Birthdays Suck

or at least they did last year.

But this year
praise the Lord
this year
has been different.

He's 8.

He's 8.

And now he's 8.

Truly?

I was struggling with looking forward to his special day.

Did you know that when kids grow up in institutions they oftentimes have a very difficult time when someone is celebrated individually.
Because back then?
There are no individuals.

You eat
at the same time
the same exact food
in the same exact portions.

You wear
the same clothes
the same socks
and sometimes the same shoes.

You do
the same thing
at the same time
as everyone else.

You go
where the rest go
at the same time
doing the same activity.

Individual?
It's all greek to them.

So come birthday season around here last year
it was rough.
Like rough-rough.

I knew our birthday kiddo would be overwhelmed
and snotty
and I knew our non-birthday kiddo would have at least 8.2 million  meltdowns throughout the course of the day.
So looking forward to a birthday?
Just didn't happen.

But man alive
what a difference a year makes.

It
was
a
great
day
yesterday.

Ok, it wasn't all great as I had a pool party planned and the pool was unexpectedly closed due to a "potty incident" but we just moved it right on down the road to the beach and all was well.


{Disregard the shirtless sleepy teenager in the background....it was 7am. And he is....ahem....not our morning child.}


They did great.
They all did great.

Happy, Happy Day.
Hello light at the end of the tunnel...
it's nice to meet you. 



Joseph Samuel, Happy 8th birthday kiddo. You have come so far.

On another note, my monthly post is up on No Hands But Ours.
You can check that out right here.