For the entire year leading up to Emerson’s second birthday I’ve been dreaming it would be filled with confetti falling from the sky, balloons as far as the eye can reach, circus performers in the front yard…. something extraordinary! We awakened on that 7th day of September to the harsh reality that time was not going to halt so that we might run around with ribbon dancers and frolic happily in a meadow. Oh no.  We were thrown into the regular whirlwind morning routine complete with a floor of yogurt and a disheveled mother which led into a full day of work for me and daycare for E.  This particular Friday happened to fall on Parent’s Day at the Early Learning Center so this mama got to play with her birthday girl on the playground for a whole hour before attending their tailgate party for the Iowa / Iowa State game! Nic joined us for lunch at the park and although I returned to work soaked in apple juice and covered in Cheetos, we had a great time. The fact that her birthday also fell on the weekend of the big football game was a great perk in that we got to spend a lot of time together at daycare, it wasn’t helpful in assembling family members together the following day for her party. Next year I will definitely consult the college football schedule before scheduling any events.

Later that evening, we had fun hanging out with Katie who came for the weekend! Opening presents was like pulling teeth — slow and painful!  Once she found a gift bag she liked that was all she was really interested in. We made it through a few gifts and saved the rest for the following day. It got late pretty quickly so after some birthday cake ice cream Emerson hit the sack and I finally got to kick my feet up with a glass of wine, a good friend and a movie!