Happy Birthday Ethan!

The girls gave Ethan a warm and loving waking-up this morning, climbing into bed to snuggle him and say "Happy Birthday Daddy!" (or, in Madeleine's case, "Happy Daddy.") After a brunch of bagels, scrambled eggs, and coffee, Ethan was treated to the various cards Julia had made for him, as well as a pile of presents from me. Julia huddled beside him as he opened his presents, realizing by around present #4 that they actually had nothing to do with her as either giver or receiver. "Uh, Mommy, did I get Daddy any presents?" she asked, looking around the table to see if there was anything she could give to him. Not to be hindered by the fact that I had chosen all the gifts independently of her, Julia scampered off and quickly returned to the table with a used gift bag containing one of her books inside. "Happy Birthday!" she exclaimed joyously, pulling out Ethan's favorite (voice dripping with sarcasm here) book, "The Bear Detectives." I think this is one of the perfect examples of "It's the thought that counts." Julia really handled the fact that it was somebody else's birthday with grace today; in past family celebrations, she insisted on opening our gifts for us, while today she was happy to simply watch as Ethan opened his gifts, brightly declaring, "Well, THAT was fun!" after he had opened the last one.

Perhaps part of what made it easier to share the gift-receiving limelight is the fact that the girls obtained a huge pile of books yesterday from their beloved baby-sitter, Jeannie. Among the books is a new "Sleeping Beauty" paperback, which Madeleine quickly adopted:



This morning, as we were letting Daddy sleep in, Madeleine and I had the following conversation about this new book:

MADELEINE: A Cinderella!
ME: Is it Cinderella?
MADELEINE: CASTLE!
ME: Yeah, there's a castle.
MADELEINE: GRRRRR!!! Castle!
ME: Is there a dragon in the castle?
MADELEINE: (opening the book to show me the following page):



MADELEINE: Uh-oh! A daddy colorin' a PAPEW!
ME: Did you color on that page?
MADELEINE: Colorin a daddy!
ME: Is that Daddy?
MADELEINE: Yeah, a Daddy. Efan!
ME: It's Ethan?
MADELEINE: Yeah, a Efan. Efan!!! Air AAAAAHHH yoooooooooo?
ME: Daddy's sleeping.
MADELEINE: (making snoring sounds.)
ME: Today is Daddy's birthday! We get to sing happy birthday to you! We have to figure out what to make for daddy's breakfast. I wanted to make pancakes, but he said he'd prefer bagels.
JULIA: I want pancakes too!
ME: Me too, but Daddy gets to choose because he's the birthday boy.
MADELEINE: Aunt mancake! A mancake!!

Don't worry, Madeleine wasn't too heartbroken about forgoing her mancake. As soon as we were in the car (Ethan behind the wheel, of course) with the bag from Cafe Fresh, it was all about "Aunt baaaagelllll!!! Aunt a baaaaaaaaaageeeeellllll!"

Hoping the day will be a relaxing one for the b-day boy. Happy Birthday, Efan Rowe!!!