Life, I love you, all is groovy*

We went to breakfast this morning to kick the day off right.    When I was making plans yesterday about how I wanted today to play out, "pancake breakfast with my babies" was the first thing that came to mind.  So I dressed Bode this morning and told him that we were delaying our walk with Priscilla to go out to eat. I told him that it was my birthday. He retorted, "No it's not!" But, birthday or not, he was excited to go eat pancakes.  Gianna slept a little later. I gave her a little milk, and kept her in her pjs. Then we were off for pancakes

Bode and Gianna sitting at their table. I sat at the next table over.  (kidding!)

Bode and I clinked paper cup of milk and coffee mug in "cheers."  Not really.  Bode would not take the straw out of his mouth long enough to say "Cheers." Instead, I tapped my mug against his cup and said, "Cheers!" for us both. Bode was too busy slurping up the milk. In case you don't already know, straws are the coolest thing ever!

Cheers!

Slurp.

Slurp, slurp.

Gianna rocked some serious bedhead for the occasion. 

I love that wisp of hair sticking up.

She wasn't happy because people kept stopping and smiling at her. We were seated right by the register. I am sure that when I walked into the restaurant, the hostess took one look at me with two babies, and thought, "Nearest exit."  But you know what?  The hostess was seriously mistaken. Because these two?  They are the best. They know and love eating out.

The rest of the day just kind of flowed in a mellow way.  I really just wanted to make the babies happy and enjoy the day. We went to Target.  Bode got not one, but two, new cars.  Shhh. Don't tell Bob.  I'm kidding.  There are no secrets when you have a two year old.  Tomorrow morning, one of two things will happen:  (1) Bode will announce to Bob, "Daddy, look at these cars I got!"  or (2) Bob will see Bode playing with the new cars and remark, "I don't remember seeing those before."   And I will tell him that Bode got two new cars for my birthday.

We went to the park.  I brought Bode's bike to the park so that Bode could ride like the big kids. He loved that. It made me laugh, as well as kind of broke my heart, to watch Bode trying to keep up with some of the older kids.

Two mental snapshots for this birthday:  One, at the restaurant, two ladies smiled at Gianna and told me that I have a Gerber baby. I laughed that Gianna has bedhead. One of the ladies laughed, "A Gerber baby with bedhead, but a Gerber baby!"  NOT that I need people to tell me that I have beautiful babies. It's not pride; it is the love that I feel for her when I see people smiling because of her.  Babies and children are special that way.  This is something that I didn't know until I experienced it (as a mother). Second, while picking up dinner at Chef Chu's, I was helping Bode out of the car when, I was just overcome with love for him like I always am, and I just grabbed him in a big hug and said, "I love you soooooooooooooooo much!" while I squeezed him. I opened my eyes and there was a man who was standing by his car, watching us and smiling.  I knew that he got it. 

And the icing on the cake?  After dinner, the three of us piled into the car one last time today to pick up Bob from the airport.  The icing was seeing him on my birthday. The icing was seeing him and the babies so happy to see each other.  The icing is we all have each other.

I had a great celebratory day with my babies, having Bob home made my birthday complete, and the well-wishes from my wonderful family and friends just made everything all the more happy and well, groovy.

xo

*from Feeling Groovy (59th St Bridge Song) by Simon and Garfunkel. Unfortunately, I did not hear this song today but I did feel it.  This evening, while driving to the airport, I was happy to hear another classic:  (Don't Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. Yeah, baby! I totally turned it up and sang along while driving.