Birthdays

In the house we have some rather odd birthday traditions. Kyson, 6 as of today, spends the week before his birthday planning an elaborate birthday feast.  He plans, breakfast, lunch and dinner and spends his day eating himself into birthday oblivion. Today he chose pancakes for breakfast (circumvented by Grandpa kidnapping him for birthday breakfast of burritos, coke and horchata ) followed by crepes for lunch, and rounding it off it paneer masala for dinner. For dessert he ordered chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips inside. This basically translates to one, or both, of his parents spending the day in the kitchen with a five-year old overlord making impossible demands as we sweat, beg and plead for a break from the kitchen while he laughs and orders more food. He looks forward to his birthday, it his day to feast on power and food.

Lilith, on the other hand, usually orders a healthy (meaning lots of veggies in soup) dinner followed by an elaborate cake. Each year she spends countless hours planning a cake that is some combination of her favorite tastes for the year and her favorite color of the year. We get weird mixes like white cake with lemon frosting and blueberries and blackberries on top. One year she ordered a  chocolate cake with lemon chocolate frosting and every year she refuses to eat the cake. She tastes it, dislikes it, and starts planning next year’s cake while we look on and figure out how to get rid of the cake that no one wants to eat.

Daniel eats the same meal every year on his birthday. Kyle started making it when he was six and he is still making it 10 years later. Same dinner, same cake, chocolate with chocolate icing. He spends twice as much time planning and plotting gifts. He never asks for anything, but around this time of year he starts dropping hints about the coolest “x” or how he needs a little more money and he will be able to afford “y”.  We generally respond by getting ‘z’, which he always loves and is never expecting.

I love celebrating birthdays because they are a time when we get to celebrate the person. I love spending the day appreciating and focusing on the beauty and individuality of each person in this house. I think my kids are pretty cool, and I love taking time to celebrate their individuality.