Happy Birthday, Mama!

Last week was my birthday. To celebrate, last night Charlie and I ate at the Chop House (I recommend the chocolate cake for dessert) and then went to see Hephaestus at the Looking Glass Theater. Hephaestus was amazing and I highly recommend it if you don't mind watching acrobats walk the tightrope without a safety net. It's a small theater, and we sat in the balcony, so our seats were eye-level with the tightrope. The 90-minute show was over way too fast, but since my hands were sweating through at least half the show, I should be thankful it didn't last any longer. It was a great way to spend a birthday. Jett spent the evening with his aunt Jenny, and he had as much fun as we did, but without all the hand-sweating.

Earlier this weekend I wanted to burn through some birthday spending money, and Jett wanted to throw some books off the shelves, so we spent a couple of hours at Barnes and Noble. Until yesterday I didn't realize that they have a Thomas the Train set up to run on a train table, and story time, and everything. But Jett and every other kid at the store spent most of their time taking up each other's personal space in the musical book aisle.

Musical books are so cool. They have buttons on the cover that play music when you push them. There are no volume controls, so you never have to worry about the books being too quiet, and each book plays the perfect amount of songs, so once you memorize them after the first couple of read-throughs, they stay burned in to your eardrums forever.

So while that birthday money was burning a hole in my pocket, Jett sat down and shared his book with the little boy sitting next to him and then he pointed to a baby and said "Baby!" and then he looked up and saw Elmo's face on a book, and said "Elmo!" and then having such a kind, smart, and talkative baby was all too much, and I bought a $25 squawking book like it was a good idea.

When we got home Jett pulled the musical component off (it still works though) and then tore two pages out of the book. But then he took a 90 minute nap without fussing, so I think we're even.

Jett and my birthday flowers. Thanks, Jett!