinner plans were because we didn't know if we wanted to take the little girls or not, but we knew they had just been out to eat with us the night before.  She didn't really comment and just started talking about something else.

Then the evening came.  That's when I finally clued in.  All the signs were there.  It was obvious no one got me a birthday cake so I told Mike I wanted to go get one at the store after dinner.  He was just sitting on the couch, not hustling to get the kids out the door (he is normally chomping at the bit any time we have to go anywhere), and then he suggested we get the cake before dinner.  Then he suggested we go to Gringo's (where I wanted to go the night before but he had said no).  So I kept my mouth shut and decided to just go along.  Lo and behold when we got to Gringo's, there were all the members of my family.  No wonder no one mentioned it before - they were already planning a surprise!  All to the thanks of my husband!  It made a great ending to what was kind of a strange day.

The kids acted PRETTY good.  Mackenzie had a moment where she went into hiding in the curtains because a card she had picked for me wasn't there.  (Turns out that one was for Mothers Day and she was confused.)  And Reagan did the cutest thing - After all the cake was eaten, she leaned over to my plate with her fork and we all got a good laugh that she was going after my cake.  Only she wasn't going after it at all.  She took the bite she had just gotten on her fork, and fed it to me!  I didn't really want to eat off her fork but it was the sweetest thing.  And it was all icing too.  Bleck.  But so precious! I think that moment was the best part of my day!

Sorry to go on about my silly little birthday.  I told you I'm a bit childish about it.  I can't help it.  Like I already said, it's my mom's fault.