You're Golden

Not just any birthday, but the Golden Birthday. Miss Monkey will be 4 on the 4th of May, one week from today, 2:54pm HST. And if you wanna be cute, I'll be 33 on the 3rd, tho' I'm not sure it really counts as it's not technically the same number---but it sounds good, and I like it. I'm considering the entire week auspicious. The year Little Girl was born I was in labor on my birthday, and the situation seems to have repeated to a certain degree. A huge shadow looms over next week, in the shape of what Monkey calls "a great big Easter Egg belly!" I wager that if we had made plans around this entire 2 week period, I'd most certainly be in labor already. As it is I'm seriously uncomfortable today, the ankles have swollen, I can barely bend down without feeling my sternum crunch bumping into someone, waking up to change positions in the night feels as if I had a hard workout, hips & knees are so sore.

I remember my Golden birthday, I got a pony, and a bird, and a magnetic maze bug game that transfixed me for what seemed the entire afternoon. There was a fairly large party to my recollection, since we lived in the country not too many small friends of mine, 'cause there just weren't many out thataway. The pony's name was Little Man, he was a Shetland, supposedly an ex-circus pony according to my mom. The bird's name was Freddy, a blue parakeet, she liked to sit on one's head during dinner. Though I grew up thinking there was never enough money, it seemed like we always had plenty of animals around, horses included, on the two acre lot I grew up. Apparently the familial estate has only just thinned the creature population to one cat, a few chickens, and maybe the last two young hobbyist horses.

So, for my firstborn's birthday we've tentatively scheduled an afternoon play date. Presence of friends paramount to presents, keeping it simple. She'll get cake and balloons, and thoughtfully exciting gifts from family. I've certainly notified every-mom that I'll call them if the little playground date doesn't happen for (really) obvious reasons. Looking forward to it all, I can't wait to see what happens next!