I missed my best friend’s birthday while we were in Europe, so when we got back from Boston, I took Alethea out for a belated celebration. We went to Montecito for a birthday brunch, followed by a movie, and then some shopping. It was so relaxing to have a girls' day (like before I became a mommy) and we finished off the afternoon with some delicious cupcakes from Whodidily. Sorry, we ate them so fast; I could only get a picture of the plates:
The next celebration was a Mommies’ Night Out in honor of my birthday. We went to my favorite Mexican restaurant, sipped on pomegranate margaritas, and talked late into the night, while our hubbies put our kids to bed. It was a perfect evening and I was so touched that so many of my friends made it out to help me celebrate:
In the midst of all that, I had my actual birthday, and Graham surprised me with the best birthday present ever. Clear as day, he sang “Happy Birthday, Dear Mommy.” I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea he even knew the song and I was daydreaming about how Nick must have spent hours teaching it to Graham in secret. Well… about a week later, Nick burst my bubble when he told me that Graham was actually singing “Good morning to you” which we have been singing to Graham every morning for almost his entire life. Here are two videos of Graham singing, so you can judge for yourself. Upon reflection, I think he starts singing “Happy Birthday” and then shifts into “Good morning” at the end, but I still choose to consider it my special birthday treat every time he busts out the tune. In the first video he is awake and singing to me (20 months, 23 days old):
and in the second video, he is still sleeping and singing to himself. This one is a little long and hard to hear, but I still think it clearly demonstrates why I believed he was singing me “Happy Birthday” (20 months, 19 days old):
Before I learned that Graham wasn’t actually singing me “Happy Birthday,” I was trying to catch the feat on video to show Nick and I ended up getting some great footage of our little boy asserting himself with one of his new favorite words, “no!” (20 months, 12 days old):
The night of my birthday, Graham was on his best behavior while we went out as a family, along with Mark and Alethea, to a restaurant in town I had been wanting to try for ages. It was a lovely, low key way to spend my special day (20 months, 3 days old):
We rounded out our birthday celebrating with a trip to Oak Park to visit Zane Kneizeh because we missed his birthday party while we were in Boston. The highlight of the trip for Graham was our lunch out at the Thai restaurant next to the man-made duck pond. Graham was obsessed with the duck and craned his neck to glimpse the bird from every possible angle (20 months, 7 days old):
I think we may have started a tradition. Cramming a month worth of celebrating into one week proved to be a lot of fun!
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