Monday, February 16, 2004

sage days

Being born on a holiday isn't a particularly wonderful thing when you're a kid. I was born a day after New Year's Day and remember getting Christmas gifts that said "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & Happy Birthday". I felt robbed. My sisters, born in between the same holidays felt the same thing.

And so with Sage, born on Valentine's Day, we swore it would not be the same. Nikki and I held our Heart's Day a day earlier and decided to devote the holiday and the day after just for the little girl.

She knew her birthday was coming. She would point to the page in her Winnie the Pooh book where everyone was gathered around Eeyore and say "Happy Birthday".

At 5AM on February 14th, she got up in darkness, sang a verse of "Happy Birthday", prayed ("Jesus, love you, Amen"), and fell asleep again.

When she got up, she saw the first of the gifts we had for her - a 10-foot long house with a ball-swim porch. It took Nikki and myself almost an hour to inflate the miniature domicile, armed with an electric pump and smokers' lungs. We placed a comforter and pillows inside and attached the slide (in case you're wondering, no we didn't buy the horrendous P30k+ thing for Chicco - this amazing house was only a fraction of that impossible cost).

Her eyes lit up and she let up a shriek of delight. She explored the house, sprawling in the ball swim (a hundred multi-colored balls) and rushing to place Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer and her other dolls inside with her.

After we took her out to a resto, Nikki gave her a little dollhouse with over 40 pieces of furniture, including a commode for poo-poo. Sage played with it a little before going back to her bigger house, and so that night Nikki played with the dollhouse.

The next day was her party, a Pooh-themed party at McDonald's. Among her many guests were her gang from the condo led by her best friend Ella, her ninongs Vin and Dino and the ComicQuest barkada, her cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. She was rather overwhelmed by the whole thing, and sat out most of the games and things, preferring to just watch until the cake blowing.

And so got so many gifts. So much that it took her ninongs and myself to carry them all, Santa Claus-style, back home where she proceeded to open them: a working mixer for her cooking, a porcelain tea party set, a McDonald's playdough set, a doll and carriage, more inflatable things, goggles, lots of clothes, books, and other toys.

Thanks to everyone for making her squeal with delight and to everyone who greeted her.

At the end of it all, when she was asleep and surrounded by all her loot, all the exhaustion was worth it.

Two years old. How quickly time passes!

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