October 3rd was the boys' fifth birthday. Last year, and I think the year before, I took the day off to get a couple last-minute gifts, wrap everything up, decorate the house, and then headed out to school for their classroom celebration (the Montessori birthday circle). Then when we returned home, the boys were greeted with balloons, streamers, the cake and party table all set up, and their gifts divided into the Parker stack, and the Cable stack, and the Shared stack.
Not this year... Random factors (and the cautious attitude about holding onto my sick days) conspired to make this birthday much more harried, and I found myself frantic on the evening of, running to Party City for balloons and anything that could help their cake pass for a Batman cake. When I got home, I still had to wrap their gifts. That mixture of emotions -- stress, worry, disappointment, guilt, not to mention that silent, maternal mini-breakdown as you try to come to grips with the last five years passing you by... well, at least when my Mom says her apple pie wasn't one of her best, she's fibbing. This birthday was, for real, not one of my best.
That said, yeah, it turned out fine... Once the show was on the road at like 8:00 pm, Cable and Parker tore into a great birthday. They proudly helped Daddy decorate the living room with balloons and Batman streamers while I wrapped the presents. They got great gifts, loved their cake (chocolate with cream cheese frosting, from Keith's mom, Grandma Anna the Cake Maker) and had lots of fun assembling their Bat Cave with Daddy, playing together, and reading new books for bedtime. And because it was on a Friday, their birthday was upgraded to birthday weekend.
Five years, though. Still getting my Mommy head around that.
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