Sorry it's been so long since I posted an entry. Ever since Christmas I've been busy moving things from my PC to my new Mac mini, and then in mid-January I got hit with cedar fever and am only now recovering.
Thanks to my lovely husband and my generous cousin, I had a really pleasant birthday (36--who can believe it?!?) this last weekend. Dale arranged with Jen to babysit for a couple of hours on Friday evening so that he could surprise me with a few adult hours at Reed's Jazz and Supper Club with some of our our friends. We enjoyed some nice conversation over wine, champagne (thank you Kavita!), and scrumptious crab cakes, calamari, and fried oysters. Before leaving, I even got a turn on the dance floor with my sweetie! Then two of the people who met us there followed us home afterwards for a dinner from Rudy's and a movie night with Crash, which was very intense but worth the effort.
On my actual birthday, I unfortunately woke up with extraordinary pressure in my ears (congestion from the cedar), but with lots of giggles from my children (Jonathan and I showed Kayleigh how much fun it is to crawl under the covers) and a little help from my boy, who found the ibuprofen bottle for me, I was able to rise to the occasion. The day was very lazy and relaxed, and we met Jennifer, Stepan, and Magda at the Macaroni Grill for an early dinner and hunk of chocolate birthday cake. One of the memories I won't forget soon from the evening is coming back from the bathroom (diaper changing for the girls) with everyone holding hands--Jen on one end holding one of Magda's hands, me on the other end holding one of Kayleigh's hands, and Kayleigh and Magda holding hands in the middle. We can do those things now that Magda can walk! They are quite funny together.
Since I've been down with this congestion, I have a little better appreciation for how Magda must feel when Kayleigh goes into her little-mama routine and decides Magda either needs a drink or needs to eat something. When she wakes up in the morning, Kayleigh is immediately on full speed ahead--she gets my glasses off the table and hands them to me, gives me my water, etc. It certainly gets me on my toes quickly! The last two mornings, she has gotten into the individually wrapped Ricola throat lozenges, unwrapped one, and popped it into my mouth before I could even frame the thought in my head--let alone say it out loud--that I didn't need one right then. But I had no choice in the matter. Kinda funny to be mothered by a one-year-old
Anyway, back to the birthday thing--as I told my sweet husband, although my thirties have certainly brought challenges I could never have foreseen, I am having a wonderful time so far and hope that the rest of my thirties are as completely enjoyable and rewarding as the first half has been.