Guess who’s turning 14 today?

 

My middle angel, Tiara, is turning 14 today.  Well, in reality her actual birthday is Saturday, October 27, but we are celebrating tonight because Tiara can only handle one day of celebration.  When Tiara was a little girl we used to do what most families do for their children’s birthdays.  If the special day fell during the school week, we would have a nice family dinner, maybe give her a present and then usually have the party on the weekend.  For the first 5 years of Tiara’s life she didn’t really understand the whole birthday concept but once she went to elementary school she really started getting the hang of it.  I think it was in 2nd grade when we ran into a huge problem.

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday that year.  She went to school, they sang to her and I brought cupcakes for the class.  She came home from school that day and was very unsettled.  She kept saying “party, party?”  She knew it was her birthday but her Dad was working and none of the family came over for dinner because we were having a big party for her on Saturday.  Well, in her mind, it was her birthday and she wanted the party and cake that night!  That was it!

All night she kept running to the front door as if waiting for everyone to arrive.  When no one showed up, she started banging on the front door with her fists, screaming and yelling.  We hadn’t live in our house very long and the front door had this really thin glass and guess what?  Yep, she punched her fist through the glass.  By some miracle, she didn’t cut herself or step on the glass.  Of course I was standing right next to her, so I was able to quickly grab her wrist and guide her out of danger.  The glass breaking shocked her enough to stop her for a bit, but once I has finished cleaning up the mess, she was mad again.

Now she was asking for “cake, cake, cake.”  I remember it being late, like 9:30pm (late for me on a school night) and she should have been asleep hours ago.  I called Lou in a panic about the hole in the front door and I had no idea how to calm Tiara down.

He told me to go buy her a cake.  I should have thought of that hours ago, but I didn’t.  Well that was impossible at that point because the other two kids were sound asleep and I couldn’t leave them unattended.  I decided to just sit with Tiara by the front door singing to her until her Dad got home.  I tried to explain to her over and over again that she was having a big party on Saturday with a cake, and friends and gifts but she was inconsolable.  She could care less.  Today was her birthday, so today was the day we were supposed to celebrate.  When Lou finally got home she fell asleep after he sang Happy Birthday to her over and over again.

From that night on we decided that every year we would pick one day that everyone in the family was available to celebrate and that would be her birthday.  Lou is off from work today, Tabitha doesn’t have school, all the grandparents are available and her cousins are free so TODAY IS HER BIRTHDAY.  If any out of town relative calls any other day, I won’t let them wish her Happy Birthday, if the day has already passed.  I have gotten really neurotic about the whole thing.

 

So we ordered Camp Rock plates and napkins online.  We are having Mexican food, (her favorite) with tons of guacamole and I am making a big blue cake with crayons drawn all over it.  All the family is coming over and we will turn up the music really loud and let her dance for everyone and it will be great.  She will get boxes of crayons, a another new guitar, probably her 10th, all the others have broken and some new clothes that she already picked out.  Super simple, but all about her!

And the best yet, this is the first time in the history of all her birthday’s that she actually knows how old she is turning.  When you ask her, “How old are you turning, TT?”  She always says,  “FOURTEEN!”  Last year her answer was “SIX!”  Progress people, progress!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day…

 

xoxo tiffani

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