One of my good friend's birthday is today. I am not going to mention her name on account of her not wanting to make a big deal of her birthday (which I completely understand). She didn't want to celebrate and I had to honor her request in that, but her day got a bit complicated yesterday (and by extension, today) as a result as well. Different complexities than mine, but that happens in life, doesn't it? Complications?
At any rate, I couldn't let her birthday go completely by without doing something to wish her well. I had, by accident, found out what her Starbucks order was and that she liked coffee in the morning. I asked my son if he would be up for leaving early for school in the morning, stopping at Starbucks and then delivering a morning birthday coffee. He was up for it—getting ready and leaving early—which is saying a lot.
Coffee delivery now organized, I had to execute the second part of my secret birthday plans. My friend loves to shop. I went to a collection of stores and got her a small gift card from each. I got a little card wallet and put all the cards in it with the guidance of my son who helped me organize them. Then we put the little wallet in an envelope with a card saying happy birthday from all of us and we hope she enjoyed her mini shopping spree. I put a P.S. telling her my daughter and I wanted to join her when she went shopping!
So this morning while I held the birthday card, my son knocked on the door. Our friend opened the door and my son held out the coffee and shyly said, "happy birthday." He got a big hug from her and then we went off to school.
The Big Boy Update: Today is International Peace Day which is always a big celebration at my son's Montessori school. He came home and told us all about it, including singing for us the very quaint song the entire school sang together as part of the celebration. So that was sweet. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I explained to him how our friend was getting out of prison and would have an opportunity to be tried again. We don't shelter the children, but I had to explain to my son at a very high level what had happened. What he understood was that someone had accused our friend of something illegal that our friend says he did not do. My son asked me after asking several follow-on questions and then, even though he'd never met our friend, he asked me, "mom, can I swear?" I told him, "yes, but don't tell your father. What do you want to say?" He let off a very well-formed sentence filled with swear words stating exactly what he thought about the man who had accused our friend of doing illegal things."
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter got home from school and said immediately, "can someone come to help me find my helmet?" She had found her bicycle in the garage and wanted to go outside, by herself, and ride on the street. She's done this several times lately and has been successfully riding around. I don't think she can see that much more or better, but she can see enough. I was afraid she'd never be able to ride her bicycle again. I'm very, very happy she c
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