It's safe to say I deserve a big bear hug for being strong and resilient. And hey, I will throw in a pat on the back along with a comforting coconut water. Life is good, eh! It would be an understatement to say I have been in a thoughtful mood lately.
A few "rock my world" moments have caught me off guard lately. Some good. Some bad. But ultimately it is all good because an epiphany is a discovery of sorts. And to realize is to learn, and hopefully we all strive to learn more, find truth, and be better people.
Affirmation #1: At the end of yoga class my teacher started talking about healthy relationships and I started to cry. The epiphany was the realization that an unhealthy relationship has made its way into my life. That leads into a whirlwind of thoughts that of course include the relationship I have with myself...
Affirmation #2: Some people will always blame a problem on something trivial. The problem is never the socks on the floor or the dinner that is not made. I repeat. Such trivial dilemmas are never the problem.
Affirmation #3: My son loves me more than anything. There is no toy, no magic trick, and no replacement for a baby's mom. He has learned to wrap his arms around my neck and give me hugs! As if I wasn't already, now and I am constantly reminded of his love for me. Gosh, I am such a blessed mommy.
I should write a blog on each of these affirmations because I could go into so much detail. What might seem like nothing to one person might truly mean the world to another person. The individual lens that every person looks through to gain their own perspective sure does make life interesting.
Baby Max's first birthday party was a huge success. Well, depending on how you look at it. Aesthetically, it was perfect, but I was a nervous wreck...definitely not normal party-Lizzy-mode. With a full week's schedule of work and yoga teacher training, my focus was scattered.
The best part of the party was the smash cake made by Aunt Nori. She made an applesauce-sweetened banana bread with blueberries and vegan cream cheese frosting. The whole cake thing was kind of a big deal. We debated back and forth over whether to get the $10 Costco cake or the pain in the neck $60 ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for the adults.
Of course we opted for the mint chocolate chip frozen delight over the cheap Costco cake. That was a childhood favorite of mine and for some strange, incomprehensible reason, I just had to have it.
In typical one-year-old fashion, baby Max slept through the first half of his party. Grandma and Grandpa woke him up and then panic mode started to set in over the fact that the cake was 2 blocks away at Baskin Robbins. We did not have room for the enormous cake in our freezer so we had to pick it up in the middle of the party.
Grandpa Bernie was originally going to grab the cake for us, but he was manning the grill on the rooftop deck and I decided we might need to look at a second option. So I asked one of our friends who had volunteered to help with the party to walk down the street and pick up the cake for us.
I must have appeared completely distressed because they responded by looking at me like I was a little nuts. Well of course I was nuts. We needed to sing happy birthday and we hadn't picked the cake up yet. Then I started remembering why I didn't want to have an ice cream cake in the first place. I knew we would have this problem!
So after asking my friends to get the cake they continued to enjoy their conversation as most people do at a party. I couldn't very well scream 9-1-1 so they would realize the urgency by which I needed this cake on my counter right NOW so i would have time to arrange the candles and the birthday boy for his big moment. If anyone was going to get that cake, it would have to be me.
Leaving the party for a bit was the best thing I could have done. It helped me to take a step back and realize it's just a party and I didn't need to feel so uptight. It was also nice to have the cake in my hands and know that this task was being taken care of.
Sweet Max is so special that he had two cakes, and after singing happy birthday with the big cake, we sang again with his own personal smash cake made by his Aunt Nori. We took off his shirt so he could get down and dirty. It was the highlight of my week to see him banging on his homemade dessert. And yes, the fact that it was vegan and sugar free was literally icing on the cake.
I love this low resolution picture. It looks kind of antique-y and maybe it masks the bags under my eyes.
Sending shouts out to Aunt Nori for making the smash cake and Aunt Paisley for picking up the balloons. Thanks girls!
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ReplyDeleteI would do it again for at least 100 more birthdays - it's an absolute honor to be an adopted Auntie for this sweet boy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out, mama!
xoxo