Happy Birfday to me!

Hmmmm. Getting closer to my mid-forties than I'd like.


I woke up about 7:30ish this morning to Tyoma shouting, ""It's 8:00!!! Time for the birthday party!" over and over.  He was beyond jazzed. Yesterday his respite worker took him to the store to pick out a card and a little surprise for me. On the card, he'd written, "Wait until 8:00 breakfast surprise." So, 7:40 was as long as we could wait.


Anyway, my son has excellent taste. He bought me an organic mint chocolate bar. Dividing up a section for the three of us, Tyoma decided that it was his birthday too, and thus the largest chunk of chocolate belonged to him. Perhaps a teachable moment for some children, but not T. He was so hyper (and slobbery!) I decided that it was great to share the same birth date as my son.


The rest of the morning was me singing, hooting, and clapping (birfday!) while my husband gave me "take it down a notch!" hand signals.  I am not aware of how excited I can get at home. No wonder they called me "spaz" at school! I guess home is a safe place. Dammit. If only other people could mainline my joy! Nobody  would bitch or moan, just happy dances and whooo-hoos.


I took the killer baby out for brunch around 11:00. I really wanted to go to the Black Forest Bakery and gobble chocolate cake, but T did not.  I know that BFB is meltdown central--it's too cramped, crowded and hectic, so my birthday present to myself was no screaming meltdown.


The rest of our outing went pretty well. Nothing beats two totally jazzed people running around Toys R Us. Nevertheless,  I was completely drained when we came home at 2:30.  I'm looking forward to dinner tonight and some red wine.


ETA


Ahhh! Pinot Noir!  They were out of two bottles of the modest variety, so the birfday girl got a very nice bottle of pinot noir do enjoy with her meal. We ate at Giorgio's, a slightly fancier version of my L:as Cruces favorite, Lorenzo's. The loveliest part of the evening was the conversation with Egor.  We've been married 16 years and there is still much we don't know about each other.

Happy Birthday Tyoma

Happy Birthday E!

With the crush of upcoming activity--Tanya is coming plus Tyoma's birthday, it was important to make a special day for E. Regretably, our respite worker was unable to sit for us.

Happy Birthday Tennisfiend

With the crush of upcoming activity--Fontessa is coming plus Tyoma's birthday, it was important to make a special day for tennisfiend. Regretably, our respite worker was unable to sit for us.

Birthday Goodness

E's Birthday Party

blah

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, Tyoma seems to be feeling well enough for E and I to leave on an overnight trip tomorrow. Tennisfiend surprised me with  a flower delivery in the morning:

 

I'm a bit embarassed to post, but flowers are a rare treat! Thank you Moosh!

XO
DB
 

GPS

What a rainy, chilly day! Tennisfiend treated me to an early  birthday present. What a sweet gesture! We went to Best Buy and he picked up a GPS for our trip to Boston!  The staff was moderately helpful, but it was one of those   times when I felt acutely aware of being a consumer. The tired and hassled young clerk made every effort to be cordial and patient, answering questions he must have responded to hundreds of times before. I could sense the drudgery below a smile that seemed slightly forced. After our long discussion,  the GPS we selected was not in stock. I thought that the clerk was going to bang his head on the glass display case since it took us so long to select this model but we actually chose a second one quickly. The whole process worked very well for us since the second GPS was the same price and had better features.

We used my new toy to drive home and discovered that we can select the voice that gives driving directions. It's probably sexist of me, but I chose the male Don Pardo voice over the soothing female phone operator voice. "It's Saturrdayy Niiiight Liiiive!!!" all the way home. The best thing we discovered was that the GPS recalculates your route instantly if you get off track. This is probably a no-brainer for the technically savvy, but I can imagine myself in Boston making 100 wrong turns, waiting for the damn thing to tell me the right way to go and winding up in Georgia as a consequence. 

Let me share a funny moment--Tennisfiend made a rapid succession of turns to test the device. It responded with a succession of "route recalculation" announcements, each interrupting the previous announcement, giving the device the appearance  of stammering anxiousness. Tennisfiend found this to be humorous said "Hold on, little guy!" in such an encouraging and endearing way. I laughed all the way home.

Happy Birthday Mom, Here's Your Package (Not)

Picking out presents for my mom is crazy hard, but I feel proud of thinking of something good after three days of internet surfing. So, I order said presenent and arrange shipping so it reaches her on her birthday. In fact, the ups truck makes a stop, but no package is found on the front steps or anywhere around the house. My shipping info shows the package as delivered. If the package had been delivered to a neighbor, they would have dropped it off to her, unless, of course, they accidentally dropped it off at Irma's house.

Irma is in her eighties and (we think) has Alzhhiemers. It would be totally conceivable that she would accept the package and forget about it. Dad makes the neighborhood rounds and the package does not show up. I tell mom that I sent her a nice black leather purse and suggest she visit Irma and ask about it--Irma might have received it and thought it was for her. 

Mom visits Irma to ask if the package arrived by accident. Distress over the idea of a missing present,  Irma comes back to my mom's place three separate times, bringing my mom her old and worn purses. The forth time she comes over, Irma has a bloody nose from trying to crawl into her clothes dryer to look for mom's purse. Yikes. Mom wound up spending part of the afternoon calming Irma down.

Anyway, the present finally showed up. Someone stuffed it into my folks mailbox. Go figure!

