1 Mother 2 Another

The girls were healthy, the sun was
shining – in short, the perfect day for a birthday party.


Listen, my girl barely went to sleep that night, she was so excited
about her birthday party. For whatever reason, Cora’s been
fixating on her upcoming third birthday as a “big-girl”
birthday. Perhaps because three is the age at which Maddie began to
take swimming and ballet and gymnastics and such – I’m
not sure. But she knew she was getting a “big-girl”
party and couldn’t wait.

This was our third party at the gym so we
were old pros, ready to go when the starting gun fired. Maddie
helped me decorate Cora’s cake, so in addition to Cinderella
and her prince standing on the cake, we had “Happy
Birthday” written out, PLUS four real roses, one in each
corner. Maddie’d originally lobbied for Gerbera daisies, but
I talked her down from that by demonstrating their sheer size.


Cora was wriggling ecstatically all day, and with just a few
minutes to go before her party guests arrived, she couldn’t
take it any longer – she ripped off her cover-up dress and
stood there in her rainbow-colored leotard, new (well, new for us)
especially for the day. She spent the whole first part of her party
– the part with cake and friends and balloons –
standing there in her leotard and clogs.


I think everyone had a great time playing during the gym time
– I know my two girls did! And I could see in Cora’s
eyes that she finally felt grown-up and at least close to on par
with her sister. She owned that gym, and marched confidently around
it from game to game. She enjoyed playing with friends, but was
just as happy to be off by herself with her daddy, playing in the
foam pit or hiding in the blow-up whale.


At the end of the party, the gym liaison had Cora stand up on a
piece of equipment as her friends gathered around. “Thank you
all for coming to my party!” Cora screamed, hands on bent
knees and eyes scrunched up with the effort of yelling loudly. As
her guests left she importantly handed them a goody bag and a
balloon, smiling widely the whole time.


She came home, exhausted and triumphant, ready to do the whole
thing all over again. I came home happy it went so well, with
healthy kids all around, and glad my baby had a good time.