|
3/7/1999 Quiet BirthdayToday is Tab's birthday. He turns 43 today. When I met him, he was 30 and I was 24: how did we get to be middle-aged parents so fast? OK, thirteen years is not that fast, but it has passed in a heartbeat. Tab didn't even treat himself by sleeping in this morning, though he could have. Instead he was up at 7 a.m. so that he could be at the grand opening of the new Target by 8 for the giveaways and other promotions. He took Matthew with him. Since Daniel is still at Stephanie's, that left just Stephen with me. It is rare that I get to be with just one of the boys at a time, especially one of the twins since they are almost always together. Stephen and I did "Mom & Son bonding" things together. I let him help wash dishes. He stood on a step stool and used the sprayer to rinse the dishes after I scrubbed them. I remembered how wet Daniel used to get when he would help with the dishes, so I put a smock on Stephen before we started. Then he helped me make Tab's birthday cake. I let him pour in the mix and the water and oil and showed him how to turn on the mixer. While the cake was baking, we played with his Duplos. We made a castle, which he turned into a garage by parking some of his Matchbox cars in it. 9:30 p.m. It still smells like Thanksgiving in here. Tab's choice for a birthday dinner was turkey, and the aroma lingers. It was a small gathering, just the five of us plus Stephanie. We didn't bother inviting Lorraine over for cake and ice cream as we used to since our relationship with her has soured in the past year, thanks to her noisy, smelly dogs. The little guys were very excited about giving Tab the presents and the cards and singing Happy Birthday. Tab held Stephen on one knee, Matthew on the other, and stood Daniel in front of him so that they could all help blow out the candles. Then we ate our cake and Seventh Heaven vanilla bean ice cream. There is something so simple yet satisfying about chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. Daniel decided he liked to mash his ice cream completely into his slice of cake, forming a repulsively soggy mess that he ate with gusto. The twins ended up with sticky hands and chocolate-smeared faces; fortunately, we had planned to bathe them afterward anyway. Tab received a check from Stephanie, which he will combine with the check from my mother to buy some kind of tool; cashews "from the boys" (but bought by Stephanie, who unfortunately bought unsalted rather than the salted ones, which Tab prefers); and a Penn & Teller book, How to Play in Traffic, from me. In honor of his birthday I even put on makeup. He likes the way I look in makeup, but I usually only wear it on the rare occasions that we go out. It was a quiet day but one Tab seemed to enjoy.
|