oh, happy day!

I had such a fantastic birthday!

And, get this: I finally convinced Jonathan to get a pedicure with me! It's only taken me ... 8 years? to get that punk to sit down with me, and I won't tell you what I had to promise to get him there, not to mention how he almost turned and fled when he saw a guy giving someone a pedicure in the salon as we were walking in. But it was my birthday. And that was what I wanted.


A woman (thank God--I don't think he would have let another man touch his feet) gave him the pedicure--and I don't know if he will ever have another one in his life, but I think he really enjoyed this one. He keeps saying, "It's really just a foot massage" which is what I have been telling him for eight years, but whatever. Anyway, then we went out to TGI Fridays because I wanted to try their $12.99 special (I'm a cheap date, what can I say?).

Blue is feeling so much better. Thank God. We had decided if she wasn't better by Saturday night that we were going to take her to the ER. It just killed us to see her so lethargic. And she wasn't eating a thing--just drinking water and maybe eating a slice of toast, and she couldn't keep even that in her. But that Pedialyte stuff is amazing. It smells like absolute crap but she has been sucking it down since Saturday and she is so much better. We went to Toys R Us tonight to buy the Lion a birthday present, and she was running all around the store, singing the Dora theme song and showing Lion all of the toys. She showed me a Disney Princess ball (she already has one at home) and I asked her, "Are you going to throw it?" She said "Sure!" and threw it into our cart! Later we snuck it back out of the cart, but she totally noticed because about two seconds later she was like, "Hey! My ball!" So Jonathan distracted her by showing her some more Dora toys and that was that.

Wednesday is the Lion's first birthday. I cannot believe he has already been around for a whole year. And how much he has changed. God, when I think how rough it was in the beginning... How much he cried. How much I cried. I have all this cute classic Curious George stuff for his party--little plates and party hats--and it's so crazy because I bought it all when he was only three months old! I was in Wal-mart with him and he was (what else?) crying and I saw these adorable plates. We had been listening to the "Curious George" movie soundtrack with him since the day he came home from the hospital when Jonathan bought it for him, and I just couldn't resist buying the party stuff. Even though his birthday was nine months away. I put the plates in the cart and I thought, I am crazy. But I needed to remind myself that one day he would be such a happy little guy and all the colicky hell would be over.

Whatever. Anyone who knows me knows that is just an excuse. The truth is that I just fell in love with the silly plates and hats and I had to have them. The truth is, I buy birthday cards and presents months in advance because I like to be that prepared. I bought my brother's 40th birthday card two years ago--and he turns 40 this May! (But it is such an awesomely appropriate card! I'll tell you about it after I give it to him. I don't want to spoil the surprise for him.) I bought my mom's Mother's Day present a month ago downtown. As the guy was sticking my purchase into a bag, I asked Jonathan, "Is it ridiculous that I am buying my mom's Mother's Day gift today?" And the poor salesman was like, "Oh my God! When's Mother's Day?!" just as Jonathan was sweetly assuring me that it wasn't ridiculous, thereby completely calling Jonathan's bluff.

So my party on Saturday, in case anyone is wondering, was so much fun! The products Elisa showed us are too cool--some of them are hilarious, though. Why, on earth, do the products for, ahem, "personal pleasure" need to be shaped like animals? There was a rabbit, a dolphin, an elephant, a hummingbird... Very strange. Anyway, we had so much fun! My sister-in-law, Leila, was very reluctant to come--she was like, "Erin, I'm married to your brother, how weird will that be?" and I kept saying, "Leila, trust me, I do not want to hear any personal information coming from you." And I think she had a blast. She and my stepsister, Roxanna, were cracking jokes about some of the products and practically heckling poor Elisa. Anyway, we played some funny games and I won one of them. My prize was a penis-shaped lipstick. It's a horribly bright pink color, though. Looks awful on me, but it is, after all, penis-shaped, so I guess I can't very well give it to someone else! It was in my coat pocket tonight for some reason--I think I threw it in there because my dad was coming over today and I wanted to get it off my kitchen counter (it was still lying there from the party). I was putting it on on the way to Toys R Us and Jonathan glanced over and was like, "Is that the penis-shaped lipstick?!" And I said, "I know, I know, but it just happened to be in my pocket..."

One final note: 2 different friends each gave me a bottle of Bitch wine for my birthday. Hmmm...