The Birthday Review

I have a long history of being sick on my birthday, and today was no exception. While I'm past the flu bit, I've got lingering pinkeye. Ugh. I'm also hugely sleep deprived because both of my kids have been sick off and on for the last three weeks; I can probably count the number of uninterrupted nights of sleep I've gotten in that time frame on half of one hand. However, today could have been worse, like my birthday two years ago...that year I got a stomach virus exactly two hours before my birthday dinner; I distinctly remember sitting on the bathroom floor, trying not to vomit (unsuccessfully), with four-year-old Eli standing over me asking, "Mommy? When are you going to come downstairs and eat your cake?" Fun times.

There were lots of good things today, though, even though I wasn't feeling 100%. There were birthday calls and emails and message board well-wishes, hand-drawn cards from the kids, and a dinner of matzo ball soup followed by homemade cake and ice cream. (An aside... since a sleep-deprived Seth forgot to chill the bowls for the ice cream maker ahead of time, my birthday continues tomorrow with the intended-for-today homemade ice cream. In less than twenty-four hours I will be eating Seth's famous hazelnut coffee toffee crunch ice cream. Mmmmm.....)

The best birthday present of all, however, came at the kids' bedtime, when Sadie came in to hug Eli goodnight while I was reading to him. She climbed up into his bed and, while they were hugging each other very tightly, Eli said to her, "I'm so lucky that you're my sister." Sadie replied, "You're the best brother in the whole wide world." At that point I dissolved into a puddle of tears, because I'm the world's biggest sap.

And that, folks, reminds me of a layout I created a few months ago that I've never posted anywhere because I was hoping it would get picked up. In a way I'm glad it didn't, since that means I can share it here: