Last weekend was both my birthday and Labor Day weekend. Wait. No, that’s wrong. It was two weekends ago. Slow down, September.
Traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of the summer; pools close, we put away our white pants, and I can commence rolling my eyes at people who actually look forward to fall. But summer can’t be over yet, right?
We got an ice cream cake for my birthday. It was David’s idea. We were walking past Dairy Queen and he saw an illustration of a birthday cake on the window. “Mommy, why is that birthday cake at the ice cream store?”
As I explained the existence of ice cream that is also cake, it was like I was opening the door to Oz and he was seeing color for the first time. His eyes grew so wide I thought they were going to fall out of his head and roll down the sidewalk. If that had happened he wouldn’t have even cared because ICE CREAM CAKE!! WHO NEEDS EYES WHEN THERE IS HAVE ICE CREAM CAKE!
The morning of my birthday was completely anti-climactic for David. Everything he associates with birthdays — decorations, bowls of junk food, a mountain of presents — was missing. I tried to show him the new phone case Tom got me, but he wasn’t impressed. To quell his disappointment, I cut up a bunch of triangles and let David decorate them with fun stickers his cousins brought him from Taiwan. I strung them in the dining room with a piece of yarn to make a bunting. See, David? Birthday decorations.
The next day we had a few friends over to watch the Virginia Tech season opener, a proper birthday party — with ice cream cake.
We finished the cake a few days ago, and David didn’t take it very well. I don’t normally describe him as sensitive, but I guess he has a soft spot is ice cream cakes.
“But, Mommy! If we don’t have more cake then your birthday is OVER!” he cried, nearly 9 days after my birthday was over.
I tried to console him, “David, Mommy’s birthday doesn’t have to be over. We don’t need cake to celebrate.” He must have forgotten about the bonny bunting in our dining room.
Twelve days after my birthday, the bunting is still hanging in our dining room. That’s how things feel here on the blog, too. We had such a full, awesome summer and I’m playing catch-up. I’ve still got stories and photos to share from my brother’s wedding and our vacation with the Kriegers. And new things are happening, too — I butchered Tom’s hair, Mary Virginia’s 15-month post is overdue and David is potty-trained.
I’ve always published posts a week or two late, but I feel sort of overwhelmed by these updates because they’re so old. I thought about just wiping the slate clean and starting with September, but this space is my memory and my family scrapbook; I want to include it all.
If I could write a post every day I could knock it out in a week or two, but David isn’t napping anymore so my blog time is dwindling.
Instead, I’m going to just plow forward, making my way out from under the pile of back-posts that are spinning in my head. I hope you won’t mind, even though it might mean that in November, the middle of everyone’s favorite season, I’m still posting pictures from the glorious summer of Mary Virginia with popsicle in her hair and David doing a belly-flop off the dock.
(Thanks for grabbing my camera during my birthday party, Jessi.)
Plow away!