happy birthday to me?

can't help passing on the hk love...

i used to really love my birthday. i mean really really really love my birthday. i would celebrate it for days, usually throwing myself a pretty big open bar bash which i would regret for many many days after. but now it's just another day.  not because i feel too old to celebrate anymore, but i just have other priorities.  i don't know if i would call it growing more mature or more boring, but it's just not a big deal anymore.  obviously having kids changes things and you would think that i would have projected my own birthday party throwing obsession to laila's birthday but besides the hellokitty cupcakes i think i was pretty self controlled for her first party.  i'm not sure what has come over me.  i actually feel pretty young for 35, much younger than i thought i would feel at 35 when i was 25.  celebrating one year more makes me glad that i can say that i can still pass for much younger than 35.  unfortunately it isn't as a much hotter, younger than 35.  more of a disheveled and plumper younger than 35.  or it's just the asian thing to always look younger than our age.  it used to piss me off but now it's a good thing.

i spent my birthday with laila.  we shared a schnecker at my favorite cafe/sweetery kurt and fought over ugly xmas wrapping that she kept picking up at jou jou papelaria. it was 1000 degrees out and she is in her terrible 1.8's so i can't really blame her less than charming behavior, but it was an absolute pleasure to be able to have this day with her.  the fact that i can spend a lazy morning with my little bagunceira and not give a damn about anything else that i should probably be doing is an absolute luxury.  later i met some other pregnant friends and their toddlers for a late afternoon swim.  laila loved it and was able to get exhausted enough in just the right way to go to bed without complaints.  i call that a pretty perfect birthday.

i guess i kinda miss naming cocktails after myself and breaking out the bday tiara, but somehow that bday girl seems like a lifetime away.  it may have something to do with the fact that the last 30 months of my life i have been pregnant or breastfeeding.  being a breeder and a feeder definitely changes one's perspective (and happy hour options).  i actually got a little annoyed that my in-laws kept insisting on doing something for my bday today.  they cannot accept that a birthday cannot be celebrated without cakes and candles.  but they don't seem to understand that i am doing exactly what i want to be doing with who i want to be doing it with.  the only person missing of course is samy who happens to be traveling which is a bummer but again not that big of a deal. i already bought his bday gift to me anyway : )