Milestones

Lisa, I'm sorry for not publicly recognizing your Birthday. =(

+0!

I am really horrible about that, and I feel horrible every time it happens, but here's what it is 99% of the time:

1. Oh, [insert name]'s Birthday is coming up! I have to remember to send off an email or a card. [He or She] will be so pleasantly surprised to hear from me!
2. I don't spend enough time with [insert name]. I really miss [him or her].
3. Ooh, look, a butterfly!*
4. Shit. [Insert name]'s Birthday was today, but it's 11pm. If I write [him or her] now, it'll look like I forgot... which I did.
5. Double shit. Lisa actually called me out on forgetting her Birthday. Now I have guilt, resentment, and self-loathing.
   

I don't want to fling any excuses around, but I will just share one word that has been the bane of my existence over the past month: Mold.

But on to happier things. I did not miss my kids' birthdays over this past week. Lexie turned one one Thursday and Brett turned four today. I had to share some pictures.

We had a party on Saturday and they had a great time. Brett has now had cake on his sister's birthday, at the party on Saturday, tonight for his special day, and will again tomorrow when they celebrate at preschool. Perplexingly, he still has managed to lose weight. Alexa, on the other hand, weighs two stone and seems to add a pebble or two daily!

I hope you'll all forgive me for any special days I've missed. Happy belated Sweetest Day, for example. I really don't mean to be a jerk, and I really do think about you.

---

*Incidentally, a "butterfly" may take any number of forms, including -- but not limited to -- a case of the hiccups; a tear in one's favorite jeans; a case of the measles/mumps/cryptosporidium; air raid; milky discharge; an organism growing and festering on the lumber behind the drywall in one's basement lavatory and causing one's spouse an allergic reaction just short of anaphylactic shock and doing lord-knows-what to one's children, one of whom was premature and is therefore potentially predisposed to lung-related illnesses; yawn; tremor; indecsiveness; decisiveness; and/or sheer stupidity. Talk to your doctor to see if Lunesta is right for you.