With Papa

Without a doubt one of the greatest things about being a parent is having the opportunity every day to see the world through the eyes of a child.  In our case, through the eyes of two beautiful, intelligent girls who also like to party.  Nary a day goes by without some favored animal’s birthday being announced and, subsequently, the most fabulous extravaganza that can be managed with felt fruit and vegetables ensues.

So, you can imagine the rapture the girls felt when John’s birthday came around.  The man himself had been making ludicrous birthday-related demands for weeks, but when it comes down to it, John doesn’t really like to embrace the coming change  and often would rather casually breeze through his birthday with little ceremony.  I’ve indulged him some years in the past, but now that Audrey is older and perfectly capable of demanding we buy party supplies…well…it goes without saying that we found ourselves browsing isles of streamers and party horns.

The day before John’s birthday felt nearly as festive as the day-of as the girls and I happily prepared by blowing up balloons and hiding all our party supplies around the house, baking miniature pineapple upside down cakes and, best of all: writing, illustrating and haphazardly binding a book for the one and only Papa.  The book, titled: With Papa is a fantastic tale of the many scrapes good King Papa finds himself in and the heroic efforts of the princesses Audrey, Baily and Mama to save him.  There may or may not also be cats, crocodiles, tigers, dogs and hippos involved in the gripping tale.  Spoiler alert: Princess Audrey gets the bad guy, but does not manage to completely overshadow the brave, boot-wearing, sword-wielding Princess Bailey. 

…So you can see why we were in a good mood.

When I put the girls to bed the night before John’s birthday…with balloons hidden in their closet and a festively wrapped present hidden in the nightstand…Audrey whispered up to me from under the mound of blankets she insists on having: “Mama, when I wake up in the morning I’m going to be so excited!”

…A sentence which I promptly tucked into my heart and repeated to her father, who, subsequently, decided that he had a lot to celebrate on his birthday after all. When two terribly cute, curly-haired girls find no greater happiness in the world other than being thankful for you…well, that is where any reasonable person drops all pretense of loathing their birthday and learns to embrace the magic of having one day a year meant to celebrate nothing but their own existence.

Even though John had to work, we still had a heck of a good day, starting out with biscuits and gravy, moving on to burgers and bbq wings at one of our favorite pubs in between, and ending with cake and ice cream.  It was a day that from Audrey and Bailey’s perspective could only be described as manically festive; our celebration was fueled entirely by those pint-sized party girls.  And as predicted, all other gifts were overshadowed by the girls’ book (which they gave to him after literally showering him with balloons). 

Birthdays can be tricky things—one day a year that has the ability to completely alter our perspective on life…all by changing a number assigned to our existence.  But, I’m glad to know for his part, John’s day was one of happy gratitude and celebration.  We are certainly thankful for the past year we’ve spent together and look forward, joyously, to the next.