Figure Skates Would Be Mighty Fine!

We headed to Reston Town Center for some seasonal fun last night and the boys hit the rink. Connor, specifically, hit the rink about 50 times.



He'd taken lessons in the past at the Ashburn Ice House, but that was some time ago. So when he asked for hockey skates at the rental counter, I just shrugged it off. Big mistake. He got about 10 feet on the ice and fell 4 times---each time it took him FOREVER to get back up. He was missing those nice grippy teeth on the front of figure skates. So, Bob lifted him over the rink rail (after getting hockey skate kicked in the nuts a few times) and we swapped them out for some nice ratty size 3 plastic figure skates. Improvement was rapid from there. And Daddy did great--not a single tumble on hockey skates--considering that he calculates that it has been approximately 37 years since he last enjoyed the blades of glory. But it was freezing out there. Despite my mega gloves and silky long johns, it was bitterly cold. I was a bit jealous, but at 19 weeks pregnant, I thought better of it and just watched. I saw a couple of people go down really really hard. One guy cracked his head so hard I actually thought his friends should call 911. And the most adorable, chubby east indian lady (about 50 years old) wearing a black and white houndstoooth jacket over a dark blue sari went down like a ton of bricks. She actually bounced. She shook it off like nothing and skated onward, though. It was nice out there an everyone seemed festive and happy.

We followed that up with a fantastic dinner at Jackson's Might Fine Food and Lucky Lounge. Bob had never been before. It was so good. Really good. The deviled eggs with jicama and maple pecans with bacon are incredible. The lobster mac and cheese cannot be adequately described. And, as usual, my lobster roll was splendiferous. And Connor wolfed down my fire grilled corn on the cob. He had his headphones in watcing a show on his iPod and reached over and banged on my plate near the corn. I asked him if he wanted some and his answer was a nod of the head and the simple statement "ALL OF IT". After dinner I wandered over to Pitango alone to grab some gelato and discovered their Sicilian Almond. Heaven in a cup. Really. This stuff is what I think chubby angels must smell like. And I love going outside with my gelato and not having it melt! You can eat it slowly and really enjoy it. That's one benefit of frigidity!! We went home and watched a Harry Potter movie (we're one behind) and everyone stayed up way too late. Not a creature was stirring in Tatertown until about 9am today.

Open Up

Tuesday afternoon. Kitchen. Thundering feet run in from the family room.

C: Mom! Mom! Come here!
D: What? (turning to face him)
C: Bend over and open up your mouth! (urgent sounding)
D: What? Why?
C: Just do it! Bend over to me and open up your mouth.

Anticipating some grossness will be inserted into my mouth for some deranged 6 year old boy taste test---I resist.

D: I most certainly will not. Why?
C: Because I need to talk to the baby and it can hear me better that way.

Ahhhh.

Christmas In New Jersey

We headed to New Jersey for Christmas this year. Its the first time Santa didn't come to our house and it was a bit of a challenge. But Connor didn't seem to notice the difference so it all worked out fine.

On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner out with Nana at the Lobster Shanty. That's a three pound crustacean you're looking at there!



We had a really nice waiter named Bob and he joked around with Connor alot. Consequently, Connor thought he was on some kind of comedy show and as soon as Waiter Bob set down his ice cream sundae, Connor promptly dunked his face in the whipped cream for a little slapstick. Result was hysterics everywhere. Just as he likes.




There aren't an abundance of good Christmas morning/present opening pictures. But here's a great shot of the boy in his new Bolle ski goggles. He really could have used them in the snow storm last week!



And here's my silly little Winter Wonderland cake--made entirely from a box and commercial icing. But, it was a big hit. That's red velvet cake inside, so the colors were seasonally appropriate! In the magazine, there were coconut flakes on everything, but we have some coconut haters in the house, so I skipped that. And I also skipped fashioning tiny winter woodland creatures from marzipan. Mainly, because I have no sculpting skills.

The very best thing of the entire holiday, though, occured on Christmas morning. During the night, Connor woke me three or four times asking "is it time to get up?" or "do you think HE was here yet?". So, he was pretty excited. Finally, at 7:15am I told him he could get up, but not until I could wake Nana and Daddy and not until the coffee pot was turned on. Until then, he had to stay in my room. So, he was like a bucking bronco in a cage. Got the picture? Hold it for a moment...

