{"id":3518,"date":"2014-07-23T16:49:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T22:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=3518"},"modified":"2014-07-23T16:57:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T22:57:59","slug":"birthday-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=3518","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s my daughter\u2019s TWELFTH birthday today.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And in a way, it\u2019s my birthday too.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Not that it\u2019s about ME, of course.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 <\/span>But twelve years ago today, I became a mother.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Whose heart began living outside her body.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u00a0recall that wacky breathing stuff from Lamaze class – hee, hee, hoo, hoo – I<\/span>\u2019m pretty sure they NEVER covered the ins-and-outs of the heart-now-outside-your-body business.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And yes, yes, I gave birth to a HEART!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m in the Guinness Book of World Records.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Look me up.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And if you did look me up, then you\u2019ll realize that I was being figurative about the heart, Stupey Cupid.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

July 23, 2002 was ALSO the birth of my cosmic do-over.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>This time around, I still have the freckles and brown hair, but I\u2019m much more sporty and good at math!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>[She said in a funny and not-at-all-creepy-nor-obsessively-focused-on-perfection\u00a0sort of way.]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And for our matching mother-and-daughter birthdays, as a special treat, Sissy and I went to get our nails done together this morning.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When we walked in to the salon, I explained to the nailtichian about the birthday thing. (My daughter\u2019s birthday, not mine; I\u2019m not THAT much of a wackadoodle.<\/span>\u00a0 Jeez o’Pete!<\/span>\u00a0 Give me some credit.\u00a0 And for the purposes of this blog, my daughter’s codename is Sissy.<\/span><\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And the nailtichian immediately went into raptures.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cOh, Baby!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Baby birthday!!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Baby, you want pretty flowers on toes, on fingers for birthday?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Slowly nodding her head,\u00a0Sissy gave her a look that said, \u201cIf by \u2018Baby\u2019 you mean me, the newly minted twelve-year-old, then yes, bring on the flowers!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So she went her way to get flowers and be called \u2018Baby\u2019 for the next hour, and I went my way to get pale pink shellac on my fingernails.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>All the while, the male nail dude who drew my lot chatted to me about HIS kids.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>His oldest is 24 and\u00a0has his own life,\u00a0but nail dad misses him so much.<\/span>\u00a0 His\u00a022<\/span>-year-old just graduated from college.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And the younger two are in school in Tan Asia and even though they\u2019re a lot of work, he is enjoying it because they grow up so quickly.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hmmm\u2026I barely know where Wyoming is.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve got NO idea where Tan Asia is!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And I gotta get me a job as a nail technician because apparently you can put 4 kids through school on that salary!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>AND you become a philosopher.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And if you listen long enough to the philosopher\u2019s \u201cgetting a\u00a0driver\u2019s license\u201d stories, you eventually clue in to the fact that the younger two are in school AND teenagers.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Oy.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Tan Asia?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>God bless.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But I got his point loud-and-clear.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>What seems like a twelve-year-old now, will quickly go to Tan Asia, then graduate from college and eventually move out on their own.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And you will miss them so, so much.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>So enjoy it now.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For all it\u2019s worth.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And don\u2019t sweat the small stuff.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Except for the math.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019re really gonna NAIL that this time around.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So – with that in mind, I wanted to thank you, My Darling Little Girl, for these past twelve years.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They\u2019ve been the BEST!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>You are the BEST.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Happy Birthday\u2026Baby!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s my daughter\u2019s TWELFTH birthday today.\u00a0 And in a way, it\u2019s my birthday too.\u00a0 Not that it\u2019s about ME, of course.\u00a0 But twelve years ago today, I became a mother.\u00a0 Whose heart began living outside her body. While I\u00a0recall that wacky breathing stuff from Lamaze class – hee, hee, hoo, hoo – I\u2019m pretty sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3529,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions\/3529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}