Amber and I had some plans for our shared birthday this year, and we made up other birthday-ish celebrations along the way. Instead of attempting to separate the birthdays, we ended up just doing all the celebratory things we both wanted to do, whenever we could. Two days pre-birthday on Sunday night (Nov 2nd), we had Amber's extended family birthday dinner. One day pre-birthday, I made myself an experimental dairy-free pumpkin cheesecake that actually was pretty good.
On our actual birthday (Tuesday, Nov 4th), Amber opened her birthday presents at 5:45am before Jay and Rose left for seminary. On our way to school on our birthday, Amber and I picked up some donuts from Walmart to share with her class. Then we went and had our much-anticipated Ultimate Car Wash at Spanky's. We planned this birthday trip to the premium car wash months ago, and looked forward to it the whole time, so it felt extra special. We learned that their fanciest, highest level car wash included extra mega foam, and we ooooh'd and ahhhh'd as the multicolored lights shined through the suds. It was ridiculously fun! We felt very celebrated. I dropped Amber off at school with her donuts and drove my sparkling clean minivan home.
During the day on my birthday, I didn't do anything that I didn't want to do. I did have to do some laundry, but I did not fold it. I had to talk to several workers about ongoing property projects, but I was then able to retreat into my cozy house and play the piano for an hour. I ate a piece of the dairy free pumpkin cheescake at lunch, and then decadently watched like 2.5 k-drama episodes before going to cross country practice. Several kind friends sent me happy birthday messages. My Mom mailed me four birthday cards that warmed my heart. At cross country practice, I ran with the team as a birthday treat to myself. Normally I like to go on a fast hard run to test my fitness for my next year of life and to feel ALIVE on my birthday, but my recent injury recovery made that plan less appealing than simply going on a 3 mile jog with the sweet cross country girls. I did go on a 4 mile run by myself the day before my birthday, wherein I started slowly and sped up every mile until I flew home and finished the final mile in 7:19. That felt very satisfying.
I opened my presents later that same birthday in the evening after cross country practice. For dinner on our actual birthday, I didn't cook anything. Amber had leftover mac and cheese, and I had one of those pre-made refrigerated meals from Costco: pad Thai. Not cooking anything, especially not cooking a dairy filled cheesy meal on my birthday, was so lovely. Jeff and I will go out for real Thai food later this week.
While everyone else cleaned up dinner on our birthday, I sat with Amber on the couch and helped teach her how to crochet with a hook. Most of her birthday presents were various books that she asked for, but she also asked for yarn, so I found some beginner's crochet yarn, which is more like a shoelace than twisted yarn. It didn't split when she put the hook through it, which helped her learn how to use it without the frustration and giving up that happened on our previous attempt several months ago. For the record, I am no crochet-er. The last time I crocheted was when I was Amber's age. I made one scarf for my friend for Christmas, and that was kind of it for my crochet phase. So I had to do some re-learning while I helped Amber. It was amusing but also kind of fascinating what random things my fingers still remembered to do, even when my brain was not sure about it.
I thought it was adorable that Amber asked for books and yarn for her birthday. She also asked for a video game. Since I found all of the books used in like-new condition for a fraction of the price, Amber actually received everything on her birthday wish list! Books, yarn, and a videogame.
Jeff and the kids gave me more birthday presents than I was expecting. Jay gave me a random hand food chopper. Rose gave me a super soft rainbow Squishmallow pillow with a smiley face on the rainbow and a sunshine on top. Amber gave me a pair of patterned running shorts that ended up being a men's size, so I gave them to Jeff. Jeff gave me a Nordic Curls bench! I was so surprised, and I love it so much! This piece of equipment has become a bit of a joke between us, because Nordic curls can be done without any equipment, so it is completely unnecessary. But the special bench makes doing Nordic curls so much more fun! (A Nordic curl is when you kneel down with your ankles held in place, then tilt your torso forward till your hamstrings scream, then come back up.) The bench has a cushion and a comfy secure place to hold my ankles firmly. I did two tiny sets of 6 Nordic curls three days ago and I am still sore.
At bedtime, I asked Amber how it felt to be 11 years old. She said: " It feels good. I actually feel older!"
1 comment:
Your posts and photos ALWAYS make me smile! I especially loved:
—your expression in the photo with your slice of dairy free cheesecake
—Ambers “scary” things = spiders, snakes, & Wednesday (at first I skipped “the show” clarification😆)
—Rose’s gift of a happy squishmallow (she sees inside you!)
—your explanation of Nordic curls: “till your hamstrings scream”
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