Now, Bob and I are not big gift exchangers. We buy what we want and we're hard to surprise. But we have tried to set a good example for our son and make sure to get each other something so that he sees us modeling something positive. On Christmas Eve, therefore, father and son picked out a pair of lovely princess cut cubic zirconia earrings for me. Now go back to Christmas morning as the bucking bronco emerges from his cage...

He runs down the hallway toward the living room, eyes wide with anticipation. He heads for the loot pile where he sees a few unwrapped toys luring him in. Jumping. Excited. Suddenly, though, he stops. He changes direction and plucks a small box off a different pile. He hands it to me and says "Wait. Here. Merry Christmas, Mom." Wow. Wow. The three grown ups in the room almost fell over in shock. I nearly cried. It was so genuine and heartfelt. Clearly, that was his priority. He got much praise from all of us and a huge hug and kiss from me. I think it was my best gift ever.

And this is the best face of joy that very morning. Happy Christmas, everyone. Hope yours was as sweet and simple as ours.

More On Snow

We had ALOT of fun in that snow. Including 5 total hours of sledding on Sunday. The neighborhood kid's plastic saucers were the best. Our foam speed sled got kicked to the snowy curb. We built a nice jump that you can see in the left lower corner of the pic above. You could catch some serious air on that thing. And, really, only once in awhile did it result in the above outcome. Not that there was anything wrong with that!

We even got some nice driveway sledding and sliding down the snow pile that ended up at the front of the drive. Its been a long time since that snow fell, but we still have a fair amount of it, albeit dirty, lingering in the cooler areas.

The Little Stone Cottage

TA-DA!!!!

The Flakes Just Keep On Coming

Here's similar shots at 10:30am. Snowing hard but you can't really see it in the pics. In the second shot, Bob had just finished shoveling the driveway. Yes--finished. No sooner would he finish a row, it would fill right back up. I had a two hour nap and woke up to the same relentless barrage of flakes. I love it. It's almost 4:30 right now and Connor is out there somewhere in the white-out trying to sled behind the house. Once in a while you see a flash of his green coat. Maybe he should have an avalance pinger on him.

Snow Far, Snow Good!

This is our second substantial snow of the winter. Two weekends ago we had a few inches on a Saturday, but I got no pictures because the office was emptied for carpet installation and the Nikon was missing. It's still missing. I have no idea where it is. And I don't care. I bought that camera this summer and I hate it. The house fairy knew I hated it and hid it for me. So, I got a new Sony Cybershot 12.1 Megapixel this week. Ahhhhhh. So much better.

Here's what the backyard looked like at 7:30 am

And here's the front yard at the same time:

Note that it was clear when I took that picture. Its 10:30am now and it looks like a blizzard out there. Bob and Connor are outside and I'll get a pic for later. Its good practice for Canada, I guess. Sickeningly enough, Bob has to go to work. I'm watching the local news and cars are strewn all over the place, so I'm not too happy about it. And the four-wheel drive on the Montero is broken.

Went to Trader Joe's yesterday (I love that place) and got a fresh stalk of brussels sprouts for $3. Cut them up this morning. Look how fresh and green they are.

Made this recipe with them and they look delicious now that they're roasted.

And to wrap up this seasonally random post, its the last day of Hanukkah and I'd like to wish all my friends who are members of the tribe a happy holiday. I really hope it was 8 crazy nights of fun and celebration. Consistent with that, I share my offspring's craft and artwork below. This is what happens when a shiksa's kid makes a Star of David.

Christmas Cards

Our holiday cards are lame this year. I didn't have time to put together anything fun or creative. Like these were. Bummer.

Carb Neighborhood

Here's a shot of our little town. Created at the Baird's Gingerbread Extreme Makeover party. Connor's is the best one -- on the left.

Annual Trek

We made our annual visit to the National Christmas tree with our friends, the Bairds, last night. Despite the gear, it was nice outside and relatively warm--about 45 degrees. Our warmest visit there, ever. Connor had a nice visit with Santa, we got to pitch plenty of pennies onto the trains, and unlike my poor friend Michelle and her family (who went last week) we hit ZERO traffic and were downtown in 20 minutes (from Fairfax/Fair Lakes). Still kicking myself for not telling her to wait until after traffic. BAD FRIEND!

