All single mothers tend to dread special occasions because there is no adult partner around to spoil them. You tend to feel unappreciated, unwanted and the only way to make you feel good about yourself is if you create opportunities for yourself, but it still doesn't cut the mustard because everyone else is too busy in their lives to take a step back and for a moment, think how you feel doing it all on your own.
So this weekend was my birthday weekend, so what did I do to make me feel special? I had my girlie afternoon with my girlfriends on Saturday which you all know about. Last weekend, I gave my boys $50 and told them to go shopping for me in Myer. I told them that they know what I like, and not to buy anything Christmasy and just have fun. So they went to the 3rd floor of Myer, while I hung around the 2nd floor looking at handbags and wallets as my spoil to myself for my birthday. About 20 minutes later, they came back, laden with a black & white Myer bag and smiles on their faces. It was nice to see that they were happy with their purchases.
Yesterday morning (my actual birthday), my oldest sone came in with breakfast in bed for me way too early in the morning (I don't think it had hit 7am yet). I told him not to wake his brother, as I could see he was eager to give me their present, and literally within 10 minutes I had them both with me. They gave me a chocolate hamper filled with all sorts of food goodies (great while I'm on my diet! But it was nice that they were thinking consumables rather than dust collectors) and a 'fart' orientated musical card that just happened to be a Christmas card with a pug dog on the front dressed in a Santa hat saying that it ate my present, and now it's farting Jingle Bells. The boys were in hysterics about how funny it was... and I was glad that they were happy.
Throughout the day, even starting at 11.51pm the night before, the Facebook messages, text messages and phone calls came through. Some were surprises, even a double 'Happy Birthday' from a few people (surprisingly they were all men who did the double ups!) and definitely some notable absences.
In the afternoon, I took my boys to an indoor amusement park so we could do laser tag, dodgem cars and mini golf (plus a racing battle of Daytona) before we headed out to enjoy a Japanese dinner at a Teppanyaki bar.
We sat around the barbecue grill and our Teppanyaki chef Tom could see that my eight year old was the one to pick on. He first showed us how to stack raw eggs on top of each other to make an 'Ego tower' (instead of a Lego tower), then asked my him to see if he could do the same. He did well, managing to get two eggs stacked on top of each other, while the third just didn't want to sit right. Throughout the cooking extravaganza, he made a huge omelette and tossed pieces of egg into each of our mouths, made us catch a bowl of rice with another rice bowl (or six!), he showed us his cooking acrobatic skills with his utensils and generally it was a really nice night of entertainment and amazing food.
Dessert came, and the restaurant was nice enough to give me a ball of Tempura ice-cream with a sparkler on it, and sang Happy Birthday to me. The geisha style waitress came up to me and said that they had a tradition, where the birthday girl gets dressed up in a kimono to cut the ice-cream and they take a photo. So I got dressed up, she handed me a small samurai sword to cut my ball of ice-cream and she took a picture of the three of us. A few minutes later, she returned with a lovely framed picture of the boys and I to celebrate my birthday. It was unexpected, and so sweet of them to make me, a complete stranger, feel special on her birthday.
Thank You to all my friends and family who have sent their birthday wishes. You are all very kind and special to me. Who knows what my 39th year will bring me (as I've been reminded that I'm only 12 months away from my 40th year)... All I know is that I want to devote more time to my boys, dedicate some more time to my writing ambitions and hopefully sign a publishing contract to start my new life with some direction.
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