My youngest child just turned 11.
I swear, the birthdays are the most stressful things ever! Somehow, we end up with multiple celebrations and cakes. Last weekend, we celebrated with family (grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle). Yesterday, we celebrated because it was her actual birthday: we did an interview, asking her about her favorite things and the like, she opened presents from parents and siblings, we had a dance party, and there was a piece of cake leftover from Saturday that we stuck a candle into. Next weekend, we'll be celebrating with friends. I don't know how this happened - I got talked into hosting a sleepover. It's only 3 friends, so I am hoping that it will all be relatively tame.
It's sometimes hard, finding that balance between making the day special for the birthday kid while not becoming completely overwhelmed and going bonkers. I have to admit, yesterday I had maybe 10 minutes of bonkers time, because a) needed to make a special dinner that C requested, b) needed to work, c) needed to pick up E after a school rehearsal, and d) needed to take 2 kids to 2 different music lessons - so of course everything was happening all at once and I lost my temper with my husband because at 5:30 pm, I was running around like a chicken without a head and he wasn't there to help out (he was in the bedroom, working). He still has the boot so he can't drive or run around doing errands, so I don't know exactly what I wanted from him (emotional support, I guess?) - I felt pretty bad afterwards about loosing my temper. Note to self - tell husband ahead of time how he can help. Also, prep dinner stuff way ahead of time instead of leaving it for the last minute and getting all stressed out about fish not cooking fast enough.
Other than that, everything was good - kids behaved (maybe because they saw I would explode if they gave me a hard time), birthday girl was thrilled about her special breakfast (she was really hoping I would make an apple souffle for her - and I did!), she liked the fish I made for dinner (Brussel sprouts were a bit of a fail, but sweet potato that she asked for wasfine). We made it 5 min late to the piano lesson and on-time for cello lesson.
In other news:
- E's county orchestra had a concert on Sunday (program included Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov - such a fun piece).
- It's warm outside - so I am reluctant to go to the park because everything is going to be mud and puddles.
- H has been invited to join the highschool Envirothon Team.
- My husband made plans to take H to NYC in a little over a week - hopefully his foot will be better by then.
- While husband and H are in NYC, the plan is to host E's friends for a sleepover
Do you have any birthday traditions?
My birthday was forgotten for so many years in a row by own nuclear family that I started refusing to celebrate or care about it in self defense. My spouse, however, insists birthdays are important and has gently pulled me out of that antisocial shell so we always do a nice meal of the birthday person's choice now. Then the other celebratory things depend on the person. PiC might want time to go do sports stuff, I might want an hour or two to sew or read, JB (Kid 1) might want to have their friend over. Smol Acrobat (Kid 2) has only recently expressed a desire for a proper birthday party so we may humor them this year.
ReplyDeleteYour family birthday traditions - different for each person, depending on their interests - sound lovely!!!
Delete