Birthday Love

My birthday unfolded just as I expected. At noon, I get a call from Little Man's school to tell me that his eyes are red, he's tired and is complaining that his "brain is broken". I rush over to pick him up, take one look at the pathetic little mess of tears and fatigue and with no fever, I'm worried. I rush him over to emergency, where, no word of a lie, I'm in and out in 30 minutes. Imagine THAT in North America...Kudos to the Swedish healthcare system on that one.

Check of his ears, nose, throat and a simple pinprick blood test and we're outta there with "It's just a virus." Thank God. But boy did I feel like a dolt. 30 minutes later and my son is back to normal. I figured out last night it was likely hayfever. dolt. But no girls over for cake as catching a virus was not on their to-do list.

And because I wanted to be around to field birthday calls, of which there were many and I'm so grateful, we made a quick trip to the mall for mall food and shopping for all the babies in my life. Came home to chocolate cake. And last night, we went out for sushi and topped the evening off with wine and a movie. Another birthday come and gone.

After returning home from the birthday trip to the ER, I noticed a bouquet of flowers all wrapped up on the kitchen table. They were sent from my dear friend in Russia. An unexpected surprise. I am humbled and grateful for my family and friends and that's the best thing about a birthday

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34 Years on the Planet Tomorrow

Yup, it's the most wonderful time of the year....my birthday tomorrow! Waaaahoooo! I'm full of it. I'm really not that excited. I'm 34, not 19! A time for reflection? Most likely. But meh, I'll wait to do that when I hit 40. What would I like to do for my birthday? Let's see. How about a nice dinner out, expensive food and wine and maybe something sinful for dessert? Yes! What will I actually be doing?

Well hubby declared today that he and Little Man would be baking a cake in my honour. So of course that meant I had to look up the easiest chocolate cake recipe I could find online and then head out to the grocery store to try and decipher the Swedish equivalents for all the English things on my list. Like bittersweet chocolate is obviously NOT called that here, or anywhere near that. Instead there are all these percentages of cocoa in the chocolate. And I never bake. And think I could find Vanilla extract, like in liquid form in a bottle? Nope. But lots of powdered vanilla extracts. weird. And after spending exactly 20 mins in the baking aisle reading and rereading packages and moaning and asking complete strangers for advice (which is SUCH a no-no here), I simultaneously want to jump for joy and kick myself when I see CAKE MIX! Just add water and butter. SCORE!

Then I rush to a meeting and rush to pick up the Little Man and throw together an ultra fast supper and then proceed to translate the simple cake baking directions into English for my simpletons, get the ingredients and measuring utensils together and let the men make the cake themselves. What a production! They had fun, especially the licking of the beaters part, while I vacuumed. Because a birthday isn't a birthday without someone, or in this case, my friend and her 3 daughters and two cousins, coming over to eat said cake, which by now is burning in the oven. And because I don't have a maid (now there's what I should have asked for) and have to work tomorrow, ie. field birthday calls all day, I need to clean my house for my impromptu party.

Yes, the birthday calls. Let's run down the list shall we?
1. My brother, wife and new baby Audrey
2. My parents
3. Hubby's Mom, sis-in-law and family
4. Hubby's Dad and wife
5. BFF Jody
6. DFF Diana
7. DFF Connie
8. "Nanny" Tanja
9. Our oldest son
10. An assortment of friends around here
11. Facebook. There's over 300 messages right there. But I love those, don't you? Feeling the love from family, friends and friends you never should have friended.
12. Oh and maybe my Godparents and their whole gaggle
13. Co-workers

And since time zones vary, I will literally be on the phone most of the day while trying to tidy up for the Birthday Troupe arrival while checking email halfhazardly. And because when you're a Mom, your birthday is no longer about you. The cheesecake or white chocolate cake or ice cream cake (they don't have those awesome Dairy Queen cakes here) I crave will instead be replaced by a slightly burnt chocolate boxed cake made lovingly by my two sweethearts and decorated with an insane amount of sprinkles. And my birthday meal will be at McDonald's. I've already started ingesting carbs in anticipation. So the day after my birthday, I get to stare at a not-so-pretty number on the scale and maybe get a few pimples too.

So I am writing this post the day before my birthday because tomorrow, I will literally have no me-time. And although the sarcasm dripping from this post might lead you to believe I am complaining about the Fiasco that will be my birthday tomorrow, I'm not. I love birthday love, even if it means having to move the stack of papers cluttering the kitchen table and dining at the golden arches. Oh and I think Little Man might be coming down with something. So Happy Birthday to Me!