Inhale.
Exhale.
Ahhhh – that’s much better! Now let’s get down to business.
You, my friend, had what I will now always refer to as “The Endless Birthday.” It started on the Thursday before your actual birth date when you had a party at your preschool to celebrate your Hebrew birthday. Because apparently, since the Hebrew calendar is different than the standard calendar that we all use (because there is that little matter of B.C. and A.D. that understandably doesn’t figure into the Jewish way of thinking), your Hebrew birthday doesn’t always fall on the same day as what the rest of the world considers your birthday. So you, being the lucky little devil that you are, got TWO birthdays.
Your father and I went to your school to see you celebrate with all of your classmates and the Rabbi by wearing a birthday crown and eating a nice kosher birthday cake.
You loved the special attention and the fact that you got to lick honey off of a picture of the Hebrew alphabet to signify that learning Hebrew (which you officially get to start when you turn three) is a sweet privilege. And so the enormous intake of sugar began…
That night, your Grandma Judy and your Granny Dudley came into town and with them came loads of fun, and of course, more sugar. By the time your birthday party on Sunday began, I don’t think a single nutritious item had passed through your lips in almost 72 hours. But isn’t that part of what birthdays are all about?
Your OTHER party this year was at a place called Playsource, which is basically an indoor play place that has tons of stuff to keep little people like you busy. This year, we planned your party with your buddy, Paxton, who was not only born on the same day as you, he was also born at the very same hospital. It was a bit on the crazy side, because between the two of you, we were expecting 35 kids (12 from us, 23 from them), not to mention, all of their parents. THAT IS A LOT OF PEOPLE. I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by the thought of it, and I was more than a little worried that you weren’t going to feel like it was your special day. But, as usual, I worried for nothing and you had a terrific time. The only thing that bothered you about sharing your party was that when everyone sang Happy Birthday, they sang, “Happy Birthday to Paxton and Rory! Happy Birthday to you!” and afterwards you said to me, “Mamma, I didn’t like the ‘Paxton and Rory’ song, I wanted them to say, ‘Just Rory’!” So, note to self, if we ever have a shared party again (which is highly unlikely!) make sure that we sing a separate birthday song for each kid. Sheesh!
As with any party, we ended up having a ton of food left over, especially cupcakes (Paxton’s mom and I made all 85 of them ourselves, by the way!). So for every night after your party that we still had cupcakes left, you made us put a candle in one for you and sing, “Happy Birthday to JUST RORY! Happy Birthday to YOU!”. This went on for at least four nights (hence the “Endless Birthday” theme), so I think that MORE than made up for the song transgression, don’t you?
I can’t talk about your birthday, of course, without mentioning some of your favorite presents. Your Nana and Poppi gave you a “big boy bicycle” with training wheels, and you were so excited that you immediately jumped on it and started pedaling your little heart out. We are so impressed by how fast you got the hang of it, and now I spend at least part of every day huffing and puffing as I chase you around the neighborhood. Good exercise for both of us! I get such a kick out of watching you (for those of you with kids, it kinda reminds me a bit of what Elmo looks like when he rides a bike on Sesame Street!), it’s so darn cute to see your little legs going round and round! And sometimes, my chest puffs up with so much pride that I can’t even breathe – but somehow I still manage to have a silly grin on my face anyway…
Your other favorite gifts are High School Musical related (are you surprised?), especially the new Wii game that your father and I bought you that lets you sing along to all of your favorite HSM songs karaoke style with your very own microphone. For you, it just doesn’t get any better than that! And even though we probably wouldn’t admit this in public, your father and I think it’s pretty cool, too. Where else is our vast knowledge of High School Musical songs going to come in handy? And now we will have an endless source of entertainment at our fingertips that looks a little something like this:
Happy Birthday, big guy!
Love,
Mama