The boys were jazzed to be out running around on a school night. And everything looked beautiful. All the buildings are decorated for the season, and all the people out and about were in good moods. Happy Holidays!

The Kind I Want

So, we're making homemade pizza the other night and I ask Connor if he wants plain or (turkey) pepperoni. He doesn't answer except to say that he's writing up his order. Order above.

Questions About The Baby

I'm going to keep track of them here and I'll edit/update as necessary. I'll not include the ones that you'd expect, such as whether or not its a boy or a girl or when its getting here. I know some of these are comically ridiculous, but trust me, they are real.

1. How big is the baby RIGHT NOW?
2. If its a girl, can she play baseball?
3. Mom, will this baby like horror movies?
4. Mom, if its a boy, can we name it Connor after me?

The Big Shocker

So, that's my uterus up there. And as you can see, it is occupied. Occupied by a very serene looking 12 week old fetus who had pretty bad case of the hiccups when I got to see it on this sonogram about a week ago.

This is a big shocker. A big one. There was no plan for this. There was no remote idea that this would happen. When we found out, it took Bob roughly 14 days to be able to speak in complete sentences. But, God or Nature works in mysterious ways and its going to keep things exciting in Tatertown for quite awile. And my fingernails will look great for another 7 months or so!

Pretty much everyone knows. But we'd held off on telling Connor, mainly because we wanted to get through that first sono and some genetic testing to make sure everything was on - track. But we decided to tell him over Thanksgiving dinner---since what do we have to be thankful for that is possibly more exciting than this?

Coincidentally, I heard a radio show yesterday with a professor from George Mason who talked alot about mindfulness and "being in the moment". I tried to really focus on the interchange between the three of us on this topic, but I have to tell you that it was pretty exciting and it made it challenging. Below are bits of the interchange. Maybe I've got the order wrong, and I'm leaving out the unimportant bits.

To start with, I bought a little baby doll which I tucked under Connor's napkin on the table. We're sitting in a booth and he's inside next to me. He sits up, sees it, grabs it and looks at us and says:

C: What is this?
B: What do you think it is?
C: A doll
D: What do you think it means?
C: I don't know.
B: Take a guess.
C: I really don't know.
B: Connor, you're going to be a big brother.
(Connor's eyes widen and he looks at me puzzled.)
C: What? Huh?
D: Yes. You're going to be a big brother.
(He's still not speaking. His mouth is hanging open. He's holding the doll on the table.)
B: Connor--Mommy is pregnant. There is a baby in her tummy.
C: WHAT? WHAT? YOU ARE PREGNANT? OH MY GOD I AM FREAKING OUT.
(He's breathing heavily. Then, suddenly, he rolls his eyes back in his head and flings himself backward onto the booth bench and then slides slowly under the table. Bob and look at each other and laugh.)
B: Connor, get up.
D: Come on out, honey.
(He slowly climbs out.)
C: YOU ARE PREGNANT? REALLY?
(His voice is high-pitched and stressed)
D: Yes. Really.
C: Let me see that belly. I want to see it.
(He reaches over, lifts up my sweater wrap, and starts to poke and prod all over my abdomen.)

At this point we have about a minute long conversation about how big the baby is right now, etc.

C: Someone needs to take me outside RIGHT NOW.
B: Why?
C: BECAUSE MOMMY IS PREGNANT AND I'M FREAKING OUT AND I NEED TO SCREAM.
(He's smiling and then again does the eye roll and body fling.)

After this, things go on similarly for awhile. He calms down a bit and starts telling all the servers in the restaurant that I am pregnant. We finish up dinner with more joyful hysterics and then Connor and I head to the bathroom on our way to get the car.

In the bathroom, he's calm by now. We're alone and its quiet. He looks up at me.

C: Mom--you're really pregnant? This is not a prank?
D: I'm really pregnant, Connor. Really.
(I now can show him my mildly swollen belly. He touches it gently for the first time. He looks up at me again and looks serious.)
C: Mom. Congratulations.
(He wraps his arms around me and gives me his best hug. I squat down to get on is level and hug him back.)
D: Thank you, Connor. Congratulations to you, too. We will all do this together as a family.
C: I know mom. And when this baby gets here you can love it as much as you love me.
D: Oh, Connor. I'm gonna try. But I love you an awful lot.
C: I know. But we will try.
D: We'll try. But one thing will never change.
C: What?
D: You'll always be my FIRST baby.
C: I love you, Mom
(He is looking at me so seriously with such an eye-lock. Its like a real, adult interchange.)
D: I love you too, baby. Thanks for already being such a great big brother.

