Mommy’s Birthday

I dare to say that Helen Grace has been more excited about my birthday coming than I have been, and I get pretty excited about birthdays (the special day, not the number)! That might have had something to do with September 10th also being her first show and tell day and snack day at school though. Mrs. Gossett asked them to bring their favorite book for their first show and tell, and that chosen book has changed no fewer than five times. When the day finally arrived, the book was “A Mother for Choco”- a very cute book about becoming a family by love, not by birth- which was perfect because it was “F” week at school. To abide by “F” week, I bought some gold“fish” for the class snack, and HG was as proud as a peacock to carry them into school.

As a gift to myself, I went to St. Agnes to have lunch with baby girl, bringing Chick-fil-A for us and cookies for the class. (She was SUPER excited about sharing the cookies with her friends.) If you ever need an ego boost, just show up to HG’s school with lunch. You would have thought she hadn’t seen me in a week and came running at me full throttle. She proudly showed me to the cafe, and we got to have our own table for our lunch. She fawned all over me during lunch and told me about her day and friends. I loved getting to see their lunchtime traditions (singing and clapping while cleaning up, playing the quiet game to get to be the first table to line up, etc.), and she proudly showed me her caboose duties. As it approached time for me to leave, she got a little clingy and wanted to go with me, but she eventually decided she was ok with staying and ran off to join her class, smiling and laughing (although she told me later she cried after I was gone). Sad bit but overall, a wonderful part of my birthday!

After I picked her up at school, we met Spiffer, Granddaddy, and Bubba for yogurt during a brief but crazy rainstorm. Unfortunately (for me, not HG), it didn’t rain in Olive Branch, so HG’s soccer game still went on as planned. My 33rd birthday goes down in the books as being the first one where I’ve eaten a turkey sandwich on the sidelines of a soccer field. AND my parents gave me some swanky Grove chairs with pop-up shade awnings to sit in during the games- a birthday for the record books and one that officially makes me a soccer mom!

For the record, never tell HG a secret- John asked her to help him hide one of my gifts, and she had so much fun that she lasted about two minutes before she gushed, “Daddy got you a necklace, and it’s in his closet!” I was totally spoiled- wine, jewelry, flowers, spa and shopping gift cards, pottery, happies for entertaining- and I loved every minute of my day!

I caught them after a quick trip to the playground, so she was sweaty but very happy. The yogurt place had the neatest table that was like a huge tablet- very sensitive to touch but entertaining- especially to watch Bubba’s reaction to it! Daddy helped out on the sidelines for the game. As he carried a few kids off the field for reason or another (mostly due to sleepy meltdowns), HG got a little clingy/protection. “Go THAT way!”We organized a tunnel this time since that’s apparently the highlight of the game. :)