My Birthday Day

I was too tired to go the grocery store Sunday night, so I snuck out this morning while everyone was still in bed. I enjoyed the ease of shopping without children before the store was busy but regretted it the moment I walked back in the door. I returned to find two teary eyed, sniffling children standing in the kitchen in their jammies. They thought I had disappeared. No one thought to ask Daddy (who was in the shower) where Mommy had gone. It was sweet and sad, all at the same time. So, we started our day with lots of hugs.

Tyler raided Grandpa R's closet and presented me with a roll of pennies the other day for my birthday. This morning while I was making breakfast, Tyler decided that he really wanted to "just look at them". I was afraid he'd dump them out of the roll. We went back and forth about it for a minute. He came back in the room, roll in hand, swinging his arms around to emphasize his words, and adamantly said "I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE THEM OUT!" Just as he finished his sentence, the pennies flew out of the roll. He stood there for a second, looking at the pennies scattered over the floor, and quietly said, "Well. Now I am."

While lunch was in the oven today, I tried to pack up some of the kitchen stuff. I really don't enjoy packing. I like unpacking and getting everything reorganized, but I really don't enjoy the process of packing. Guess that's why I've waited until the last minute. Anyway, I packed some of the pantry stuff - some went into a box, some went into a trash bag. During this time, there was an incident in the family room. In the amount of time it took me to rescue the fallen, banish the offender, and comfort the weeping, the stupid dog knocked the trash bag over, decided the open end didn't look good enough, and proceeded to rip a hole in the bottom of the bag. (Our dogs NEVER get in the trash.) So, I had to rebag everything before continuing. By that time, the offender was yelling down that he/she could indeed behave now and was ready to come back downstairs, the kitchen timer was buzzing, and Ron was walking in the door for lunch. So, I still have lots of packing to do tonight.

This afternoon we went out to the new house to wait for my appliances to be delivered. It was so incredibly hot today. The appliance movers were wearing long pants and must have been very very hot. (Well, I know they were hot. I watched the sweat roll of their noses and onto my new floor.) Anyway, with all that sweating comes body odor. Tyler stood at the side of the kitchen, holding his nose and saying "Stinky, stinky, stinky" while they were bringing things in. Also while we were there today, Danielle christened the bathroom floor. She is so bad about waiting until the last possible second to run to the bathroom. Today she just didn't make it up onto the potty in time. She stood in front of the toilet, dress in the air, and peed. She gets emotional when this happens. I have to admit I was a little emotional about it today, too (but showed remarkable constraint).

Tonight we went to the Olive Garden for my birthday dinner. Tyler told me this morning he wanted to tell our waitress that it was my birthday so she would bring me a cake. Once we were seated, I conveniently went to the restroom while the kids and Daddy made the appropriate arrangements. I acted very surprised when it came out. The kids were proud of themselves and enjoyed the cake (although they had been too full to eat any of their dinners just minutes earlier). We were entertained throughout our meal by Tyler hitting on our waitress. He's a natural with pretty girls. She asked him what he wanted for dinner and Tyler responded, "I'd like to have you." How slick. I suppose anyone older than 5 would have been slapped, but our waitress just melted. Ron teased Tyler about getting her phone number. Later Tyler told our waitress he was going to come back every single day. The banter continued throughout dinner. Before we left the waitress told us that she would love to babysit sometime and gave us her phone number. Guess Tyler scored the digits after all.

One of the birthday calls/emails I got today was from my mom. In the email she talked about the day I was born and the little details she remembers. It was sweet and made me smile. I know my parents love me, but I never really understood how deep that love is until I experienced that love for my own children. I know how sentimental I am about our kids. It's nice to be reminded that someone is that sentimental about me, too. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.