Birthday Zone

This is the time of year when is seems that the birthday celebrations run into each other.

The four year old turned five. He cried the other day because he says he wants to be four again. Those must be the glory days. When asked what he wanted for his birthday dinner his response was, "Candy, pop, eggs, and mac & cheese." Mmmm. Sorry you weren't invited?

The eight year old turned nine. This was crazy to me since her birthday happens to be the anniversary of me entering my current line of work. She wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday. (She was given the green light a year ago, but has been TERRIFIED to actually do it.) It was quite an adventure. She has been tormented by the thought of the PAIN (which I tried to convince her really isn't that bad). She tried to jump out of the chair when the girl was ready to shoot in the first earring. She had changed her mind. Me, being the caring mother that I am, said, "Oh no you don't. You are doing this." She did it. And she's glad. She said it didn't even hurt. Well, maybe a little. I need to take a picture...

The baby will be two in a few weeks. Hard to believe. He's a little boy now. He does a great "dying scene" whenever he's playing with swords. He has yet to surrender the Santa hat from Christmas. He wears it and sleeps with it. He refers to it as his "Elmo hat." At least I know he's not color blind. A couple days ago I heard, "Bye mom," followed by some loud, awkward steps. I walked around the corner to find him standing at the front door ready to go outside. Now, doesn't that look like a child who is prepared for sub-zero temps? Maybe the stain on his shirt will keep him warm.

Speaking of birthdays...I'm late in reporting on my 33 birthday challenge. I challenged myself to write 33 thank you notes, watch 33 movies, read 33 books, and try 33 new things. I'm no longer 33, but happy to report that I accomplished my goal. It was a race to the finish with the books. I was reading three books a week at the end. Here's my report:

*Think about writing a thank you note to someone almost every week. Maybe some of you already do that, but I realized I never really thanked people for the great things they do. It has made me more conscious of that.

*There are not a lot of great movies out there. Most of them were a HUGE waste of time. I guess that's why I don't watch a lot of movies. Two of my favorites: Twelve Angry Men and North and South (not the Patrick Swayze version).

*I love to read, but never really made a lot of time for it. This forced me to make time for it. I read some awful books that I felt obligated to finish because I couldn't waste being halfway through. I also read some great books. Favorites: Knuckleheads (my shortest book, but had me laughing out loud), I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (great find, Loni).

Some of the new things I tried were really simple (recipes) and some were more of stretch (lifestyle changes).

EVERYONE SHOULD TRY THIS!