We head to the car. When we get there he insists on opening the other side door and telling me that "this is where the baby will sit".

Overall, one of the best nights ever. Don't you think?

Happy Risotto Day!

Okay, I know its "Turkey Day". But I'm having risotto. It's just the three of us this year we're dining out at Chef Geoff's in Tysons Corner where they have a lovely Thanksgiving Day three course prix fixe menu. I've studied it and the butternut risotto with pumpkin seed oil and grilled scallops is on my agenda.


We're hanging around the house this morning, and sadly, cleaning. It's a day off at home with bad weather outside and it seems like a good idea. Another good idea would be to never buy cloth honeycomb blinds for a kitchen in house where a child lives. I spent 30 minues scrubbing stains off them. Gross. And Bob just went crazy on the microwave. How does it get so dirty?


Here's Connor in his first grade native american costume. Too funny. The vest is made from a shopping bag with handles. I told him he had to wear it to the restaurant today and he freaked out.



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

First Grade Thanksgiving

On Thursday we got to enjoy the first grade Thanksgiving show "The ABCs of the First Thanksgiving". That's the letter M on the boys head and he had to read two sentences that were something like: M IS FOR MANY. BY SUMMER THE PILGRIMS HAD BUILT MANY HOUSES. THE GREW MANY HEALTH VEGETABLES IN THEIR GARDENS. Too cute. And, that's his desk right in front of him with the feet of Wally (the BoSox mascot) sticking up in the air. His teacher is a Sox fan and the group with the best behavior/perormance for the morning gets Wally for the afternoon. Kind of like an immunity idol on "Survivor", I guess.

After the show we enjoyed (I think) turkey lunch in the cafeteria. He sure loved showing us how the place runs. It wasn't too wild or noisy, but it did remind me of prison: no knives, food on beat up "teal" colored plastic trays, and little gangs everywhere. They had a teepee set up in there as well as photo opportunities such as the one below:


If the Pilgrims had seen this when they landed at Plymouth they'd have turned around.

Love This Song

I am like my Dad. I get a song I like going and I can listen to it over and over again. He used to record the same song over and over on a 60 minute cassette tape. He drove us, and I'm sure everyone on his tug boats, INSANE. But I definitely have that genetic mutation. I just try to not subject others to it.

I missed the CMAs this week but my husband, who hates country music was the first to tell me about this performance. Then two people that I work with mentioned it, too. So, I watched it on my TIVO and WOW, what a great song. I love Chris Daughtry. What a great, powerful voice. And what a great song. "The first and last bad call that I ever made." Ahhhh.

"Tennessee Line"

No Title Comes to Mind. This Is Just Funny.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

I ask Connor this once in awhile. Last night we were eating dinner together at Moe's while waiting for his portraits to be printed. The answer?

"Umm. I'm pretty sure I want to work in Orlando at the Hilton running the water slide, Mom."

Okey Dokey. Way to aim high, kiddo!

HOTlanta Girls Weekend

Had a great weekend in Atlanta with my mommies. Wow, was it fun. There is literally nothing that was discussed that is appropriate to post on the internet. It was that much fun. We ate, drank, talked, and had makeovers at MAC. I looked like RuPaul when we were done, but I asked for it!

Thanks to all my girls for loving me and spending time with me. It means more to me than you know. And especially thanks to Shawn and Lisa for letting me have my own bed!!!

Frightfully Fun

About three weeks ago it dawned on us that Connor had two days off of school in early November and that we should go somewhere. We jumped on the web and checked out our options and ended up going with our old standby--Disney World. Yes-we know. We go there all the time. Can't we be more creative an open minded? NOPE. We love it there. We're not cynical enough to be unable to surrender to the joy that is Disney. It truly is the Happiest Place On Earth.

