Birthday(s) week

How strange is it to marry a man whose birthday is the day before your mom's and whose dad's birthday is two days before your own? I could probably calculate the probability of that happening (it's one minus the probability of it not happening, but my brain is too lazy to go much further than that), and maybe it's not so unlikely. But how about the husbands of not one but two of your best friends also sharing your birthday? All of these things are true.

My birthday celebration started early this year, because Melissa was still in town on Monday and if I wanted to take full advantage of grandparently babysitting to go enjoy my gift, that was the day to do it. They had gotten me a gift certificate to a spa in San Francisco, so Danny and I got to go get aromatherapy massages while they stayed with the kids and put them to bed. A pretty fantastic gift! Having a 14-pound newborn causes you to carry a lot of tension in your neck and shoulders. Actually, I've almost always carried a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders, way before having enormous babies. But by the time Jesus (the masseuse whose hands did indeed work miracles) was done with me, I couldn't feel any knots in my shoulders, for the first time since, I don't know? Before I started playing piano?

I have no pictures of this, but if I did, it would look like a little melted puddle of relaxed Becky. What I have instead is earlier that day, when Nana and Lolo came for a visit and a delighted Jack showed them all his new play-doh accoutrements.

Next in line for birthday week was Grandad Bill, on Wednesday. Jack practiced singing Happy Birthday all day long and then stared at us when it was finally time to perform. He has this shy streak all of a sudden, or maybe it's just the latest manifestation of his rebellion. He can be SO LOUD when he wants something but if a stranger gives it to him and you say "what do you say, Jack?" he looks at them wide-eyed and moves his mouth in the shape of "thank you" without any sound actually coming out. Silly boy. But whatever his motivation, he still couldn't resist helping Grandad blow out his birthday candle.

(Sadie looks a little concerned here about what that burning thing is and why it's been put right in the middle of the food.)

Then, on Friday, it was my turn again. Danny had worked extra hard earlier in the week to frontload his hours so he could take Friday off, and I just took it off, because nobody would notice anyway. We had still not decided what we were going to do the morning of, and discussed it over birthday pancakes. Options included: repainting our room (they mixed the paint wrong so we've had a replacement can sitting forlornly in the corner since February), going to the beach, going for a hike, but nothing was really speaking to me. Where's a place where Jack could run around without getting into too much trouble and I could be lazy and indulgent and enjoy natural beauty all around me? Wine country!

So we packed up the kids and a gourmet picnic and headed to Sonoma, where like the rest of the Bay Area, and Oregon and even Minnesota (we learned from our mothers), it was the most beautiful day we've had this year. That was a present in itself. Present #2, the most cooperative kids in the history of kids.

Jack played croquet with himself on the lawn and climbed on rocks and hunted caterpillars and only occasionally asked to be pushed on the very picturesque swing that hung from the grand old oak tree we picnicked under. Sadie slept most of the time and when she was awake she kicked and smiled and made cooing sounds. I know I generally have very sweet and well-behaved children, but this was ridiculous.

We had planned to go to two or three different wineries, all very biodynamic and eco-riffic, but after spending three hours and more money than we meant to at the first winery, and after chasing some ducks and some roosters and a piglet, we were all feeling a little exhausted so decided to just head home instead. Because on your birthday you don't even have to stick to your own plan. The kids crashed hard on the way back.

Normally, especially after wine, that would be me as well, but I was wide awake because I had the new Tina Fey book to read.

And then after a pleasant evening and early bedtime for the babes, we had Rebeccah and Justin over to celebrate ourselves, because Justin is one of the aforementioned husbands of best friends that has the same birthday as me. We stayed up way too late and had way too much fun.

The post script to this is that Sadie, having slept virtually all day, finally decided that that was enough sleep even for her and that she therefore should wake up for the day at 1am, which was right about when we were ready to head to bed. And she was so smiley and sweet and wide, wide awake. When we finally got her back to sleep, we had about three hours before Jack woke up. So today was a recovery day. Lots of lying around snuggling and a good family naptime.

Happy birthday to me! I could not have asked for anything more. (Except maybe sleep.)