Birthday Blues

What is it about Birthdays? You either love them or hate them...there doesn't seem to be an in-between. I've been thinking a lot about birthdays lately...mostly because Little O will be turning two this Sunday. How did she get to be two already? I don't know where that time went...I remember thinking I would never sleep again like a normal person and then suddenly, she's two?! I will admit that the thought of her turning two actually chokes me up...and I will also admit that I cryed last year when she turned one (so why break tradition?!?). Time is one of those things that just slips through your fingers and is gone...and you just can't get it back. Truly I have mixed feelings about her birthday...excitement for her and all of the new things that growing up holds, as well as the sadness for me as I watch her reach milestones and move past them. I can't keep her at this age, as much as I want to sometimes.

I've also been thinking a lot about my own birthday...soon (sooner than I care to even realize) I'll have another birthday of my own. I can't even tell you the last time I had a birthday that was special...seems like my birthdays the last several years have just happened, without any real noteworthy memory to associate with them. I have a friend who makes a huge deal about birthdays and part of me is always envious, wishing that I was on the receiving end of that special birthday treatment.

Maybe birthdays are meant for kids... I've tried to remember my favorite birthday and I honestly only remember one.... the year that I turned thirteen and my mom and dad let me have a slumber party in the camper in our driveway. I still have the pictures to remind me of that day... Is it sad that I haven't had a memorable birthday since then? I'm sure the next one will pass by much the same... Maybe it is up to ME to make the day special?

Fake Sleeping

The term "fake sleeping" has become synonomous with weekends around our house. It actually started when little O was just an infant... I quickly figured out that Little O's Dad was pretending to sleep any time she would cry, and that he would continue to pretend he was sleeping right up until I would get out of bed, change her diaper, feed her and then get her back to sleep. Not much has changed since then... she still tends to be our alarm clock on weekends. As long as Little O is sleeping, we all sleep. But when she decides it is time to get up, I seem to be the only one with "magic" ears that can hear that she is awake.

A typical weekend at our house starts when Little O wakes up...I get her up and the two of us usually spend some time in the living room...pj's on, tv tuned to something child friendly, while the coffee perks. The funny thing is that the weekday is not all that much different... the only difference is that I get up first (yeah, at 5am) and there is no coffee until I get to work.

This last week, Little O decided to try out the "fake sleeping" for herself... When I arrived in her room at 6am to get her up and moving, she proceeded to squint at me, and pretend snore... this is after she had already said "hi" to me as I entered her room. Pretty ingenious...she seemed to think she could get out of getting up if she just pretended she wasn't awake. Did she learn this one from Little O's Dad? Or is this just one of those genetic things?

The real question is this... If I pretend to sleep, will someone else get up and get the day started? How do I out "fake sleep" Little O's Dad? Any ideas?

The Dirty Dancing Ideal...

The movie Dirty Dancing came out the summer I was fifteen...and I think it may have changed me forever. I think I fell in love with Johnny Castle that summer...he was the perfect ideal for me. Here was a guy who was handsome, talented, could have his pick of almost any girl, and the girl he chose was just this awkward, smart, idealistic young woman with no real-world experience. But he didn't just choose her over all the other (prettier) choices, in the end he came to her rescue and stood up for her, proclaimed her to have taught him how to be a better man...

Baby is the girl that (I like to think) I once was...the best man in her life is her Dad; she's always the smart one and never the prettiest; she thinks she can change the world, fix anything; she believes she will be something special one day and that things will always work out for her. Her summer at Kellerman's taught her some hard lessons about life, but they also reconfirmed her belief that things happen the way they are suppose to and that the people you love always come through for you in the end.

I happened by chance to flip to a channel playing Dirty Dancing over the weekend...and I find that after all these years, I am still in love with Johnny Castle. I might actually love him even more now that I see him through the eyes of a grown woman versus those of a teenager. The reality is that all of us who felt awkward growing up (and/or still do), wish for a "Johnny Castle" to choose us over anyone else, sweep us off our feet, love us for just the person that we are, and fight for us despite all odds. Now I get it that real-life is not quite this simple, nor does love seem to happen this way very often when we all come to it with the baggage of our past. But it sure is a nice idea...

Maybe Johnny Castle is the reason for such a high divorce rate in this country?! Not too many men can live up to his ideal... And how many women like me grew up with that ideal shaping their idea of what love could be? So it may be unrealistic, but it sure is fun to spend a couple hours on the couch in that reality and imagine that it could be.

Spring Fever

I will admit that I am one of those Wisconsin girls that always sticks up for the change of seasons and insists that despite the long winter, this is the place to live. However, it never fails to come into question at this time of the year... Thankfully we have survived February...the month I believe is the toughest of the year to get through. It is now March, finally...however, the weatherman doesn't seem to understand what that means...he is indicating that we are under (yet another) winter weather advisory. Will Spring ever come?

This is not my first rambling tirade about Winter...actually I am getting just as sick of talking about it as you are reading it! Spring fever...I have it bad. I find myself dreaming of all sorts of exotic, warm places. I think it should be mandatory that all people who live in cold places get to take a vacation to somewhere warm every February or March.

It isn't just me that is sick of Winter... Little O is apparently sick of it, too. We have officially run out of fun "inside" things to do. We have colored, watched Curious George until I can't take it any more, had picnics on the living room floor, and gone for "rides" to the grocery store (when it isn't 40 degress below 0). While all of this initially seemed to be fun (December, January), it has now become boring. I swear on Monday's when we are home for the day she is dying to say "mom, will you PLEASE take me to school". I am running out of creative ways to stay home and entertain my almost two-year old daughter. Any help here? If not, I guess we'll pop "George" into the DVD player (again)...