We stayed a the brand new Hilton Bonnet Creek and it was just lovely. Fantastic pool with a long lazy river and water slide. And only $75 a night! Great poolside restaurant with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary french fries. And a lovely breakfast buffet where kids eat free (rare at resort hotels).

So, it happened to be Halloween weekend. Luckily, we were able to find tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for October 31st so we planned our weekend around a fun celebration at the Magic Kingdom. We wore our costumes to the park (as did about 70% of the people there) and had a blast. We felt like stars because so many people asked to take our photograph. The castle looks fantastic for Halloween, all the Disney villains make a special appearance and do a big show right before the fantastic and spooky Halloween fireworks show. The park is open until midnight only for people with the special tickets so the lines are very short and there is trick-or-treating throughout the park. An absolutely fantastically fun time.

In the end, despite our grand plans to hit several parks over the four days, we ended up only doing the MK and Epcot. At Epcot it was the International Food and Wine Festival which was fantastic. It would be great to go there without kiddos and drink and eat your way around the World Showcase. People were having an absolute blast.

Other than that and some miniature golf, we spent the rest of our time just chillin' at the pool. It was a great, fun, and relaxing weekend.

Her Diamonds

C: Mom, can I have some more cheese?
D: Yup. Bring me your plate.
C: No, you bring me the cheese out here.
D: No, you bring me your plate and I'll give you some more cheese.
C: Oh, come on!
D: What? I'm not your servant. If you want more cheese, I'll get it for you, but you need to bring me your plate.
C: Mom, if you bring me the cheese I'll buy you some diamonds.
D: Oh, you will? With what money?
C: Daddy's

They're Falling Like Dominoes

The second one wasn't loose at all a week ago. But once its partner fell, its as if it couldn't bear to stand alone. It tumbled out Friday night at a high school football game---helped along by a Milk Dud. This shot is seconds later--after the blood stopped!

The First Big One

After days of hanging by a thread, it finally twisted around. He made me pull it out before we went into TGI Fridays for lunch "People will think I look like a weird boy." It took a decent yank to free it from its tether, but there you have it. There's a little lisp in our house right now and it is the cutest thing EVER.

Cherrystone

We had another fantastic tent camping excursion with the Bairds over Columbus Day weekend. This trip we visited Cherrystone at the southern tip of the Eastern Shore of Virginia--a place that I had never visited. We drove down through Richmond and Norfolk and took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. It was our first "non-summer" trip and it was nice to not be sweaty and hot the whole weekend.

One of the reasons that we chose Cherrystone is that they have Halloween celebration weekends and this was one of them. Their festivities include campsite decoration contests, costume contests, trick or treating, a haunted house, and hayrides. Unfortunately, nothing on their website noted that ALL of that takes place on Saturday---and we didn't arrive until about 5pm. So, we missed the bulk of the organized fun that we chose the place for. But, honestly, it didn't really matter because Carole is Martha Stewart in disguise and she came armed with roughly 30 or 40 activities for the kids to do. :)

Here's a pic of our little home away from home. Snug as bugs in rugs were we. The only issue that we have to remember is that nylon sleeping bags slide around an awful lot on the queen size double decker Aerobed. It was like sleeping on a hot buttered pan.

We carved some Jack O'Laterns and got the boys dressed up even though we missed the Trick Or Treating.

The campground has many small rental cabins and folks go crazy decorating them. This was the most incredible one with a small walk-through haunted house. This was on Saturday and the people who did it had come down the previous Sunday and spent the whole week setting it up.

We rented this wacky cycle for an hour and the first 15 minutes was like watching a drunken 95 year old try to drive their Chevy Cavalier around the Beltway. Frightening. I had to go in the tent and take a nap. I was sure that there was a brain injury in the offing. But the boys, and Ralph, survived.

One of the really nice things about this campground is its location on the bay. It has four really nice piers, clamming, boating, fishing, etc. We took many walks to the beach and did alot of exploring.

Does this place look like heaven for boys, or what? Water, sand, broken concrete. They found a crabbing net (which is now in our garage), a tire, giant boards, dead creatures, and general filth. They loved it.

And one final shot of the beautiful sunset on Sunday night. A really fun place. Maybe we'll go back next year and try to get there on time!

