Year of Pleasures 16

It has been weeks of birthdays. I both love and hate this time of year. Our birthday marathon now starts April 15 and runs through until June 11th. It is a time of feastings, trying to decide if we're going to do parties, gift buying, etc. This all translates into money we don't really have as we're headed into summer aka the time teacher's don't get paid. But still how can you not be joyful when your beasties are entering into a new year of their lives? It's exciting to imagine the changes in store for them.

We're come to a place where we just don't do the big parties with friends. We have the kids pick a favorite meal, sometimes it's a restaurant sometimes it's just pizza. We always have a cake of their choosing and they usually see my mom. This tradition arose from necessity. The girls don't have many friends (any really) and we always felt bad that Umberto's parties were well attended and the girls parties were rather lack luster in that regard. We decided to level the playing field and well Umberto seemed fine with it...Perhaps Athens will be different and we'll move back to parties with friends. Perhaps not because there is something intimate and special about these small family celebrations.

I find myself not wanting to share my child on this day. I want to hold close this moment of remembrance. This time when they came from my body into the world. I wonder if perhaps birthdays are meant to be more intimate. The births are why not these moments? Of course this is likely my reasoning for not spending a small fortune on huge cakes, gifts bags, food, rental spaces but it is a nice rationale. I find that in these quieter celebrations we remember to tell the birth stories along with other stories of this child's growing up. We share with them their history.