Kathleen’s 3rd Birthday
Every family has their own birthday traditions. After my little sister extravagantly invited every member of her second grade class over for her birthday party, my mother declared that birthday parties consisted of a sleepover with one friend. Brandon’s mother, on the other hand, tried as hard as she could to convince him to throw a large party for his 16th birthday, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
Kathleen’s third birthday is the first birthday where any of our children had a clue what exactly a birthday was. Since Sophia’s birthday in May we’ve been singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to every object Kathleen can think of, including the garage door, her teddy bear, and chocolate. When one asks her when her birthday is Kathleen very precociously answers ‘August eleventh.’ Unlike previous birthdays, we weren’t going to be able to let this one slide.
So in preparation for her birthday, I asked Kathleen about breakfast and dinner and cakes. She wanted eggs and toast and marshmallow cereaaaal (see the previous post about the Commissary) for breakfast, black bean soup for dinner (once again from the Commissary) and a pink cake. The cake had been in previous discussions on her birthday first brown and then a fish cake. The day before her birthday she decided she wanted a pink one.
The fateful birthday morning dawned, and I woke her up with her favorite song. After breakfast we colored as many pages in her coloring book as she wanted and then went downstairs to play after Sophia woke up from her nap. Following lunch and afternoon nap, we went to the pool for the afternoon and came home in time to take delivery of the Pink Cake (yes, I know – the bakery delivers too; in fact I didn’t even have to physically go there, I just called in the order and for the low low price of 73 cents it was magically at my door at 5:00) and make her black bean soup.
Despite her protestations of suddenly not wanting black bean soup for dinner we did not have cake and at the soup. During a fight with Sophia about eating and then taking her medicine, Kathleen got to watch ‘A Close Shave,’ and then we had cake and presents.
As soon as we talked about lighting candles, Kathleen ran into the study, slammed the door, and would only be coaxed out when Brandon carried her. She cried when we asked her to blow them out, and then when asked if she wanted a story from her new storybook or cake, she promptly replied ‘story.’ So much for cake and candles.
So now, our oldest daughter is three, and I’m pleased with that. We’ve done a lot of work to get to this point.
1 comment:
So how was the pink cake?
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