About 6 weeks ago I was tossing around the idea of my daughter having a friend birthday party for her birthday which is March 26. In the end, I decided not to. I’m so glad I did. My daughter has been talking about her birthday since probably the end of January. If we would have planned a friend party somewhere exciting she would have been crushed if we would have had to cancel it. So that was at least a silver lining in this.
We always have a family party for the kids though. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins come over and we have a nice party with cake, candles, gifts, and the kids all play together. We weighed the pros and cons of having the family party last week. In the end, we decided, it probably wasn’t the best idea.
On Friday, while at work (I’m a healthcare workers), I got info from several different sources that more shut downs are expected with all this COVID-19 stuff including our local Walmart. I didn’t know how true it was. We had been talking to my daughter about letting her pick out a bike and helmet for her birthday. She loved looking at the bikes and had an idea what she wanted. I talked to my husband and decided we better go get it since there’s so much uncertainty.
So yesterday I took my daughter to Walmart and let her pick out whatever bike and helmet she wanted. It was too big to fit in the cart. I told her to push it, but she wanted to ride it. (It did have training wheels on it). I expected people to be annoyed. But so many people smiled at her and were very patient with her. She was smiling ear to ear through the store while I picked up some last minute necessities. She’d tell people at random that she was getting the bike for her birthday. People wished her Happy Birthday.
I told her that we probably weren’t going to be able to get the Reese’s cake from the bakery that she really wanted but she could pick out any cake mix and icing she wanted at the store and I would make it for her. She chose a brownie mix with some glitter gel icing.
We ran into a mother with her teenage daughter. While my daughter was picking out the icing the mother said “Is it her birthday too?” I said it wasn’t until March 26 but since we didn’t know what was going to happen we’re preparing for it now. The mother told me her daughter’s birthday was Sunday and the girls wished each other a Happy Birthday. Then my daughter said “Mom this is one of the best days of my life”. Imagine, amidst the the stress I was feeling with trying to prepare, telling her her birthday wasn’t going to be like it usually is, she thought everything was great. That really turned my perspective around.
Then later that evening she started talking about her birthday again and about how pappap and the girls (her cousins) were going to come over. I had to remind her that they weren’t and why. She said “oh” and her lip quivered a little. I told her we could face time everyone in to sing happy birthday and maybe we could drop a brownie off for everyone. That seemed to perk her up a little.
I decided to post on facebook that if anyone was bored, if they’d like to send my daughter a card for her birthday that it might help make her birthday special. I’ve had at least 10 responses already.
It’s amazing how things can change so fast. While we’re trying to make the best of it and make her birthday as special as we can, I realize that things could be much worse. We’re counting our blessings and trying to keep a smile and positive attitude for the kids.
