Six Days to Six

Windsyr celebrated her 6th birthday two months ago, and the fact that I'm only now blogging about it should surprise no one. Hey, I take my time, but I usually get there. Here's a shout out to my friend Bobbie whose cake pictures on her blog reminded me that I had never posted this here Barbie cake that was way too much fun to make. (2am fun, to be accurate.)

Windsyr opted for no party this year so instead we did a "Six Days to Six" countdown to her birthday.
Each day for six days she got to pop a balloon inside of which she found a piece of paper explaining that day's birthday activity. The activities were all things she had been hoping to do for a long time, and each day she got to spend time with a different person (we were fortunate to have both sets of grandparents in town for the weekend). It went something like this:

Day One: Pedicure and shoe shopping with Grandma Kippy

Day Two: Ice Skating with Mom

Day Three: Ears Pierced with Dad
Days Four and Five: Dinners with grandparents, Great Park Balloon ride


Day Six (Day of birthday): Birthday lunch of her choice (crepes), cake and presents

I'm sure I enjoyed the week as much as she did, if not more, because I love an excuse to celebrate someone--and six days of celebrating is six times better.

Now, I know I am a proud, biased mother but she was unbelievable on the ice. This was her first time ever in skates, and I assumed we would spend the evening slowly circling the rink a few times, with Windsyr on her bottom more than her feet, wanting to rest with a nice grilled cheese sandwich half way through the session. But that was not the scene at all. The whole "getting used to the ice" thing only took about twice around the rink. Then she was suddenly this little ice princess who could skate quickly, confidently, and couldn't wait to get going on her tricks. We spent the bulk of the time in the center of the rink where she worked intently on spinning around and doing fancy tricks, completely undaunted by the spills. She stuck with it until she was able to spin full circles without falling and she looked like she had been skating for a lot longer than 60 minutes. I was seriously so proud of her. Her attention span for soccer last year was about two minutes total. But put this girl on the ice, and there is a grit and determination in her that I could only stand back and respect. And take pictures of, which of course I did.
Here she is gaining confidence in her tricks.
And here is perhaps my favorite picture. A perfectly captured spill.

Hiding Outside

My baby is happiest outside, so in the evenings when the sun is setting we love to hang out back on our patio. The night we spontaneously splurged on Pottery Barn patio furniture a few years ago turned out to be a really expensive date with my man...(we are lousy window shoppers) but we get a lot of mileage out of it and have never looked back.

With Cayman's new found mobility, his "hanging" is better described as rolling, so I sit beside him to keep him from turbo-ing right off the cushions. That's where I am now, and that's why I have time to post a blog entry. It's always nice when motherhood duties (keep child alive) collide with personal indulgences (blogging about it) to create the kind of multitasking that is enjoyable and inspiring rather than the usual feats of multitasking madness (applying mascara with one hand, clipping child's fingernails with the other, all while driving with the knee). You think I'm joking.

My older kids went shoe shopping with dad and my two year old is out here taking pictures with my phone--now that he has finished playing drums on the metal mesh laundry hamper he insisted I wear upside down on my head for him to pound on. Yeah, I'm a sucker for agreeing to it, but had you seen that look in his eyes you would have done the same.

It is cool enough outside to wear my traveling SIB sweatshirt (more on that later) and nobody expects dinner on soccer practice nights, sooooo, it's just me, a cool breeze, a laptop, and two of the world's finest creations--if I do say so myself--with nothing but time to enjoy the moment.

Now here's my dirty little secret: When I walk back inside this post will become null and void as I am hit with a wall of awaiting responsibility. I'm not even half way through my stack of Propostion 8 phone calls. I haven't finished (or started) a teacher letter due tomorrow. I have laundry accumulating in the garage, and my daughter's thank you letters are in the same 'waiting for stamps' pile they've been in for a week. Not to mention my house could double as an obstacle course for all the random things that need picking up.

So if you should peek over my back fence tonight and find a sleeping mound of mama glued to the patio furniture, you'll know I wasn't woman enough to face the inside duties just yet. But maybe you'll be kind enough to praise my economical tactics (getting my money's worth out of this patio furniture), and I will be respectable once again.

payday

"Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it."
--Marshall McLuhan