Birthday Love

I'd say for a good past 16 years or so my birthday has been very over rated, to say the least.  I think once you become a parent, or get older - not sure, they just don't seem like quite the same BIG deal they once were.  I have often made plans with my friends to go out for a night of dancing at some point on the calendar around my birthday (and this year is no exception), but the actual birthday celebrations would normally consist of maybe family coming over and getting a cake.  I'd get a some monetary gifts from the parental unit and siblings, and sometimes I might get something from the boys via the ex (a pan one year - yah...he isn't very good at picking gifts).   Eric always stresses about my birthday because 'he never knows what to get for me' or what plans to make, etc.  But this year he was determined to do something nice for me for my 39th birthday.

So for the past few weeks he's been diligently working out a plan to somewhat surprise me and pamper me this year (I even promised and stuck to it, not to check our bank account to find out where he'd shopped!).  Then on Tuesday I up and got sick.   How dare I foil his awesome plans?  I feel/felt terrible because while I appreciate every single thing he did, I just didn't have the energy to follow through with some.  I'm hoping the invitation to go for Indian food at our new favourite Indian joint, Moksha Indian Bistro still stands next week when I can actually taste the dishes - instead we settled for pizza (Which just tasted like cardboard to me. I hope it didn't for the others.).  He was going to put the invite out to the family to come by for cake and ice cream or rather 'ice cream cake' (actually it was a frozen yogurt cake from CC Swirls - another new favourite place), but the desire to be completely social evaded me.

So instead we had pizza with the boys and Rich (he's not really company though) and my mom and sister stopped by for a quick visit with their gifts after dinner.  You know what?  It was perfect.  Perfect for this sick girl.  Earlier in the week Eric braved it all and took the boys out shopping for them to get  me birthday presents of their own and encouraged them to make/write me their own cards.  And frankly I think all three of them did pretty amazing with their choice of gifts.  From Eric I got a $250.00 gift certificate for a professional bra fitting and new bras (sounds lame but most ladies would kill for this).  From Gage I got the best letter, a long sleeved grey shirt (which is totally me), a gift card for Michael's craft store and a hot water bottle for my achy guts.  Roanie gave me a homemade card, a gift card for Winners, some socks that look like Converse running shoes and a blue and black polka-dot cardigan.  Well done gang!!  I think they all might just know me after all!  I got monetary gifts from my mom and sister which is what I wanted and asked for.  I plan to start work on a new bathroom in the house and while that sounds like a lame birthday present, it really isn't.

So while I'm feeling so thankful and appreciate of every single thing Eric thought of and planned, is it wrong that my most favourite thing he thought of was to ask the boys to do homemade cards?  Is it wrong that I just loved the fact that they both hung out at home last night, even though we weren't doing anything in particular? Here's a copy of the card/letter Gage did for me.  Of course I'm going to keep it and the card Roan did for me forever but just in case anything happens to it I'll always have a copy of it here.  I'm not going to bother to post Roan's as it's basically just a short little card and he's given me dozens of heart felt letters in the past that I already cherish.  This is the first from Gage:

Here's my favourite gift this year:  

"Dear Mother,

You're actually the best mom, and I say that in all seriousness.  You're cool, smart, funny, toughish, beautiful, and perfect is pretty much what I am trying to say.  Even though it may not always seem like I appreciate everything you do, believe me, I definitely do.  My life would be so boring and lame, and I would have half the things I've experienced if it weren't for you.  I hope you have a wonderful day today on your birthday because you deserve it.  Just not really sure what else to say other than I love you and I would literally kill someone with a tooth pick for you.

love Gage"


I have the best boys in my life.  In all seriousness.  My heart is full.  Thank you for all of this Eric.  You're the greatest.