Birthday Girl
By the time I got home just before ten o’clock that Friday night, I realized it was beginning to feel like I lived at school. With a two – almost three – year-old attached to my hip. Probably because I had been up there since three o’clock that afternoon. That’d do it.
Much earlier that day, Carrie-Bri and I sat down to record a quick podcast at the Big House before Yali and I joined Puck, Heidi, and the rest of the gang in the school cafeteria to celebrate Heidi’s 9th birthday.
A throng of children ransacked the table for fat slices of cookie sandwich cake after a loud “Happy Birthday” rang through what was once my old Sunday School room.
Later that afternoon, Julia stopped me in the hallway. “So I asked Heidi who she saved the best piece of cookie cake for. You know, the really good one? And she said – of course! – Yali!”
In fact, by the time I had gotten back to the table where he sat sandwiched between Heidi and Annie-Bea, he had already mashed two fingers into the deep blue frosting of Heidi’s slice. But she clearly didn’t mind.
A few hours later we were back up there again. The afternoon was changing, bringing more storms later in the night. So after some time in the gym with a handful of kids, hockey sticks, and bragging rights about their mile-run that afternoon…
“I did it in, like, six minutes and fifteen seconds! I think.”
“Yeah, I did it in about six minutes!”
“One girl beat me though. She was like six minutes and five seconds!”
If proof of their speed could be found in their faces – all the girls were rosy cheeked. Heidi professed to a near asthma attack. And Puck threatened “to barf!” although it was way more fun to threaten than actually do.
A few hours after that it was time for a school “Sleep Under” for Puck and his pals. So while he got started on pizza, games, and crafts, Yali and I walked off some of his energy outside while the lacrosse team at the school next door sang “Happy Birthday” to their coach on the field.
Once Oxbear picked up the squishy little niño to bring him home to bed, I joined Puck in the gym to watch “Finding Nemo” after a birthday cupcake for Heidi, which mostly ended up being a pillow fight for Puck, and me braiding hair with Heidi and the other girls.
Then Puck and I hit the road home to a little light display in the west. Fat drops of rain as we pulled into the neighborhood.