On the Eve of My 40-Whateverth Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I won't mention which one it is.  I made the mistake a few years ago of telling Cal how old I am, and, with that freakish memory that he has, he's been able to keep track of its growing value ever since.

I didn't make that same mistake with Ella, though I think I could have.  I'm certain Cal has blabbed about my actual age in her presence, and it just hasn't stuck.  She never knows how old I am.  Good girl.  She's so sweet.  We had this conversation later this afternoon:

Ella: "Where is your birthday going to be?"

I love how she thinks birthdays aren't dates, that they're events... celebrations.  I'm not sure how I answered that particular question, but our chat continued.

Ella, smirking: "How old are you?"

Me: "I'm not going to tell you."

Ella: "Cal, how old is Mommy?"

Me: "Don't tell her, Cal."  And he didn't.  "How old do you think I am, Ellie?"

Ella: "18."

Me: "No."

Ella: "60."

I wasn't insulted.  Afterall, her first guess was a young 18.

Me: "No."

She proceeded to throw out a bunch of other ridiculous ages, more on the low end than not; and I told her "no" to each of them.  We never did reach the real value, which I'm not going to share but which the handful of people who actually read my blog regularly know. I don't like to talk about it.  It's not that I'm embarrassed.  There's a part of me that's kind of proud of it and an even bigger part of me that doesn't really believe it.  Really, it's just a number.

Today, the day before the day my age increases by one, I didn't think about how old I really am.  I had other things on my mind and just wanted today to be a good day.  I've been battling some unexplainable, awful tooth pain for a week that has really thrown me into "the dumps," an unfamiliar place and one in which I don't like being.  I woke up this morning after sleeping through the night for the first time in a week and decided that the new plan proposed by a dentist I had consulted just yesterday was going to keep working. I was feeling far from normal, but I wasn't hurting.  Things were looking up.

This morning I tuned out the bickering, whining, talking back, negativity and hitting that's typical of a weekend morning in the Leatherman household.  It wasn't necessarily effective parenting; but it was the only way I could make sure that I was free of stress, the leading theory of the cause of my tooth pain.  I mean, I tuned it out.  I was like Peter in Office Space, all hypnotized, content and completely unaffected by the goings on around him.

Later in the morning, I took Cal to a birthday party and then ran errands with Ella before heading back to pick him up.  I managed her perfectly -- we didn't fight at all, despite being exposed to typical scenarios that lead to fights.  After we returned to pick Cal up, we ran to a couple of stores to buy some rewards that the kids had earned (well, that Cal had earned; somehow Ella wriggled herself into getting a reward, too).

Cal with the Easter Bunny during his playdate

I then dropped Cal off at his friend's house for a play date, which I knew would involve a trip to see the Easter Bunny and participate in an Easter egg hunt.

Ella after our 3-mile run today

Ella on her bike after our run

Ella and I headed home and acted on our plan to run and ride.  I strapped her in to my treasured BOB stroller and took her with me for a long overdue 3-mile run (I hadn't run since Wednesday).  It was one of the best runs she and I have ever had.  And after that, I rewarded her (to be fair, it was part of the plan going in to the stroller ride... call it a bribe to cooperate with me) with a ride around the neighborhood, she on her new bike from her birthday, me on "the ushe."  My tutued and purpled-and-pinked girl led the way, choosing when and what direction to turn when we reached an intersection or a dead end.

By the time our bike ride was over, it was already time to go get Cal; and Ella, of course, joined me for that trip.  We got him, dropped him off at home and headed to Trader Joe's for some groceries and then to a local Chinese restaurant to pick up the dinner Dan had ordered.

It was a busy, well-paced, relatvely stress-free day and one that I needed.  I feel like I made that happen, even on heavy kid duty.

And to put the exclamation point on my good day before my 40-whateverth birthday, I had a fun conversation with Cal about super powers, one of my favorite topics.  He started it by telling me that his super power would be breathing under water.  When I asked him why, he told me that it would come in handy when he's "on a pirate ship and the pirate pushes him off the boat" and he has to survive.

I, of course, challenged this a bit.  "Cal, you should pick a super power that'll come in handy in realistic situations.  Something practical.  Do you EVER expect to be a on a pirate ship being pushed off the boat by a pirate?"

He laughed.  I then told him what I would want my super power to be.  "Speed."  I told him and then proceeded to explain why.  I told him that I have so much to do and not enough time to do it all that if I could get from one place to another really, really quickly, I could do it all.

He wasn't impressed, but at least I got him to change his mind about his desired super power.  "Laser vision," he told me, which, of course, required some explanation.  I asked him if that meant his eyes could see through walls, and he told me that no, it was more that they could do damage to something or someone.  I think at one point he told me his laser vision could turn a bad guy to dust.  I was liking the breathing-under-water super power more and more, if he'd only had a more practical use for it.

By now it was bedtime.  Ella was already picking her books to read, so Cal and I headed upstairs.  On our way up, he told me that flying would be a better super power for me than speed.  I told him he had a point but concluded they kind of achieve the same thing as far as I'm concerned.  I just need to get places fast.

And, now, it actually IS my 40-whateverth birthday.  If I were actually counting the years, I'd say it went fast.  Since I'm not, I'll just say I arrived here happy.  I am.  A couple of days ago, I was in the dumps; but after the good day I had on Sunday, things are looking up.  Happy Birthday to me!