A Nice Birthday

Well, I'm 29 (for the 15th time)! It was a nice day.

First, Friday night we had dinner at the shul in Worcester for the MWJDS Shabbaton (in the U.S. a Shabbaton is a Shabbat weekend spent together as a group - apparently in Israel and Shabbaton is what they call a year-long Sabbatical!).

We would have been ok, except that on the ride out to Worcester, my stressed-out husband accused me of being too inattentive a mother, because Sofia was crying in her car-seat and I wasn't doing anything about it (uh, like what? We were driving down Route 9 and she was in the back seat!).

So he and I were stressed out and angry at each other for the evening, which did not make life easy. I managed to stay in the sanctuary for the first part of the service, which is when both Micah's class and Sam's class were leading specific prayers. Otherwise, I spent the service chasing Sofia around the Social Hall and Ladies' Room.

Dinner was nice, because besides all our Day School friends, good friends who go to that shul were seated at our table. So we got to see lots of people we love.

And Sofia wasn't feeling great; she'd thrown up right before we left the house (so I had to change her jumper), and she also barfed a bit when I went to put on her pjs before we drove home.

But the boys had fun, and after dinner, we noticed that there were fireworks in the sky - presumably for Chinese New Year? It was fun to watch.

So we got home around 9:30, threw the boys in bed, watched the season premier of Battlestar Galactica (and wondered if we'd missed too much by not keeping up with the webisodes?), and went to sleep.

On my birthday, I had to get up nice and early to get everyone ready. David was barely even speaking to me (and didn't wish me Happy Birthday until around noon, which did not endear him to me!). Sammy, however, had gotten me two candy bars (dark chocolate Milky Way and dark chocolate/mint 3 Musketeers!), so that was lovely. And Micah was upset that I got up and dressed before he even remembered it was my birthday (he made it up today, y demanding Daddy let me sleep late and then organizing breakfast in bed).

We got to shul around 9:20, and I got Sofia settled into babysitting, which made the morning MUCH easier. We settled in, and my 2 best girlfriends sat with us (between us), while the boys sat with their friends.

And when it got to Torah service, we watched our beautiful 3rd and 4th graders read from the Torah. They were all so incredible. I was so proud of Sam - he'd worked very very hard on his 7 lines, and he did great. I had tears in my eyes for most of the readings - these kids are all amazing!

Then I got up for the last aliyah, and I read the Haftorah. Whew - I think I did well. And since Sam's teacher's husband is the rabbi, they also did a misheberach (special prayer) for me and everyone sang "Yom Huledet Sameach" (Happy Birthday, in Hebrew). It was nice.

We had lunch at shul, and then Sam's teacher gathered the kids to walk to her house. We drove over, and spent a very lovely afternoon with the parents from Sam's class - most of whom are among our closest friends. The kids all played down in the basement while the grownups chatted and noshed. Many people left around 3:30 - 4:00, but my family and one other family stayed through Havdalah, until about 6:30. We just had such a nice time.

We ordered Sushi from Baba (a great place in Worcester) when we left their house, and ate as soon as we got home. Sofia fell asleep in the car; Micah had 4 helpings of miso soup; I didn't order enough sushi for me and Sam and David! But it was nice. And by then, David and I were beginning to speak to each other again.

After the boys went to bed, we watched "Hancock" (pretty interesting, although I feel like I missed some back-story that could have made it better).

Today Micah had a party at the arcade, so I dropped him off and took Sammy shopping a bit, while David took Sofia for work. Then we all met up at BJs for a shopping expedition.

Kids are asleep now, and David is watching "Top Gear", a British driving show that's really funny and interesting...kind of. I'm tired. Time for bed.

But I did want to say that I fell VERY VERY lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life! Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Smooch!