Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Happy Birthday?

Today is my birthday. Today is also a reminder that once you have children, it's definitely not all about you anymore - even on your birthday.

My morning started at 5:45am to get ready for Lily's ear tube surgery. Fortunately for me, Kyle had agreed to let Molly sleep on him last night, so I wasn't awake with her all night too. Unfortunately for me, Claire woke me up for about an hour last night, so I was still a zombie at 5:45am.

Lily and I were at the hospital by 6:45am and home just before 9am. The procedure itself lasted 15 minutes. She was the best patient - she didn't cry, she didn't vomit from the anesthesia (something I was halfway expecting), and she didn't remain super cranky the rest of the day. She slept off the surgery effects this entire morning and then had a mostly normal day after that. I am overjoyed to think I just cut out half of our clinic visits and antibiotic doses, but I admit that right before the nurses came to get her I had a moment of doubt about the procedure. Ear tubes are a tough cost/benefit to weigh.

Once home, I had the nanny play with Molly and I also napped while Lily slept. It was incredible! I slept about an hour, but that was just enough to make me feel human again, and it's decidedly important to feel human on one's own birthday. Things seemed to be going well at home, so I had a quiet birthday lunch by myself at the Nordstrom Cafe and did a little birthday shopping too. This helped in making me feel even more human. After returning home, I had a couple hours of listening to Molly cry nearly non-stop, but was then able to leave that all at home again by dinner time. Claire and I had dinner with my dad at a nearby restaurant (thanks Papa) while Kyle fed the twins and got them to bed tonight - a rare break from the dinner/bedtime routine for me, and much needed because I'm burned out on kids after three weeks of sickness in our house.

Claire and Kyle bought me watches and socks and a cupcakes/cake combo. Claire gets so excited about birthdays. I am incredibly ambivalent about my own birthday - adult birthdays are quite anti-climactic, if you ask me - so I have to work hard at getting into the birthday mood for her sake. I envy her childish joy about turning a year older!

And now, at nearly 11pm, I hear Molly beginning to hack away, so it looks as though I'll be back on sick kid duty any minute now. Good night!

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