ETA: For the next serveral weeks, Irma remembers the purse and makes random, wild eyed visits to my folks.

Happy Birthday, Here's Your Influenza A (H1) Virus...

After taking care of our sick household for three days, poor Fontessa came down with the flu a day before her birthday. So Sad! But, as you can see she is much loved! Look at all these flowers!

Her friends sent her flowers last Monday, a sort of "thinking of you " bouquet, which was inexplicably duplicated resulting in two lovely vases of flowers. And of course, the tulips arrived today. Tennisfiend and I added a modest bouquet of her favorite cyclamen, and viola! We could open a flowershop!

The good news is that Fontessa is feeling much better today. I was so worried for her since I was so incredibly sick. I even set up a baby monitor in her room so she could wake us if she got bad chills or body aches and needed help. Pffft! She was up and about looking pale but cheerful. Yay! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Grandmam!

You would have been 101 today! I still think of you and miss you! You would be so pleased to see Tyoma and could probably answer all sorts of questions that I have about bright little boys!
 

Birthday Girl!!!

Happy Birthday Ewbliette!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tyoma

 Thanks Dad, for the super cool photo! Do you see the letter X? Sweet touch Dad!

We did absolutely nothing today, as we were all sick as dogs. I can't remember having such a sore throat.  Good news is, Tyoma doesn't seem to have gotten very ill though, whay a relief!

We'll Party next weekend for sure!

Pimp My Guestroom

  
Tyoma illustrates his fascination with the number six. Hopefully, I won't find a matching birthmark anywhere...
 
Anyway, I think his love for six  has something to do with his favorite letter X.  He likes the idea that six has an X in it.  I wonder if he is beginning to read? He can point out individual words like six, exit, Lorax, etc. Hmmm. Regardless, he has his stories memorized.  If I skip a sentence in a favorite book, he squirms.  Heck, if I say the words out or order or make up my own story, he squirms. What a memory!
 

  
Oh No! He's using his piercing "Damien" gaze to get me to read Horton Hears A Who for the third time today!

I should mention that for Tyoma's second birthday, Grandma and Grandpa redecorated the guestroom/play room (from New Mexico, even!). Tyoma now has a brand new desk and organizer to keep his 10,000 toys in order. I handmade picture frames for the Klee posters we had hanging about and removed the closet doors for more play area. Yay! Thanks guys!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy 75th Birthday Dadfiend!

Despite the craziness of the impending move, we all took time to put on a gourmet feast for Dad's birthday. The table was packed with cheese, fruit, crackers, sweets, pastries and wines. Whew! Amidst all the hubbub, Tyoma decided to skip his nap, leading to a slew of phone calls to the folk's to change times for the gathering. I think I changed times four times total. The irony? We wound up getting together at the planned time anyway! Heh.

Happy Birthday, Grandmam

You would have been one hundred today! I miss you and wish you could see your great grandson.
 

Birthday Party

All Dressed up and Ready to Party!




Yep. We went all out and got him a little suit for his special day. If you notice, the little tie is floating around his neck and the top button of his shirt is undone. Also notice the tears drying on his face. I bet I don't even need to tell you that story! The rest of his pics are behind the cut. Warning! Image intensive. We are posting for a host of photo-hungry relatives in Moscow.





Naturally, Tyoma has the same love of ties as his Papa.



"What! All these presents for me!"



"Oh, my! I couldn't! It's simply too much!"



Our twin cakes. The little one is for Tyoma to demolish.



Waiting for the cake, he takes off his party hat for the twentieth time.



Intrigued by the candle.



The candle is extinguished.



I'm showing him that he can eat the cake.



"Wow! This is delicious!!!



Heavens! He ate the whole thing!



And now he's eating the decorative balloons.



Awww.

We had no idea how gluey icing could be until we tried to clean up Tyoma. I contemplated using Orange Blast, but Ivory, warm water and patience worked fine. Opening presents on and off took up most of the afternoon (there were three). Tyoma had a tiny sip of grape juice while we toasted with champagne, since he clearly didn't have enough sugar with his cake.
We do have more photos, but I'm a bit to exhausted to post the rest.

Cakewalk

I spent most of today getting ready for Tyoma's party. Please help me understand why I obsess over cleaning so much! My folks wanted to select Tyoma's birthday cake so I met them at our favorite Albertson's. Mom and Dad took turns chaperoning Tyoma around the store as my eyes glazed over looking at Shrek and Cars cakes. He returned from his second tour of the store with a cute fuzzy gorilla and a big smile. My folks are so going to spoil him! Anyway,after fifteen minutes of leafing through the Monster Cake Book of Tackiness, we wound up choosing a simple "Happy Birthday" cake. Screw you, Walt Disney!

Thanks Helen!

My friend and former colleague Helen sent Tyoma a birthday gift. Since he's been watching it since I brought it home, we let him open it first.






Tah-dah! Helen hand-made some special things for Tyoma: two hooded towels with cute decals and a plethora of decorated lap/burp pads. Very sweet and really useful!

Happy Birthday Tyoma!

According to Russian tradition, it's bad luck to celebrate before your birthday. Thus, we scheduled our weekend party for next Sunday. But! We had to give the birthday boy a little surprise!

 Whoa this thing is scary...   ....but sort of interesting.   Now how do I open this???   Twenty minutes and fourteen attemps later...   What on earth is this?!  



 Wow!!! My very own Gorilla! Cool! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!