Mama's Birthday

Wendy gave her version of her birthday so here is the view from Dad and Nora Kate. In the week leading up to the birthday Nora was very excited to go shopping for Mama. She talked about buying Mama flowers and a water bottle (what I got for fathers day). Sunday morning we decided to pick sunflowers from the yard and Nora and Jack were very excited to bring her each one after we picked them.

Wendy stayed with Jack, while I braved the store with Eleanor. She was so excited running around and grabbing literally everything she could reach saying, "lets get this for Mama!" So although Wendy got some interesting gifts, I actually used my veto power to keep her from getting really odd presents, like Star Wars trading cards, silly bands, and a horrible turquoise necklace to name a few. The card she picked out was a birthday card and had Tinkerbell on it, but it was for a granddaughter. I showed her the cards for Mom and after a quick glance she said, "None of those are sparkly enough for Mama." Tinkerbell card it is.

I thought it would be fun to bake something for Wendy so at the World Market, Nora and I decided on a Carmel Monkey Bread mix. I'm pretty sure that having "Monkey" in the title was the winning factor for Nora.

Here she is ready to start baking, complete with apron and doggie gloves. The doggie gloves didn't last long as they were covered with butter after her first baking task. While Wendy took Jack to the coffee shop and shopping, Nora and I got started. She helped me mix the bread and caramel mixes and dish it in the pan. It actually looked pretty bad before cooking and I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

One it was in the oven we had a lot of wrapping to do, as I couldn't find any birthday wrap we used Winnie the Pooh Xmas wrap from last year. She was a pretty good helper and loved putting tape on the presents even if the tape didn't actually hold the paper together. We got everything done just as Wendy was walking in the door to see her pile of presents. It was really fun to see Nora so excited and proud as we brought in the cake/bread with candles and sang happy birthday.

As to why the birthday girl was watching Jack while Nora and I did the shopping/cooking, it's because he is an absolute crazy man right now. In the last few weeks, he has had instances of running around in stores, hiding in clothes racks, and grabbing anything he can from the shelves and tossing them on the ground, all the time with an evil little chuckle. We aren't sure if Nora ever went through a hellion stage like Jack, or if it wasn't as bad since we could double team her and now we have to play man-to-man defense on the kids. See picture below for said evil grin while munching on a bread stick.

Birthday Mom

I wanted to share some recent pictures we had taken of the kiddos. Jack was less than thrilled to have his picture taken, but since they were for Eleanor's third birthday, we didn't make him. We call this one: pout-y face with phantom mom-arm in background. Gotta love the photography studio, they give you every picture they take on a CD for posterity. Of course since Jack was in a bad mood, Nora Kate was in a fabulous mood! We got about 50 great pictures of her. This is one we didn't have printed, but just love it.

I also thought since I had all the time in the world today (a day off from work!), I would tell you about my "first" birthday as a mom. Today I am 36 years old and yesterday my family celebrated the milestone with me. Geoff can provide shopping details that are quite funny, but I received the neatest gifts from my 3 year old. They included a stretchable shark, stuffed raccoon, birthday balloon and flowers, veggie chips, truffles, lottery, lots of Starbucks gifts card money, fly-swatter, spiral notebook with puppy dog cover and a Tinkerbell card. On top of all that, my girl and her wonderful Daddy made me some Monkey Bread.

"You need help Mama?" she asked so sweetly opening every gift. "You like your present Mama?" after every gift, then quickly followed by "Can I see it Mama?" I hope you can see the genuinely big smile on my face. Recalling the evening just makes me laugh in such a good way.

I have had amazing birthdays my whole life. My mama made sure each anniversary of our birth was more than celebrated, which set me up for great expectations every August 16. Then, I married a lovely man who jumped right on board my "My birthday is special" bandwagon and has given me some unforgettable presents. So, I never expected it to get better than that, but it was truly heartwarming to see Nora's little face when I raved about each gift.

Of course, the real credit belongs to her daddy who didn't hesitate to spend the money, wrangle her at numerous stores, and spend time baking the coffee-cake-like Monkey Bread even when she got butter all over her puppy gloves. "Mama, I need my gloves for baking." OK love.

I loved my "first" birthday as a mom. It isn't my actual first birthday as a mom of course, but when your kid can pick out her own card to give you (Tinkerbell!); bake you a cake (well, Monkey Bread, yum!) and help wrap the many presents (in Winnie-the-pooh wrap) she picked out all by herself, it counts as the first. Thanks for the love my lovely family, you sure know how to make me feel very loved and very special.