We Are In - Fluenza

So, you know those cute pics below of us at the Red Sox game at Camden Yards last Sunday? All looks well, right? Well, it wasn't. Connor had a positive strep test and had started antibiotics 24 hours before those pics were taken. He seemed fine--as the photos seem to show. But after the game he got tired and cranky again (as he had been on Saturday) and got a pretty high fever on Sunday night. So, Monday morning I took him into the pediatrician for a follow up. It didn't make any sense to me that he'd be on antibiotics for 48 hours and still be so sick. We saw a new doctor in the practice who has the personality of a toe-nail. He basically poo-pooed me and said that we just needed to stick with the Amoxicillin and hang in there. The rest of the day was awful. He was miserable, vomiting, coughing, fever. Then, Monday night again with the awful, drenching fevers. And this is WITH Tylenol. So, by Tuesday morning I was alarmed and actually toyed with taking him to he ER, but called the pediatrician's office instead. I talked to a great nurse who agreed with me that something didn't make sense. So, I brought him back into the office at lunchtime yesterday and we saw a different doctor, one that we love, Dr. Crowley. She actually listened to me and was concerned about the fever (it was almost 102 at that moment!) and Connor's complaint of leg pain on top of everything else. So, she did a rapid flu test.

Now, I should tell you that Connor has developed over the past few months, a deep fear of the flu. All of the news about H1N1 has not escaped his notice and we've had lots of discussions about the flu, how to avoid getting the flu, etc. So, you can imagine his reaction when the doctor walked in and said "Well, we've got a positive flu test." His face literally collapsed on itself, he started to scream and cry and said "Mama! I don't want to die!!!" Ugh. Poor thing. The doctor was so nice and really handled him well. Once I explained to her that Connor was very afraid of "the swine flu" we only conversed using the name H1N1. In the end, she said that she was basically 100% sure that he, in fact, has H1N1 because he was immunized for the regular flu and virtually ALL of the positive influenza A they are seeing this early in the season has been the H1N1 strain. Thank God he didn't understand that part of it. I'd have had to have him tranquilized.

Things really got fun when the doctor told him that she needed to give him a mask to wear out of the office and that he should not touch anything. She put the mask on his face (a rigid one--not one of those cloth surgical things) and it pinched his little red eyes into slits. Which made him cry again. And he was so sad that everyone would be afraid of him in the mask. Which they were. Clearly, word spread quickly in the office because EVERYONE who worked there moved aside as we exited. The girl at the checkout counter literally THREW his sticker at him so she wouldn't come close to him. It was pitiful.

So, he's on Tamiflu for the flu and antibiotics for the concurrent strep. I called his school nurse and she agreed that it is probably H1N1 and that there is at least one other case in his school right now, also with concurrent strep. He'll probably be out of school all week. And it will be a miracle if Bob and I don't get this, too. My only hope is that I have some immunity because my mom is pretty sure that I was immunized during the swine flu outbreak in the 1970s.

I got him a little stuffed green monster yesterday and told him it was the flu virus guy. He liked that. But I could tell that he was conflicted about whether he should snuggle him (he's cute) or beat the living daylights out of him. In the end, he snuggled him. After all, its not easy being feared and hated!

Go Sox Go!

Gotta make this super quick because its bedtime. Had a great day today at Camden Yards. Felt like we were at Fenway--3 out of 4 fans were Red Sox Nation. And it was easily one of the most perfect weather days of the year. Happy Birthay one more time to our Big Papi!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my schoompie's birthday. We started the celebrations this past weekend with a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmick's and tonite he grilled some yummy ribeyes. This weekend we'll wrap up the festivities with a Red Sox game in Baltimore. An all around exciting birthday week for our number one guy. In defiance of aging, he's begun playing softball again after a roughly 7 year lay-off. Good for him. Not so good for his right hamstring. How's this look?




That was Week 1's injury. Week 2 was a jammed finger that swelled up like an eggplant on a stick and that required a splint. No worries. These are battle scars that are earned with pride.

In order to demonstrate my devotion, I embarked on a 3 night journey to concoct a Martha Stewart dessert from her current Halloween issue in lieu of the traditional birthday cake. Here's a shot of Martha's:

And here's a shot of mine:

It was so delicious. Good choice, honey. Despite the grease fire, two dozen eggs, 3 pounds of butter, and pile of pans. Happy Birthday. We love you.